Hand made gifts are always that little bit more special aren't they? And with Christmas looming, now is a great time to utilise your creative talents and make unique gifts for your loved ones. In this episode I share some great hand made gift ideas and guidelines on how to get them done without last minute stress!

If you don't have the time or inclination to make gifts yourself, a hand made item by another creative is the next best thing (I will have some perfect gift-worthy mini artworks available in my upcoming studio sale; make sure you're on my mailing list) Or if your loved one is creative, how about putting some materials, tools and patterns/instructions together to encourage their creativity?

Listen in for the goods and happy creative gift giving!

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Welcome to The Joyful Creative.

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I'm Deborah O'Toole.

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I'm a multi passionate creative

and I believe regular creativity

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is essential for well being.

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Whether you love painting, writing,

knitting, music, gardening, or any

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other creative pursuit, here you'll

find the inspiration and support

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to make your creative practice a

joyful priority in your busy life.

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So let's get creative.

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Well, hello, friends and welcome back.

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Today, I'm going to express.

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What people might think is an unpopular

opinion, which is just that I am not.

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Somebody who gets excited

about Christmas early.

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I know it's only mid-October, but

there's already Christmas decorations

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and the shops and it drives me crazy.

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I don't like it.

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I don't like seeing Christmas decorations.

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Before December or hearing

Christmas carols before December.

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And it's not because I'm a Scrooge

or that I don't love Christmas.

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And I know that there are very,

very many people who just love

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to get the decorations up in

the tree up as soon as possible.

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But I just don't like the long lead up.

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I feel that sometimes by the

time Christmas comes around,

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you just sort of over it.

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Also because I've been a

musician for my whole career.

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My work is usually pretty frantic

right up until about mid December.

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And I just can't even think of feeling

festive in any way until my work is done.

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And that's usually mid December.

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So I get into the Christmas spirit.

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Then, and I really enjoy it then.

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Having said that I am calling your center.

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The fact that if you, uh, intending to

give handmade Christmas gifts then you

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do need to start thinking about it.

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mid-October or even beforehand.

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And giving handmade gifts is such

a beautiful thing, and it's a great

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way to express your creativity.

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It's a great way to.

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Embark on a project, if you're

a little bit in between projects

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or you're stumped about.

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What creative project

you should start next.

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Giving gifts, not just

Christmas presents birthday.

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Uh, anniversary wedding presents.

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Uh, any kind of handmade gift

is a lovely thing to give.

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And I get a lot of joy out of

giving gifts that I've made myself.

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So, if you do have the time and

the inclination to make gifts

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for Christmas presents, I do have

some ideas and some pointers.

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That might be helpful.

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So, first of all, have a think about

what you're good at, what it is that you

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like to do creatively, and also what you

want to be spending a lot of time doing.

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I'm aware that you are all probably

doing different creative things.

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I'm sure there are knitters painters.

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Scrapbookers.

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You know, all sorts of creative

people out there and each one of those

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disciplines could make beautiful presence.

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but is that what you actually

want to spend time doing?

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Maybe you actually want to have a break

from doing the thing you normally do.

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And do something completely different.

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It's up to you, but some

creative activities.

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Are quite time-consuming and if you do

have the time, then absolutely go for it.

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But if you're planning to give a

lot of handmade gifts, You might

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want to consider the amount of

time that things take to make.

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aNd whether you've got time to do that.

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In the middle of the Christmas rush.

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Just remember that.

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Your creativity should be joyful.

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This is why this podcast is

called the joyful creative.

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Because I full one.

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I'm a person that gets it in my

head that I'm going to make things.

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And I'm going to give them as gifts and

then it becomes this overwhelming task.

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And then all of a sudden, it's not joyful.

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At all.

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And I find that my labor of

love is, well, there's not much

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love in it, put it that way.

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And I feel, I wouldn't say go as

far as to say I feel resentful,

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but it becomes a big chore.

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And I wonder why I took

it on in the first place.

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Because I had this great idea back in

September that I was going to make all

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the gifts and while I'm in the middle

of it, it just becomes not very joyful.

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So.

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I would recommend.

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Thinking carefully about what you're

going to make, how many gifts you're

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going to make, and whether you can

actually manage it in a joyful.

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Calm.

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And loving way.

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So that's the first thing to think about.

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Also think about your recipients.

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For example, I know that

there's probably not one.

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Male in my family.

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Who would like one of my handmade gifts.

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How my gifts just seem to

go really well to women.

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And girls.

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I don't know why.

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A little boys, maybe I remember.

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Sewing.

