I may not have a unique hobby or skill, but I do have one thing I love to do when it’s someone’s birthday or there’s a special event, and that is making homemade gifts! As a college student, I’m unfortunately on a tight budget, but luckily my passion for arts and craft comes in handy! Here are five homemade gifts idea for us broke college students!
- Personalized Picture Frame
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This gift is honestly my favorite one to do! It’s a simple and heartwarming gift for a friend or family member. First, I find a picture of me and and the person I’m creating the gift for and print the picture of us at the library for maybe 10 cents. Then, I create a rectangle outline with either paper or cardboard. If it’s cardboard, I’ll usually paint it; if not then I just use colored paper. Once that is made, there is an open space where you can put the picture and I usually just tape it (but if you really want it to be secure you can definitely use glue!), Then, you can decorate the outline of the frame with whatever design you want!
- DIY PhotoBooth
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I actually made this gift recently for my mother’s birthday, and she loved it! Beware: it comes with many steps! First, I found 4 or 5 pictures of me and my mom and put them on a Google Doc. This way I could edit the size and place each picture under each other to make sure they were symmetrical. To create the photobooth, you take a piece of paper and cut out a medium sized square from the bottom right corner up to the middle of the paper. Then, you take that piece and kind of crumple it up (or fold it to make it look like a curtain), and tape it back to that empty space. At this point, it looks like the outside of a photobooth with the curtain. Then, you create a little slit big enough to slide in the printed pictures on the left side of the photobooth, and then you slide them in! If you want, you can add a string at the end of the pictures so it’s easier for the person to pull the pictures out. The last step is decorating the photobooth!
Anna Schultz / Her Campus - Bookmark
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If you know someone who loves to read, then you should definitely consider making this gift! For my friend’s birthday I created 3 bookmarks for her, and she thought they were so cute and she still uses them to this day! Essentially, you just have to cut a rectangle shape from a paper, and it can be any size you want as long it looks like a typical bookmark. Then, you can decorate however you like! For my friend, I wrote her a letter on the bookmark and I did some heart designs all over it.
- A letter
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This is a classic homemade gift, and personally a favorite gift to receive! A letter is such a thoughtful gift to me because it means that a person actually took the time to sit down and write something special for me, and I love to read them! Therefore, I think this is the best gift for people who aren’t really into arts and crafts but still want to create something for someone.
- A playlist
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You can never go wrong with making a playlist, especially if they love to listen to music daily! It’s the perfect way to show a friend (or anyone!) what music genre or songs they should get into, and maybe they will gain a new favorite song thanks to you!
I hope this inspires you to start making things from scratch, or gets you in the gift-giving spirit!
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