Homemade Birthday Gifts

Last week, little caterpillar came home with her first birthday party invitation from daycare. Woohoo! My girl is fitting in and having some little friends there. I am pretty sure all the kids got it, but I still felt very happy for my girl. The party is for a little boy in her class, and his sister. Guess their birthday is really close, so they can celebrate together. Since this is little caterpillar first daycare friend's party, I know I have to work hard to help her making more friends. After some research online about what kinds of gifts are suitable for 2-yr-old and 4-yr-old nowadays, and considering how many more kids in her class, plus all the parties coming up during the holiday seasons among our own friends, I decided to make most the gifts for all the kids from now on to keep the cost low. We have to think twice about how we spend our money now that our little family is growing.

Here are some of the ideas I came up with, after lots of researching of course. Well, first of all they have to be functional and fun, and every kids will like it, AND it has to be EASY to make. I am not taking on time-consuming projects, since I have very limited energy nowadays.
1. first thing came up my mind are these little shoulder bags I made for our friends' kids before. They are fun to make and relatively easy. And I can use up some of my scraps. I can also make them the matching bowtie, like this one.

2. coloring bag with crayon holders or crayon rolls. I have seen these around the internet for a while, and thought about making them for my girl. I am sure her little friends all love coloring with crayons too. Forgot where I found this picture though. Of course, I cannot just give them a bag without filling it up with lots of crayons and some fun coloring books.

3. draw string bags. They are so easy to make and kids need lots of them to organize their tiny toys, like legos. I bookmarked this wonderful tutorial before, now it's time to make some. I can collect some small toys from dollar store or Target dollar section to fill them up.

4. an activity mat. I made this car mat kit for my best friend's little boy earlier this year,
it's so cute, but too big and time-consuming. I didn't mind making it for him, but not practical to make for too many kids. So, I probably will make some smaller ones like this,
or a dinosaur mat like this one, (tutorial here)
or a doll house mat for a little girl.Of course, I will put some matchbox cars, or dinosaurs, or tiny dolls in there, so they can play with it immediately.

5. a set of felt alphabet or numbers in their own bags. I tried making some just like this following picture, but all that embroidery took too long, I ran out of patience. So, if making these for other kids, I will have to make the plain ones instead. Guess this one only fits younger kids.

6. a tic-tac-toe set. can be made with fabric or felt. So simple and lots of fun. Of course you can buy this set online, but $60 isn't exactly in my budget. So, I will be stealing their idea and make some myself. And again, there won't be fancy embroidery either.

7. I can also make lots of cute hair clips or pins for girls, or those dress up hats (like the one I made for littler caterpillar's birthday last month).

There are still so many ideas, but I have to be careful not get too excited and spending too much money or energy on these. Otherwise it will be totally against my goal. I already made the gifts for this party, will show you some pictures later.