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Costume capes for all of my nephews one

year, and they really enjoyed those,

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but that's when they were little boys.

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I'm sure now that they're silly teenagers

and in their early twenties, I can't

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really think of anything that they

would like that I could make for them.

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But that's not to say that you might

not do something that's great for men.

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But for women, there's so many things

and I'm going to sort of branch

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into other ideas that might not be

necessarily what you normally do.

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Things like baking a batch of

cookies or short breads or fudge

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or any type of sweet treat.

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There are other foodie type

things like, uh, infused oils

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and vinegars jams and preserves.

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Having said that, you might have some

male foodies in the family as well.

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That you could give to

those kinds of things too.

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Homemade body scrubs.

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I've made things with coffee and sugar.

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Um, I do admit that the sugar actually.

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Attracted a lot of ants.

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To my bathroom.

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So I wouldn't say that that's probably

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the best idea.

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But coffee and almond oil, I think,

or apricot oil, one of those oils.

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Spanx, a lovely body scrub.

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Also thinking about your recipient.

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You want them to feel like the

gift that you've given them is so

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special and it makes them smile

every time they think of it.

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This is going to make me sound awful

again, but I know I've been given.

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Handmade gifts that.

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I appreciate that somebody made it for me.

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But it's, it doesn't really

go with my decor or it's not

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really something I would wear.

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Um, and while I received it very

graciously, now it's in a place where

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I just don't know what to do with it.

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I don't want to throw it out

because somebody made it for me.

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And now I'm in this sort of predicament.

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About what to do with something

that doesn't spark joy.

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And

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I'm very mindful that I

don't want to do that.

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To my loved ones.

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I want to make sure that if I give them

a gift, that I'm pretty sure that it's

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something that they will appreciate.

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That goes with their decor.

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That is something that they

will actually use or love.

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Consumables that great for that.

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Going back to , the bodies grubs and the

face scrubs and anything you can eat.

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Consumables, uh, or a good idea for people

who you're sorta not sure about their

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style or their aesthetic preferences.

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Another thing that could be a good idea.

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A.

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Uh, Christmas tree decorations.

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Because the more decorations, the better.

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Unless you're giving to

somebody who has a very strict.

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Uh, Christmas decor, color scheme.

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But generally Christmas tree decorations

can be a lovely thing to create that

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people can put up and remember that

you gave it to them at Christmas.

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And then it can just be put

away and brought back the

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next year and they'll smile.

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And remember you every time.

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Another good idea could be

Christmas themed accessories, like

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a headband that's covered in Holly.

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Or some earrings or something

that your recipient could just

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wear on the day of Christmas.

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And I enjoy wearing it.

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And if it's something that they

wouldn't necessarily wear, well, you

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know, everybody's going to put on

Christmas earrings at Christmas time.

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So that could be a good idea for people

who you're not really sure of their style,

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but you want to give them something like

earrings or accessories of some sort.

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Going back to consumables.

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There's also handmade soaps or.

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A hot chocolate spice blend.

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One year we did.

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A gift that was just nice looking jaws

that had all the dry ingredients of

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cookies that were sort of layered up.

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So they looked pretty.

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And we package that out with a little

wooden spoon and a kid's apron and

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the recipe to make these cookies.

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And so.

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I could send the kids home with

this present, and then later

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on, they could bake the cookies

and they were a real hit to.

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Kind of going along the consumable

line, but also something that means that

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that's an activity that they can do.

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I've also done in the past, uh,

origami kits, because then all

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you need is some colored paper and

wrap it up with some instructions.

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And if you've got a whole lot

of kids in your family, then.

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That could be an activity that

they could do on the day together.

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Speaking of doing things together.

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If you have a bunch of friends who

are also creating gifts for Christmas.

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It's a really lovely idea, maybe to get

together for a craft, a noon or something.

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Everybody wants to get together to

see each other before Christmas.

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And that can just be very difficult to do

when you have so many other things to do.

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So you could kill two birds with one

stone by getting some friends together.

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Having a couple of drinks.

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Layouts and nibblies and yeah.

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Do do your little creative

project together and then

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you get to spend that time.

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And doing creative things

with people is just so fun

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because you can share feedback

and advice, and it's just a nice

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thing to do with your friends.

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So that could potentially be

a tradition that you could

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start out with your friends.

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Have a friend miss.

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Before Christmas on a day, when you

can all get together and celebrate each

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other and make gifts at the same time.

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Another thing I think is really nice

about handmade gifts is when you

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present them in beautiful packaging.

