Homemade Kids Birthday Gifts

This is what I finally came up with, of course combining some of the ideas I mentioned before. I just love making little shoulder bags for kids, it's so easy, and versatile, and practical.

For Linus, the little boy in little caterpillar's class, I made this cute dinosaur playmat, following this tutorial. I changed the colors a little bit, had to deal with whatever I had in my felt box. The whole point of this homemade gifts idea is to save money, I got to use up my scraps before buying new materials. I think it turned out pretty cute. Actually his bag is also a coloring bag, has those crayon holders on the outside. So, if for some reason he doesn't like dinosaurs, he can still use this bag. I also sewed some pockets inside, for carrying some small toys. The dino mat can be folded and put in the bag, and the little dinos go into the pockets. Well, I knew that green nursery fabric is not really working for a 2-yr-old boy, but again I didn't want to buy new fabric and this one is the only green scraps I had that's big enough. I also used some leftover green felt and made his name to attach to the front of the bag.

For the big sis Hazel, I made her the same coloring bag, just slightly bigger. Putting some crayons in the front pockets, and a couple of coloring books inside along with the rest of the crayons. I think she will like to have her own personal bag too.

Of course each kid got my unique name zipperpulls. These zipperpulls sell really well in my store, so I think they will love it too. (image coming)