I don’t think anything is more cherish-worthy than a handmade gift, and I set out this Christmas with high hopes of making gifts for my entire family this year.  It’s now nearly Christmas, and I though I haven’t gotten as far as I had hoped I have been having fun researching ideas for my little 8-month old niece.

Here are a few DIY gift ideas that I thought would be great for her, and would make nice Christmas gifts for little ones this Christmas:

1.  Flash Cards

A great gift for a new mom who’s interested in using flash cards with her baby as a learning tool.  What do you think are the most important words and images that an impressionable young infant needs to know?  If you already have kids, this could be a really fun project for you to work on together.

2.  Knit a stuffed animal

Knitting isn’t that tough, really.  If you use thick yarn and thick needles you should be able to jig up something that can be shaped into a hippopotamus-like form, just knit it big and felt it afterwards.  There’s some cute patterns for homemade stuffed animals here.  I found some great patterns for knit piglets, fishies and bunnies that I am about to make with some natural, un-dyed BC alpaca wool, then felt and stuff.

3.  Make matching outfits for child and stuffed animal

I used to have a Cabbage patch doll when I was little and my mom made us matching dresses – it was the coolest thing ever.  A while back, my mom knit up a monkey for a friend’s son, and made a little vest and scarf for the monkey and a matching one for the boy.  He loved wearing his vest and scarf and dragging his matching monkey around with him.  If you can sew or knit, you can do this!  Just keep the design simple – an apron dress for girls and a vest for the boys.

Will upload photos of how I make out.

BTW – sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’ve been struck with tonsillitis and bed-ridden since Sunday morning.  Finally starting to take a turn for the better – go penicillin!