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And the packaging could

be handmade as well.

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You could just get some butcher paper

and stamp on to them or draw onto them.

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And make your own wrapping paper.

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Getting some twigs or flowers from

the garden and sticking that into

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the ribbon is also a nice thing.

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Or eco-friendly recycled.

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Bags or scarves or tea towels, or

maybe even you've made your tea towel

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or printed something or made a scarf.

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It's a lovely way to wrap up a handmade

gift, or maybe you've got a bought gift

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and you wrap it in something handmade that

goes along with your gift to that person.

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That's a nice idea as well.

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You could also make your

own cards, obviously.

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I'll give tags.

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By just.

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Cutting out some paper and sticking

some stickers or stamping or.

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Drawing or to stick a rating.

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Cards or gift tags in any way.

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That's also a lovely, small,

white personalized gifts.

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So I have a few recommendations and

apart from starting early, which

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I mentioned before, so that you're

doing it in a nice, calm, joyful way.

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I would recommend to practice first.

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Don't do what I do, which is usually to

come up with an idea and just launch into

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it without really trying it out first.

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Uh, look a have done that before, and

it hasn't been a complete disaster.

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But you want to make sure that when

you give that gift, that you're

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really confident that you love it.

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It's the best work that you can do.

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And you not going to be

embarrassed about it.

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Like, I was slightly about a

couple of things just because

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I hadn't done it before.

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So practicing first is a good idea.

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Also use some quality materials,

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even if you're giving gifts to save money.

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It is important that your gift is going

to last and that it's good quality

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and that it's up to your standards and

you want your gift to feel special.

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So make sure that you're using

good quality supplies and

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materials to create your gifts.

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Batch crafting is a good idea.

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If you're making multiple gifts,

you could create an assembly line.

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And just do the small

components at a time.

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And then put them together.

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That's also a good thing to do.

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For example, if you've only got one

afternoon to get some stuff done, you're

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not going to get the whole lot done, get

one component done for all the gifts,

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and then you can come back to it later.

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The next time you have some time

and get the next component done.

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So batching is a really a

good idea, especially when

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you're a bit short of time.

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And there are a lot more things going

on around Christmas time than usual.

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So batching and using the

assembly line is a good idea.

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If you're.

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Giving multiple people,

one of the same gift.

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Or a batch of the same gift, like cookies.

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And also creative kits.

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I can be a really great present

for somebody in your life who you

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think wants to be creative, but

doesn't really know where to start.

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You could create a kit with some

materials and some instructions.

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So that they can embark on

their own creative thing.

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For example, some knitting needles and

some nice wool in a passion might get

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them started on some knitting or crochet.

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Perhaps a sketchbook

and some lovely pencils.

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Under that that's not making it yourself,

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but it's definitely

something that you can.

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Assemble together and give as a creative

gift and maybe in the future, you can.

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Do some craft with your loved one?

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So I'm sure that there are many other

creative gift giving ideas that you

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could find on YouTube or Pinterest.

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Or lots of other blogs.

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I'm sure if you Googled anything or

chat, GPT will probably give you ideas.

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For what sort of handmade gifts

you could give this Christmas.

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But what have you do?

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Like I said before, make sure you

give yourself enough time that

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you can really enjoy the process.

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And.

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so you can give that gift with all

the love in your heart and feel proud

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of the thing that you've created.

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And.

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I'm sure that the person

receiving that gift will feel it.

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So.

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Good luck.

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If you are embarking on

some creative gift giving.

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And I would love to know what

you're doing reach out to me on

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the socials or send me an email.

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And I would love to hear from you

about what you're giving for Christmas,

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that you're creating yourself.

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Also, I do have my studio

sale coming up very soon.

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End of November.

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make sure that you're on my

mailing list to get first dibs on

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these beautiful little creations

that I've been doing this year.

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My experiments and samples.

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I'm just clearing them all out

because I'm about to move again.

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So images will be up.

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on my Instagram and Facebook

in the coming weeks.

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So look out for those, if.

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in fact you would like to give.

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A gift that you haven't

made yourself, that I made.

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That's also an option.

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All these things that 35

Australian dollars each.

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So there are pretty well-priced

stocking filler type of a gift.

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So check that out in the meantime,

friends keep creative and I'll

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see you in the next episode.

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I hope you enjoyed this

episode of The Joyful Creative.

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If you did, be sure to subscribe

so you catch them every week.

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And if you can, please take a moment

to leave a review or share it with a

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friend so the podcast can reach more

people who need support and inspiration.

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Thanks for listening and keep creative.