Don’t you just hate it when you run out of time or money before you run out of gifts you need to buy? That’s such a complete and total bummer, isn’t it?
Happily, for crafters who maintain a sizeable stash of papers, yarn or other craft supplies, this sort of thing is almost a non-issue.
If crafting has taught me anything at all over the years, it’s this: if I have supplies left in my craft supply stash, and at least a couple of hours left before I have to present the gift to its recipient, I’ll never be empty-handed in the gift department. I’ll always have a gift worth giving, and it will be a gift created exclusively with the recipient in mind. (Except, I admit that I sometimes make a few extra give-to-anybody-type-gifts ahead of any gift-giving occasion, in case an unexpected long-lost relative or guest drops by for a visit.)
We’re getting dangerously close to Christmas, given that today’s date is December 21, 2022. I’d bet money that, by now, some of you are still stressing out about about what to give somebody-or-other.
Yikes!
I’m here to help you with some suggestions for last-minute gifts you can make using supplies that most crafters would typically have on hand.
Gift-Worthy Projects You Can Whip Up in a Hurry:
If you need to crank out a quick gift, hurry up and grab any of these free patterns or free project instructions from the Internet. Then raid your craft supply stash and get busy!
Quick Christmas Ornaments
See that cute little Christmas tree-shaped ornament pictured at bottom left in the photo posted above? You don’t need anything fancy to make this — the pattern is free on our website, plus you need a little green yarn, a little brown or tan yarn, some stuffing material, and a few buttons or beads for decorations. If you don’t have any buttons or beads, you could try cutting out some little felt or fabric circles to stitch to the tree. Or embroider some little ornaments using colorful yarn, embroidery floss or crochet thread.
This is a reasonably safe idea for a gift, considering that anyone who celebrates Christmas could probably use an ornament.
An even quicker ornament: this easy lace crochet wreath is super quick to make, and it’s really pretty, too. If you have a little ball of green yarn left over from another project, you have most of what’s needed to make this project. You’ll also need ribbon and a scrap of red yarn, or other appropriate baubles for decorating your wreath.
Pouches:
Pouches make fast, easy gifts (not to mention that they make fantastic giftwrap substitutes, if you run out of actual giftwrap.) The only potential problem with that idea is, you might not have the right zippers in your craft supplies stash — but if you do, this idea is definitely a keeper.
You can give pouches to people of either gender and any age; just customize the pouch accordingly. Bonus points if you can add a few goodies to the pouch, like wrapped candies, small toys, pencils or pens, to “sweeten” the gift.
Potholders and Kitchen Gift Sets:
If you have some appropriate yarn and a few hours, you can whip up sets of potholders, or kitchen gift sets, for the chefs on your gift list. If you happen to have red, green and white or off-white yarn in either wool or cotton, you could make cupcake potholders like the one pictured. No need to have these colors specifically, though. If you have any 3 – 4 cupcake-friendly colors of yarn on hand, you could re-color the design to use what you have.
You have a head-spinning number of options for different potholders you could make, so please check out our list of potholder patterns if this idea appeals to you.
Jewelry
For the ladies on your gift list, jewelry makes a great gift. Bracelets, especially, are pretty quick to make, and don’t use up many supplies.
Quick and Easy Last-Minute Scrapbooks
If you have pictures on your phone that your gift recipients would like, plus any scrapbooking paper in your craft supplies stash, you can make quick mini albums to give them as gifts:
- Either print out your pics using your printer or upload them to the closest 1-hour photo place. You’ll want to use them as the central focus of your mini album.
- Decide on a size for your mini album; 4×6 or 6×8 are good sizes, but you can make your album whatever size you want it.
- Cut your paper down to size. If you’re making a 4×6 album, cut your papers to 4×12″. If you’re making a 6×8 album, cut your papers down to 6×12″.
- Score down the center of each paper.
- Stack your papers on top of each other with the edges and center fold lines aligned.
- Grab a ruler and an awl or paper piercing tool. If you happen to have a book binding tool on hand, that’s even better, but it isn’t a necessity.
- Make evenly-spaced holes along the mini book’s center fold line to use for stitching a saddle-stitch binding on your mini album.
- Grab a needle plus some thread, crochet thread, embroidery floss or sturdy yarn and use these items to sew a saddle stitch binding on your mini album. To accomplish this, you simply stitch up and down with the threaded needle through the holes you already made in the center fold line on your pages.
- Now grab your pictures and some adhesive, and attach your pics to your album where you want them.
- If you have stickers, stamps, inks, ribbon, washi tape or embellishments, you can embellish your album however you like.
- You can also add journaling digitally by typing it on the computer, printing it out and attaching it to your album pages where you want it. Another option is to stick letter stickers or hand write your journaling. It is also possible to hand stamp journaling blocks and / or sentiments to add to your mini album.
- Voila! You now have a handmade gift that is more meaningful than anything you could have bought from the store. YAY!!
Christmas Cookies:
If you’re a passable chef, Christmas cookies are a no-brainer as a last-minute gift. If you have a well-stocked pantry, you can usually find a cookie recipe that’ll work. Even if your pantry isn’t all that well-stocked, look for a sugar cookie recipe that doesn’t require much more than flour, sugar, butter, salt, eggs and a flavoring like almond or vanilla.
Christmas Cards:
Even if you don’t have the resources to make or buy gifts for everyone, you can still make Christmas cards inexpensively. A well-made, personalized Christmas card lets the recipient know you haven’t forgotten them, even if you didn’t buy a gift.
Check out Christmas card making ideas HERE.
So there you have it: Those are our best suggestions for last-minute Christmas gifts for crafters who are short on either time, money, or both. I honestly hope you don’t need this list at all — it would be ideal if your Christmas shopping is all finished, and you are now kicking back, relaxing and enjoying time with your friends and family. But if you’re still stressing about gifts for your inner circle, I really hope these ideas will be useful to you.
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it! I hope you will enjoy every minute of your holiday.
If you found this page helpful, I invite you to return to this site often for more craft tutorials, project ideas and inspiration! You can make sure you keep this site on your radar by signing up for my newsletter and community at Substack. .
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By Amy Solovay
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About the Author:
Amy Solovay is a real, live, human content creator and educator who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Sweet Briar College; she has also earned a separate Associate of Arts degree in textile design from FIDM LA (The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles). She is NOT a robot and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to write book reviews or articles for this website.
Amy learned to crochet as a small child, and she still enjoys crocheting all these years later.
As an educator, Amy Solovay used to teach in-person college courses in trend forecasting, marketing and surface design at California Design College in Los Angeles.
If you’re interested in reading Amy’s personal blog, she invites you to visit her official website, AmySolovay.com.
This page was last updated on 11-17-2024.
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