DIY Homemade Gift Ideas for Men

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January 7, 2013 By
Looking for homemade gift ideas for guys? I have found that crafting something nifty for the man in your life can be especially difficult. So following are a few diy gift ideas for men that make the task a wee bit easier! Plus they’re perfect for any occasion whether it’s for Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas or a birthday!
Star Wars Inspired Gift Ideas - DIY Homemade Gifts for Guys and Geeks

 1. DIY Interchangeable Star Wars Clock via Instructables | 2.  DIY Homemade Cuddly Chewbacca Star Wars Softie Pattern via draw! pilgrim

DIY Gifts for Guys - Homemade Gift Ideas for Men for Any Occasion

1. Handmade Fleece Lined Throw via In Honor of Design | 2. Homemade Rosemary Mint Shaving Cream via Food for My Family | 3. DIY Chalkboard Globe via Design Sponge

Unique diy gifts for guys - Cool handmade gift ideas for men

 1. DIY Black and Tan Brownies via Floridian Weddings | 2. DIY Jack Daniels Soap Dispenser via Curly Birds

For even more handmade gift ideas for guys that you can craft yourself, check out the article, DIY Gift Ideas for Dudes That Aren’t Duds.
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Handmade Arts and Crafts from the Historic Roanoke City Market

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April 8, 2012 By
I love going down to visit our local city market on Saturdays. We have such a wonderful array of artists, crafters and farmers! And, this year we already started off with a handful of new vendors. Here are some of my favorites pieces from the Roanoke City Market today.
A regular long time vendor on the Roanoke City Market is Brian Seckinger of Roanoke Pottery Works. I always love discovering new pots he’s created whether from slabs or a pottery wheel. And I love that he’s able to throw some of the largest bowls I’ve ever come across. In fact I own two great pieces from him that are around 1 1/2 feet in diameter.
These are new hand built slab pottery pots with handles for spring. They come in an array of bright colors including blue, green, yellow and red. They’re perfect for indoor and outdoor planting – I’m using my green one to grow garlic! – for small plants and herbs or indoors for storage or decoration. These can be tied onto a trellis or hung from a porch in multiples to save on space!
Brian also recently made some raku horse hair pottery for spring. To see more of Brian’s work, be sure to take a peek at his photo albums on his fan page – Roanoke Pottery Works – on facebook.
A new potter to the market is Mary Hadden of Floyd, VA. She hand builds all of her clay works and finishes them with a unique matte, glaze finish that she worked hard to perfect.
I love all of Mary’s pieces, but I think my favorite pieces of hers are her wind chime fairies. 
She also makes lovely handmade flower pots, soap dishes, bird houses, lidded boxes, and even business card holders! You can see more of Mary’s pottery in my Market Days Album on Facebook. 
Both Brian and Mary sell their pottery on the Historic Roanoke City Market on Saturdays, weather permitting.
A few other highlights include the following:
Unique, handmade jewelry crafted from bracket fungi. These one of a kind necklaces, earrings, and brooches are made by Penny Lane, also of Floyd, VA. Penny shares a booth on the Roanoke City Market with Mary Hadden on Saturdays.

Lunar Scapes – owned and operated by regular vendors Kyle and David – hand crafts and sells recycled wine and beer bottles. These melted bottles come in various shapes, sizes, and colors and  are perfect for cheese and crackers, butter, and other party appetizers. Each cheese tray is embellished with beads and wire work and comes with a small knife.

One of my favorite market photographs is one I took in June of 2009 of David kissing a local goat that liked to visit the market on weekends.

A new vendor, Joe Stanley of Upcycled Cards, also creates his wares from upcycling. He recycles wine corks and used gift cards to make something new.

Joe uses spent corks to craft handmade coasters and serving trays.

And retired gift cards are used to make one of kind jewelry including fun bracelets and earrings.

To see more wonderful arts and crafts from local artists on the Historic Roanoke City Market from past to present, be sure to check out my Market Days Album. There are so many beautiful works of art, it’s just impossible to include them all in one post. And don’t forget to stop by the Roanoke City Market to shop for Mother’s Day!

What are some of your favorite things to buy from your local farmer’s market?

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DIY Valentine’s Day Gifts You Can Craft and Give

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January 7, 2012 By

Whether you’re on a budget or simply want to give the gift of handmade this Valentine’s Day, here is a lovely collection of DIY Valentine’s Day gift ideas to get your started on giving the perfect gift for that someone special.

1. Charming Bookmark via Country Living – Pretty and romantic, these easy to craft ribbon bookmarks would make a wonderful gift for your Valentine tucked inside a romantic book. May I suggest Other People’s Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to Seeby Bill Shapiro?

2. DIY Painted Block Puzzle via Momtastic – This painted, wooden block puzzle is a perfect gift for young children. Give blank wooden blocksa Valentine’s Day them with painted hearts or other romantic symbols for a gift that will last a lifetime.

