Nice things for children to make to give as christmas presents

[puddle]

Not sure where to put this one but wanted some ideas. I want to do some home made presents with my children for their grandparents and aunties/ cousins. I thought perhaps of doing some home made sweets - truffles or peppermint creams but wondered if anyone had any other ideas.

My children are 3 and 5 and love doing anything creative but I'm not very good at doing cooking with them - would need some very simple recipes!

I think that somewhere on the arts and crafts page was a lovely idea for mugs and plates - you didn't say if it has to be food or not, so if it does, not very relevant - sorry!!

Apparently you can pick up cheap mugs/plates in Sainsburys for about 99p each. Then decorate them with special ceramic paint (you'll need to ask in a paint/craft shop) that the kids can use to decorate the mug and then it goes in the oven to set.

HTH

Thanks choc queen. No don't exclusively want food items - any good ideas really.

Maybe I'll post in arts and crafts too.

How about smallish terracotta flowerpots with a hyacinth bulb in each?

M&S do a nice paint your own mug set for about £10 which includes 2 mugs and all the paints etc you need. You could also decorate a plain picture frame of make FIMO plaques etc that you bake hard and paint.

Candle wax pens for painting candles with. Baker Ross catalogue.

Puddle I have done the ceramic painting with my kids since dd2 was 2! Don't waste money on a £10 kit with 2 mugs, it is a v exensive way. I bought a peobo (sp?) kit of ceramic paints (from all good art shops) for £7.99 3 yrs ago, so far we have painted about 20 mugs, 15 plates, 4 or 5 tea pots and a whole tea set!! We are running out of some colours now

You can pick up plain white plates/migs etc from all supermarkets or woolies.

My top tips are

1. get a pack of very small/fine paintbrushes, one per colour
2. pour a TINY amount of each colour onto separate saucers (or tiny ramekins/bowls)
3. NEWSPAPER to cover table
4. nailvarnish remover to clear up spills/messes.

This year we have finally run out of ideas, everyone has had mugs/plates/teapots etc. so we are doing hampers (bought cheap from Ebay) filled with Jam/chutney (I have made), biscuits, nuts and sweets (they will make)

Shortbread.
Dead easy and everyone loves it.
I don't go in for those kits.
If all the stuff is pre organised it isn't really homemade imho.

Ceramics good but we have done them already for grandparents and also aunties.....like the idea of the bulbs - maybe we could decorate the pots?

have never made shortbread moondog - i can't believe it's easy - surely there are burning opportunities there?

Candle wax pens inspired for aunties! they love their candles.

I have a "recipe" for decorating candles if you need it.

oooh yes please helsi

hang on a mo-it was here 2 days ago and now I need to hunt for it - watch this thread!

Shortbread IS easy. I am not the greatest cook in the world, but shortbread is easy i promise!

shortbread is very easy I agree!

I'm a good cook but not good with baking of any kind.

Calendars are always good. Baker Ross have the little flip books that you stick on the bottom of your creation, or templates with the months etc already printed on. It's traditional to do handprints on them (Baker Ross also do gold and silver ink pads big enough for a hand), but you could use any design.

Painted stones can be used as paperweights. Agree ceramic painting is probably the nicest present - I have the felt tip sort and ds loves having a scribble on a plate "for Grannie". A box of white china was about a tenner in Tesco's last time I went in.

I bought a tub of air drying clay from ELC for £5 and some glitter and sprinkly bits for about £4.

I've made the shapes and they're going to be tree decorations. I've let dd decorate them.

They look great.

Then there's my Christmas card kits - eveything you need to make 5 unique Christmas cards!

My mum used to make lavender bags with us - just a circle of fabric with running stitch pulled tight around the edge, and a ribbon tied around the neck. And I myself am giving lots of salt dough xmas decorations which I wish DD was old enough to help with ... you can use cookie cutters to make the shapes, and paint them/stick glitter on/whatever. Salt dough is just flour, salt and water... so cheap it hurts!

Im rubbish with stuff like this, can I have an idiot's guide to salt dough please spots

of course! 2 cups flour, 1 cup water, 1 cup salt. Dissolve as much of salt as will dissolve in the water, put in food processor and mix to a dough. If it's too sticky for comfortable working, mix a bit more flour in. It will air dry very slowly or you can bake it at maddeningly low temperature overnight... I tend to put it on top of the boiler and it's dry in a day or so. But that's for flat cutout shapes; anything sculpted would take longer.