So this Thursday is offical Christmas day, and in honor of hectic malls and waiting till the last minute, this week’s Monday 4 includes four great (and easy and cheap) DIY gifts for your loved ones.  If you start today, you can have one or all of these projects done by Chirstmas Eve, wrapped and ready to go.

1. Basic Crochet Mittens

Now I know the idea of crochet may seem either 1. too hard or 2. too “old lady”ish, but these make great gifts.  I made a pair using this pattern, and they turned out great!  The pattern is really easy to follow, even if you have minimal or no experience with crochet, and they took me just a couple of hours per mitten to make.  If you don’t know how to crochet, there are a ton of resources online that can show you how.

2. Tube Sock Stockings

Materials:

  • Tall Socks
  • Fabric Paint and brush
  • Needle/Thread
  • Ribbon

1. Open the socks, and place something inside to keep it round, so you can paint all sides of the sock, like a plastic cup, jar, etc.

2.  Using the fabric paint, paint bands all around the sock. You can use tape to make clean edges.  If the sock is ribbed, make sure the paint gets inside the ribs as well. You can really paint whatever you want; be creative!

3. Let drive overnight.  Once dry, take out the cup, and  cut a little length of ribbon and sew into the top of the sock.

4. Fill with goodies, candy, other socks, etc. and give!

Two more after the jump…

3. Text Book Shelf

Though I do not condone the destroying of books (usually), I have found that I’ve accumulated a lot of text books in my day that could serve a greater purpose then never being read.  This instructable for an invisible book shelf is great, and super easy/cheap.  Using an old book for the “shelf”, it hold ups and displays the books you actually read by recycling one you don’t/won’t.

4.  Fudge

A holiday delight that everyone can love, fudge is great to give to others.  You can also jazz it up with a fancy box or recycled cookie tin.  Fudge can be frozen and saved for several months(?) or at least weeks, so you can be less likely to cause that holiday feeling of “must eat all the sweets before New Year’s” that cookies or pies or candy might cause.

There’s a ton of ways to make fudge-stove, microwave, easy, difficult, flavors, etc. AllRecipes.com is a good place to get started when looking for the best recipe for your skill level.  And of course, I can’t not link Martha Stewart’s assortment of fudge recipes.

Merry Christmas!