3. Stenciled Animal Mugs via Country Living –  This idea is easy and simple. Stencil a new or thrift store mug with PermEnamel Paintfor a customized Valentine’s Day gift. It doesn’t have to be an animal. Hearts or X’s and O’s, even initials will give it romantic flair.

4. Personalized Embroidery Hoop via The Joy Cottage –  Customize a special message for your Valentine that can be hung on the wall as an everyday reminder of your love. Tuck your favorite fabric into an embroidery hoopthen cut out your message in coordinating fabrics and sew on. Then seal the back with some pretty scrapbook paper cardstock and hot glue.

DIY Beauty Gift Idea from Be Beautiful Blog – Handcraft a teacup sized spa treatment for Valentine’s Day with homemade, heart shaped sage and fennel bath melts made from dried sage, crushed fennel seeds and shea butter. Combine with an oatmeal, ginger and almond bath bag and an easy to make massage oil and you the perfect bath and beauty gift for your sweetheart! (You can shop for organic ingredients for this project at Mountain Rose Herbs.)

For more beautiful handmade, DIY gift ideas for Valentine’s Day, be sure to visit my DIY Valentine’s Day Gifts Board on Pinterest. And for handmade Valentine’s Day gifts you can buy, check out my Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas Board on Pinterest.

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DIY Gardening Gifts for Valentine’s Day

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December 27, 2011 By
I realize we just hit the winter season, but I’m already thinking ahead to spring. I love spring because everything is new again. Plus I can start planting that early spring garden! My favorite thing to grow, however, are herbs because generally they are easier to grow and the deer, racoons, and squirrels are generally not fans of nibbling on most herbs.
Potted Planting Gift via Design Sponge
With the spring season almost back to back with Valentine’s Day, I think a gardening theme makes for some terrific, non-romantic Valentine’s Day gifts for someone you care about. I love this idea from Design Sponge for packing seeds and bulbs into a clay pot and tying it with a ribbon and a handmade tag for gifting.
DIY Wooden Gift Tags via Green Eyed Monster
And Green Eyed Monster blog has a step-by-step photo tutorial for making your own diy rustic, wood gift tags similar to the one featured in the Potted Planting Gift Project above.
Handmade Exfoliating Lettuce Gardener’s Soap handmade by Rebecca’s Soap Delicatessen
Pair all of these things with some Handmade Exfoliating Gardener’s Soap and perhaps some gardening gloves or a trowel and you have the perfect gift for anyone who loves to grow things.
Handmade Herb Heart Markers handmade by Sierra Metal Design
If you want to “romance” this gift up a bit for Valentine’s Day, you can add a “heart” theme and gift your collection with a heart shaped gift tag or heart shaped garden markers like the ones from Sierra Metal Design pictured above.
For more Valentine’s Day gift ideas, visit my ever growing DIY Valentine’s Day Gifts and Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas boards on Pinterest.
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A Handmade Christmas All Wrapped Up! Onto Valentine’s Day!

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December 26, 2011 By
With Christmas all wrapped up, it’s time for me to start thinking ahead to the next “gifting” holiday – Valentine’s Day! Of course, I haven’t forgotten New Year’s, but I ate so much over the past few days I’m not sure I want to think about another carb filled party just quite yet. I’ll let that one sneak up on me. Valentine’s Day, however, I do like to plan for. I love finding unique, handmade treasures for my sweetheart and I enjoy making them! But first I want to share a few of the handmade finds I gifted for Christmas.
For Christmas I gave my sweetie a handmade guitar wallet from Found. As you can see from comparison it was greatly needed. Scott’s old Family Guy wallet was in such poor shape it had a huge hole in the middle. Regardless, he was very reluctant to let it go. The wallet from Found was the perfect replacement. It was hand crafted from remnants of leather hides and upholstery samples and has a spot inside not only for money and cards, but also a guitar pick. (See photos.) Perfect since Scott is both a bass player and guitar player. Where the guitar pick goes, rather than putting a traditional pick in that space, I included a hand stamped guitar pick necklace for him from Wyoming Creative. He was very excited by these new gifts. However, I still had to be the one to throw out his old wallet. For anyone who has ever been married it was sort of like tossing that old, holey t-shirt he still wears when he’s not looking. There’s that sort of mock devastation.

And, just for fun – because all sane men love bacon – I gave Scott some handmade Crispy Sizzling Bacon Lip Balm from Soap Art. Not only was he a huge fan of this very bacon smelling lip balm, but my dog Jasper wanted a lick too!
Now that all of the Christmas gifts have been opened, I’ve been working on some love inspired soaps for Valentine’s Day. The soap log pictured above was just unmolded today and sliced into bars with my handy Chef’s knife. It’s a cold process soap made with a combination of olive oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, rice bran oil and others and is scented with a Red Velvet Cake fragrance and a Red Currant scented soap heart center. Once it’s been exposed to air for a bit, the entire bar – minus the red soap heart – will turn a dark, chocolatey brown the same as the edges. I’m still working on a name for this one though, so if you have any ideas feel free to share them! I’ll also be introducing a White Chocolate Raspberry scented soap for Valentine’s Day as well.
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