Christmas is for expressions of thoughtfulness through giving gifts. Most of us choose to do so by shopping for already-manufactured goods online or at a local shopping center.

But there are other aspects to Christmas we often overlook while in crowded store aisles and beneath mounds of wrapping paper: the sentiment and personal connections we feel at this time of year. That leads a few of us to seek gifts that are more individual and unique — and the best way to find such gifts is to make them ourselves.

Making your own Christmas gift implies that you’ve put more effort into finding the right gift than just swiping a credit card. It’s a direct representation of the time and care you’ve spent on an individual gift that’s unavailable anywhere else.

That’s easy to accomplish if you’re especially talented in arts and crafts. Others may feel the task is too daunting for what they perceive as their limited artistic skill sets. But we believe there’s a bunch of you who are artisans-in-waiting. And that it’s more possible than you might think to make unique, handmade gifts that say a lot more than a big-ticket, store-bought item.

We’ve found a few inspired, unusual ideas for DIY gift delivery that people of all artistic skill levels can make. Some are quick; others require a little more time. But they’re all items you make completely on your own, and that makes them inherently priceless.

DIY Instagram Calendar

For a gift that combines practicality with treasured memories, this daily flip calendar is a charming homemade gift. Using a downloadable, daily calendar template, printed Instagram photos, poster board, bendable wire, and just a few precise measurements, this gift is easy to make and sure to elicit pleasant recollections all year round.

Cookie-cutter stamped Christmas kitchen towels

White kitchen or tea towels make excellent blank canvasses for creating personalized, handmade gifts. This DIY gift idea uses everyday Christmas cookie cutters (you know you have a few in that kitchen drawer) and standard, colored fabric paint you can find in any crafts store. The process is almost as easy as using a stamp pad on a kitchen towel.

Chunky knit throw blanket

Pre-made chunky knit blankets are available online, but many are prohibitively expensive. If you have the time, room, and money for a few skeins of chunky knit yarn, you can make one yourself for a fraction of the cost. The best part is that this homemade gift doesn’t require special tools or excessive knitting expertise — you simply use your hands and a higher-than-usual attention span to create an extraordinarily comfortable blanket.

Etched Valentine’s Day drinking glasses

February 14 is close enough to December 25 that these sentimental gifts are appropriate Christmas gifts for one of the couples in your life. You can make them quickly with heart-shaped window clings and letter stickers from your local hobby store, inexpensive, blank pint glasses, and etching cream. It’s a personalized, attractive way to celebrate romance.

Handmade soaps

Yes, handmade soap is probably one of the most made DIY Christmas gifts you can give or receive. It’s also easy to make, and you can find hundreds of “recipes” for homemade Christmas gifts of soap with a single Google search. You can make them with any heat-resistant container. These instructions are for grapefruit lavender and coconut milk soap, and there’s more where those came from.

Agate coasters

Drink coasters are especially ubiquitous as conveyances for personalized, DIY Christmas gifts. They’re extremely simple concepts that can be executed with a variety of sources. These coasters are made with everyday oven-bake clay, acrylic paint, gloss glaze, and gold trim paint. They’re especially good as homemade Christmas gifts because their rough, imperfect shapes are exactly what makes them attractive — perfect for novice-at-best crafts makers.

Funny message socks

These DIY Christmas gifts entail the use of a Cricut machine, a versatile shape-cutting device that may look a little pricey. But amateur craft-makers swear by it — once you have a Cricut machine, creating handmade gifts becomes a very addictive activity. Use one to make these socks with a personalized, humorous message stamped on the bottoms.

“Leather” coasters

We weren’t kidding about custom coasters — they’re everywhere. But these caught our attention as possibilities for homemade Christmas gifts because, honestly, they look incredible. They’re made with FIMO clay that, when shaped in a certain method, looks exactly like leather. With a couple of FIMO-friendly tools, a cookie stamp embosser, and common embroidery string, these pieces of rustic charm are easy to make.

Felt message board

Customized felt message boards are unexpectedly touching gifts because they emulate those plastic, change-it-yourself message boards found everywhere — cafés, shops, salons — in the 1960s and 1970s (and beyond). These nostalgic DIY Christmas gifts are made with a simple picture frame of any size, plastic board letters, a few yards of felt, cutting instruments, and strategically applied glue.

Recipe kitchen towels

Keep your grandmother’s hand-me-down recipes alive in your kitchen with these incredibly special gifts: kitchen, tea, or dish towels imprinted with your family’s original, handwritten cooking instructions. This link provides three different, simple-to-execute methods to produce original family heirlooms, including a minimum-effort computer upload and careful, inexpensive tracing by hand.

Vintage book travel and tech organizer

An ingenious homemade gift for a loved one with a busy schedule, this carrying case and organized is made from the cover of a vintage, hardbound book. With a sewing machine and a few rolls of elastic fabric, you can create a functional, useful item that’s unique, customized in a way that suits your friend’s or loved one’s organizational needs.

Pressed flowers iPhone case

Few homemade Christmas gifts are as timely or attractive as this. You can turn a pre-existing, humble, white iPhone case into an instant conversation piece using dried flowers, resin, and a few sundry items like cotton swabs, parchment paper, and plastic cups.

Button picture frame

This gift is simple even for young children to make. Take a plain wooden frame and glue buttons of various shapes, colors, and styles onto it. Insert a picture of a cherished family member, and that’s it. You’ll be surprised how charming and evocative this relatively effortless DIY gift can be.

Personalized photo candles

It was just a matter of time before we mentioned candles in this article — they’re extremely easy to adapt into one-of-a-kind gift items. These DIY Christmas gifts are almost laughably simple to make, although you do need to follow the directions to the letter. You just need glass candles, sticky tape, family photos laser-printed onto plain paper, and a bowl of water to create an instantly sentimental gift.

Glass tile pendants

Another example of how to turn basic materials into meaningful gifts using a process someone of any age can easily manage. Glass tiles are cheap to get individually, even more so when you get them in bulk. With diamond glue, super glue, and decorative media of almost any type (fabric, small portraits, icons), you can make a basic piece of jewelry that’s sentimentally worth far more than the cost of its parts.

Sharpie monogrammed mugs

When you’re looking for common items to customize on the cheap, your local dollar store is your strongest ally. Head over there to buy multiple white, blank coffee mugs. Then hop over to the nearby crafts shop to pick up some letter transfers and a few Sharpies of any (or all) colors. You’ll be using a dot-dabbing method and an oven to create individual monogrammed mugs for practically anyone who asks for one (and those who don’t).

Places you’ve lived wall decor

For friends and loved ones whose lives have moved them and their families all over the map, this gift idea is a straightforward way to salute everywhere they’ve called home. With a fold-out or computer-printed map, a large circular hole punch, common adhesives, and frames, you can make a picture gift that reminds them how to make a home wherever they go.

Same day delivery gifts with the GETCHO app

Sending someone local a gift? The GETCHO app is the surest way to deliver your handmade goods to local family and friends. The local delivery service picks up your handmade Christmas gifts wherever you’re at and takes them wherever you need.