Easy Homemade Holiday Gifts

For digital tiles, just create your layout in the digital program. When you’ve completed the design, print it out and cut it to size. With a foam brush, paint a thin layer of decoupage on the tile. Cover the corners and edges thoroughly, making sure there’s not an excess of decoupage. Place and position the printout over the tile.

Starting in the center of the tile, press and push outward toward the edges with your hands to smooth out any air bubbles. (If any decoupage seeps out, quickly wipe it off with a damp rag.) Turn the tile one-quarter turn and repeat the process, pushing outward toward the edges again. Press firmly at the corners and around the edges to make sure the printout sticks tightly. Let the decoupage dry for the amount of time indicated on the bottle. When it’s dry, paint a thin layer of decoupage over the entire front of the tile and set it aside to dry completely.

Before readying your tiles for gifts, let them sit out, untouched, for a few days. They need to be completely dry so the printout won’t wrinkle around the corners and edges when you wrap, box or bag them.

For hand-scrapped tiles, choose your photos, papers and embellishments. Design a layout, but don’t glue anything down. Use decoupage to adhere the first layer of scrapbook paper to the tile. Use glue or other adhesive for the remaining papers and embellishments.

When you’re finished scrapbooking the tile, cover the entire front with a thin layer of decoupage, keeping it as thin as possible over the embellishments. Let it dry for several days before getting it ready for gift giving.

Because ceramic tiles are too heavy to hang on the wall, I like to also include an easel in the gift bag or box.

CD Wall Hangings
Instead of throwing out your used or scratched CDs, use them to make beautiful wall hangings. Each CD, or section of the wall hanging, can be created in either a circular fashion like the CD or as a square and can be designed to hang horizontally, vertically or as a grouping.

Start by choosing photos, then decide on two or three coordinating papers. Figure out how to arrange the papers and photos so that each CD incorporates all of the colors. Move the papers and photos around until you see something you like. The layouts will need to be simple since CDs are small. It’s all a matter of layering; just be sure the photo will show up on the top layer of scrapbook paper. (In the dog wall hanging, notice that both photos of the black dogs are directly layered over beige paper, and that the photo of the yellow dog is layered on the maroon paper so that all the photos “pop” out from the background.)

Once you have your design, cut the bottom layer into a square so it completely covers the CD. The corners will extend past the CD, but the rest of the square should fit as close as possible to the size of the CD. Cut the paper for the second layer so it’s a little smaller than the first square. This square will fit over the first layer, centered on the CD, showing a border of the first layer. For the third layer, cut a square out of the chosen paper, making it a bit smaller than the second layer, so you have another border on the second layer. Now cut your photo, again making it smaller than the third layer of paper so there’s a border there as well.