Easy valentines gifts

Hello friends and welcome back again to another idea of giving simple and easy gifts to friends and family.

There are a growing number of people who believe that its the effort and the thought behind giving a gift that counts the most. Hence people appreciate handmade or also homemade gifts more. (not that I would’nt be flying high if I received one of my favorite perfumes, or a camera or a car or a …. or a …….!! yeah I know you get the point !! Thats little ol’greedy me 🙂 ~ nothing wrong with a little bit of daydreaming ~ what say ??

Ok, lets come back from my dreamy world ~ truth is, I feel one large gift once a year or tiny pieces of gifts every now and then are both heart warming and thoughtful. My previous post Valentines Gift 1 and this post are not neccessarily about valentines gifts only, they are about gifts and the charm of making a simple homemade gift.

I have used a very easy idea here. Not only is it ecofriendly but for a cat owner, its a huge relief, knowing one buy is fullfilling two purposes ! Heres what I mean : ~ yes, you got it. A can. Turn a can into a gift container.

Be it as an Easter basket or
Baby shower favors, sweet baskets or tiny socks & mittens
Return-gift container for birthday parties.

These are so simple to fit in anywhere for any uses.

Personally with two cats in the house, I have heaps of them and I use them alot.

As containers for my craft embellishments to sort out the buttons, beads, crystals, pearls etc ,
for my little lunch bag joke notes to the boys,
to keep all my design paper “tiny” cut outs for “THAT” particular square or rectangular need that often pops up,
to stuff the ketch up sachets that we get so often in our takeaway meals from Macdonalds and BK,

I have heaps stacked up for different uses and the above is not even scratching the surface of uses ! These here are, just to name a very few.

Ofcourse the most important thing is to wash these cans with a strong detergent to get rid of the smell ~ Since we are in the sunny Gulf, I also like to give any and all the projects, that I recycle, alot of natural sunlight. Helps.

There are a little over a thousand ways of decorating these little cans. I am sharing here a very simple one. I have used ModgePodge to cover the entire can with some design paper. Added a little lace ribbon around it to perk it up. Poked two holes with my punch and tied a paper/satin ribbon as a handle. A simple die cut tag with a message does the trick. What you wish to fill in them is your choice ofcourse, but If I prefer to place open jelly bellies or candies, I would line the inside of the can with a pretty dolly.

Ofcourse, you can add flowers and ribbons and bows and the works to decorate these cans, but because, I have 3 boys with 25 students in each class and generally, I would make for EVERY student, (I dont like the look on a childs face when the others are getting candy gift bags and he isnt ) I keep the decoration bit simple and not too fancy.

I do hope, some of my tips have inspired you enough, to get ahold of some cans and paint the town red !

Heres what all the fuss is about :