The Festive Season is here. Cities and towns are lit and pretty. Crowds are flocking to the supermarket. Shops are offering colossal sales. Your mailbox is dotted with party invitations. And there you are tearing your hair over what to gift your loved ones! We understand you completely. There is so much pressure! You don’t want to gift anything too flashy, too bleh, too useless or too ‘everyday-use’. At the same time, you want to spend your Diwali/Navratri/Dussehra/Durga Puja without causing any harm to the environment, animals or humans.
If we were in your boots, we too would have our knickers in a twist. But lucky for you, here is a list of the 7 most quirky, unique, handmade, eco-friendly festive gifts.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
What is a festive season without the exuberance of lights?! Illuminate the life of your loved ones by gifting them one of the following DIY sources of light.
1. WOOD-STICKS CANDLE HOLDER
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Twigs can add a unique rustic charm to your ordinary glass candle holder. It might look like a luxury product you get at the fanciest home decor stores. But don’t you worry. All you need for making it is a simple glass container, a bunch of sticks/ twigs and some adhesive. The process? Cut the sticks to the desired length and then glue them to the glass one by one.
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If you’re not particularly fond of the rustic look, you could go boho with it. Paint the twigs and create different patterns. Using tape to create striped pattern is a good option.
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After the candle holder is made, drop a tea-light in it and gift it to your friends and relatives.
2. HANG(er)ING CANDLES
Clear your junk while making breathtaking hanging candles. Look for those empty boxes/tins and old hangers at home. There, the artist has her palette. Now cover the sides of the round or square box with gift paper or cloth. Then hang the boxes from the hanger using rope. Place a candle at the centre of each box and voila, you have a creative handmade lamp for your loved ones!
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CREATIVITY AT THE DECK
Be it Diwali, Navratri,Dussehra or Durga Pujo, when friends and family meet against a festive backdrop, card games become the centre of joy, bonding and quarrels. Take your old deck of cards and gift them with a creative twist.
3. CARD DECORATIONS
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Gift your loved ones handmade decorative items that are totally in sync with the festive theme. To begin, cut several playing cards into strips.
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Choose 16 of those pieces and poke a hole, at the bottom and top of each piece. Trim a length of wire and put a small loop in one end. String at least one bead as a stopper, then start feeding your card pieces on, one at a time. Add beads as spacers.
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Starting with the bottom piece of card, gently feed the wire through the pierced hole at the other end.Do the same with the next lowest piece of card, letting it rest against one side.
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Repeat with the next lowest piece of card but let it rest on the other side of the center. Do the same with the rest of the strips. It should begin to form a sphere.When you have all the pieces wrapped back around, add another bead or two, make a loop in the wire, and trim. Feed a ribbon through the loop, and you have a nifty ornament!
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4. CARD JEWELLERY
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To make one like it, you will need a special tool, a type of paper punch that takes a lacy-looking bite out of a corner of your art. Pick a fancy card and cut two squares. Use one as a template to cut out whichever pretty bit of the card you want to feature.
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Now lace-punch the bottom three corners of each square
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Stack the squares, and try to get the lacy cutouts lined up. Then use a skewer or hole puncher to make a hole at the top, for hanging your pendant. Now glue all the layers together. Add two jump rings – one for the beaded dangle and one for the necklace cord.
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What you have a is a beautifully handcrafted necklace to gift!
CRACKING ALTERNATIVES
We are so used to bursting fire crackers since childhood that it has become an integral part of our festive season. Owing to environmental and health hazards stemming from them, it’s high time we changed that! Let’s go for eco-friendly alternatives.
5. EGG CONFETTI
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Replace those inhuman chocolate bombs with some egg-celent crackers. Yes, how about gifting egg bombs that you can easily make at home!
You will need compact egg shells, paper confetti, glue, tissue paper and dye for colouring the eggs.
Fill the eggs shells with confetti. Dye the eggs with colour. Close the opening of the eggs with tissue paper and glue. That’s it, your egg bombs are ready. Break the eggs with the tissue paper closed opening down on people’s heads. It won’t hurt at all and everyone can enjoy the colourful bombing.
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6. LED BALLOONS
Want some dazzling firework? Want no pollution?. Gift LED Balloons of different colours to your party host. The basic characteristic of these balloons is to rise up and stick to the ceiling of the room. They can be kept tied on the terrace and in the end, ask your hosts to make the balloons fly up in the sky. A multi-coloured eco-friendly extravagance or not?!
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Click here to buy the LED balloons from Amazon.
A SWEET ENDING
How can a festive season pass without exchange of sweets?! Gift your loved ones a box full of sweets and wrap them up in the most creative yet simple way possible.
7. CANDY-WRAPPED LADOOS
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Wrap ladoos up as if they were candies. All you need is some colourful tissue or crepe paper, pretty ribbon in narrows widths, double-sided tape, and some tasty ladoos. Cut a rectangle of tissue that will completely encompass the ladoo when you wrap it (it should be slightly wider than your sweet). Roll the ladoo(keeping it in the wrapper) in the paper, secure with a small piece of tape, and gently twist the ends. Secure each end with a small ribbon bow. Put the ladoos in a box and your mouth-watering eye-pleasing gift is ready!
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With all these eco-friendly handmade gifts, you will be sure to stand out this festive season!
