Karen Silas
For a personal touch, create homemade DIY gifts! If you need a last-minute DIY gift for your partner, boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, neighbour or BFF try these surprisingly cheap & easy homemade gift ideas, from homemade food gifts to candles, soap, alcohol & more.
With so many of us unable to share special moments and holidays in person with our friends and family, we’re all trying to come up with easy and/or original ways to show our appreciation to the loved ones on our gift lists – and one fabulous way to do so is with a homemade DIY gift!
The good news is that you don’t have to be crafty OR spend a lot of time to make creative DIY gifts yourself. There are a host of easy DIY gift kits that make it simple to create a personal a homemade gift made from the heart, if not entirely from scratch.
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What are some good homemade gifts?
Homemade food gifts are very popular – and usually fast and easy – and with a quick kit you can make everything from cupcakes and bread to macarons, condiments like hot sauce and boozy gifts like flavoured gin.
For the beauty fanatic, you can make organic soaps or beeswax lip balm. There are also fragrance kits to help you create a bespoke perfume for that special someone. For home, like candles or candle holders, baby mobile and even cloth face masks –no doubt a present anyone would love to receive during these lockdown times.
Even the least crafty person can create some pretty creative DIY gifts, thanks to the easy homemade kits that are out there. You can also opt to buy an empty hamper and fill it with with the recipient's favourite things, from wine to chocolate or food gifts, beauty products to homewares. And if you decide to bake cookies, bread or other treats, you can also use festive boxes and packaging to put the final touches on your present.
To make it even easier for you to create a gift yourself, we've put together this handy edit of the best homemade DIY gifts and the kits you can make them with. And with DIY homemade gifts from beauty to foodie, you’ll find something fun and simple to make for everyone on your gift list, whether your mum and dad or your partner, your child, BFF, neighbour or co-worker.
And if you don’t dare attempt to create something yourself to give to someone else, these kits also make fantastic presents on their own for DIY fans!
Homemade DIY food gifts
Bakedin Gin & Tonic Cupcake Kit, £19.50, Amazon
Everybody loves cupcakes! This easy kit will help you make a dozen Gin & Tonic cupcakes – just add lime, butter and eggs! The kit it contains all dry ingredients, cupcake cases, testing skewer, piping bag and metal nozzle, how-to instructions AND a 50ml premium gin miniature and 150ml tonic water for the recipe.
Artisan Bake in the Box Bread Kit, £19.70, Amazon
This bread mix, which includes what you need to make four Wholemeal Multigrain or Wheat and Rye loaves, is just about as easy as it gets. Just add lukewarm water to the box, mix and bake, right in the box, for a fresh loaf of bread in about an hour. Your friends will think you brushed up on your baking skills during lockdown!
Macaron making kit, £17, Amazon
Can’t go to Paris? Make your own macarons at home with this chocolate macaron kit that includes what you'll need to make a dozen: all the dry ingredients (you'll need to add butter milk and cream), buttercream filling, piping bag, greaseproof paper, macaron template and a step by step recipe card. Whip them up, put them in a fancy box (like this one) and gift them to someone you love.
Chilli Sauce Making Kit, was £25 NOW £19.99, Amazon
Help spice up your foodie friends’ lives by creating chilli sauces just for them. This chilli sauce starter kit from UK-based Sandy Leaf Farm, comes with seven types of chillies All our ingredients are natural, GMO-free and are ethically sourced – a recipe book, vinegar and the main tool you’ll need: a mesh sieve. With the help of the recipe book included and your own fresh ingredients and sauce bottles, you’ll be able to create seven different types of sauces.
The Ultimate Gin Makers Kit, was £29.99 NOW £21.24, Amazon
Create your very own gin to gift with this artisan gin makers’ kit, also by UK-based Sandy Leaf Farm, which happens to be an Amazon #1 bestseller. The trick is to start with vodka and use the botanicals in the kit to create 10 bottles of your own flavoured gin with tastes like citrus or chocolate orange. Inside the kit, you'll find easy instructions, along with a funnel, a metal strainer and testing pipettes, as well as juniper berries and botanicals. There are also bottle tags so you can label your flavoured gin gifts!
