• You can make creative gifts using items you have around your house.gifts. image by Iourii from Fotolia.com
  
  Gifts don't have to be expensive to be valuable. You can make creative gifts using materials you have around your house. An added bonus to these gifts is that you'll have made something with personal meaning for someone you care about. You also can create these gifts quickly and inexpensively.
  
  

Food

• One of the easiest gifts to make using things you have around the house is an assortment of baked goodies. You can bake a selection of cookies, a cake or a pie and give it as a gift. Include recipe cards so the recipient can recreate the treats themselves. If you can make jellies from fruits or vegetables, put together an assortment in a basket. If you do create a jelly basket, add a pretty butter knife and a recipe card for bread. Another idea is to collect the dry ingredients for a baked treat such as biscuits in a plastic zippered bag, and then add a recipe card and cookie cutter.
  
  

Photos

• You can use photos to make a variety of gifts. Create a brag book for grandparents with pictures of the grandchildren. For friends, you can use photos of shared memories to create a personalized calendar. For children, enlarge a photo of a winning moment and mat or frame it so they can relive their success. For a child's room, you can attach an assortment of small photos to a long strand of beads to create a decorative wall hanging.
  
  

Sewing

• You can sew aprons or pot holders using old scraps of fabric. You also can make eyeglass cases using ribbons. If you want to customize a project, you can use cross stitch or fabric paint to personalize dish towels or hand towels for family and friends. For young children, you can sew dolls, monsters or animals using terrycloth towels. For a friend, you can sew a small pouch using decorative fabric and then fill it with emergency sewing supplies, such as needles, thread and safety pins.
  
  

Toys

• You can make imaginative toys for your children using a variety of items. You can create butterflies from coffee filters and pipe cleaners. Old socks and leftover yarn work well when you're creating puppets. You can turn old clothes from siblings or parents into costumes. For younger children, you can string empty plastic bottles together to form a wacky train.
  
  

Plants and Flowers

• You can use plants and flowers to create easy gifts. A simple bouquet of flowers from your garden can make a perfect gift. Arrange the flowers in an old jar or a vase. If you have plants that can grow from cuttings, plant the cuttings in a small container, and then add a ribbon and a card with watering instructions.Even dried flowers can make nice gifts. For instance, you can take an empty jar, glue dried flowers on the outside, and create a pencil holder.