Bruxelles Blonde Beer Making Kit, £45, Menkind
You can also brew up your very own beer with an easy beer making kit, like the Bruxelles Blonde beer making kit from Menkind which includes the ingredients for the beer, plus reusable equipment so you can make as many batches as you need. Bottles aren't included but you can buy some empty ones like Amazon's bestselling home brew swing top beer bottles and some labels for your homemade beer, too.
Homemade DIY gifts for the beauty fanatic: From bath bombs to perfume
DIY Organic Bath Bomb Kit, £18.11, Uncommon Goods
This DIY kit is the bomb – literally. Create homemade organic bath bombs with this kit that includes two tin moulds, essential oils like safflower and eucalyptus, and dried lavender, rose petals and chamomile to make 16 all-natural mini bath bombs. For gifting, it also includes Furoshiki wrapping cloth, and wildflower seed packing paper to plant after opening to pay it forward to the environment.
Filberts Bees Make Your Own Lip Balm kit, £10.45, &Keep
If you're a fan of Burts Bees style beauty products, you can make lip balm with this kit from West Dorset-based Filberts Bees.
Design your own fragrance kit, £49, NotOnTheHighStreet
How cool is this? You can create and bottle your own homemade custom fragrance for that special someone in your life. The Our Natural Collection contains six perfume oils by Master Perfumer Francois Robert that you can use to create a bespoke perfume, along with six pipettes and six scent strips to help you create. Also included are an easy-to-follow how-to-guide and a lovely 30ml perfume flask so you can beautifully bottle your final scent.
Mystic Moments soap making kit, £24.95, Amazon
The packaging on this DIY soap making kit might be pretty minimal, but the homemade kit has earned a five-star rating on Amazon. Inside you’ll find all that you’ll need to make about 10 bars of soothing Mother Nature oatmeal and shea butter soap in the shape of a dragonfly, including Oatmeal & Shea Butter Melt & Pour Soap, a Mother Nature fragrance pack, vanilla stabiliser, a four cavity dragonfly mould and how-to instructions.
An easy DIY kit to create face masks
The Crafty Kit Company DIY Face Mask Kit, £8.95, Amazon
If you’d like to gift homemade face masks, this kit, made in Scotland, has what you need to make four DIY face masks, which can be hand or machine sewn: ear elastics, needle and thread, high-quality breathable cotton fabric and, most importantly, instructions on how to make the cute face coverings!
DIY gifts for the art and decor fan: candles and more
Scented Candle Making Kit, £39.99, Amazon
Apt for beginners, this kit contains everything you need to make six scented beeswax candles to gift: six soy wax blocks, fragrance, candle tins, colour, a 1.2L melting pot, thermometer, cotton wicks, tweezers, a stir spoon and handy illustrated instructions.
Glass Candle Holder Painting Kit, £13.99, Prezzybox
This glass painting kit, which includes four candle glasses, paints and instructions, will allow your creative side to flourish. But don’t worry – there are also peel off stencil outlines, included too, in case you're not quite ready to fully release your inner Van Gogh.
Simply Make Needle Felting Kit - Weather Mobile Blue, £9.99, Prezzybox
If you need a gift for someone who welcomed a baby in 2020, this is the DIY kit for you! Available in pink or blue, this kit will help you create a 58cm mobile to hang over baby’s crib. It includes everything you need to make the mobile: felting wool, two felting needles, a sewing needle, string, a wooden hoop and 16 polystyrene bases.
Homemade DIY gift packaging ideas: empty hampers and gift boxes
Woodluv Empty DIY gift hamper, £14.99, Amazon
If you want to create your own bespoke gift hamper, filled with chocolate, alcohol or other gifts, you can also shop a kit with everything you need to make the perfect package. On Amazon, you’ll find this kit with an empty basket, cellophane, shredded paper, a gift tag and ribbons ready to fill with gifts.
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