10 Personalized Kid-made Gifts

Most kids love giving gifts, especially if it’s something they made themselves. Kid-made gifts are so special. Parents, Grandparents, Teachers… there isn’t a care-giver in the world that wouldn’t love a hand-made gift from your child. What would make it twice as nice? A kid-made gift, personalized with a name or initials!

Toddler-made Gifts (1-3)

Mug

Decorating mugs with Sharpies has been a huge trend on Pinterest. Make sure you use Oil Paint Sharpies like the ones pictured here from Amazon. The oil paint is more durable and tends to hold it’s true color after baking.

For a toddler friendly personalized gift, use monogram stickers like these and stick them to the mug. Have the toddler scribble or make polka-dots all around the stickers with the Sharpies. Give the paint 30 minutes to dry while you preheat the oven. REMOVE THE STICKERS before placing in the oven! Your oven should be preheated anywhere between 375 and 425, the hotter the oven the darker the colors will become, but the more durable the paint is. Then leave the mug for 30 minutes then turn off the oven without removing the mug. Leave for another 30 minutes.

You could fill the mug with treats, a gift card, fuzzy socks, or a packet of hot chocolate!

Pot holder

This kid-made gift is perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or bakers in the family! As with most of the toddler friendly gifts, a care-giver will need to help and do most of the work.

Start with a plain colored pot holder, light colors will work best. Then paint the child’s hand with fabric paint like the one pictured, and press it to the pot holder. To personalize, You can use a stencil or try free handing around the hand-print, “Aunt Sally’s Helping Hand” and let the paint dry.

This kid-made gift could be paired with baking tools, or cute dish towels, and a “coupon” for a night of making cookies together!

Place Mat

Perfect for the little artist, just have the toddler draw a picture. If they aren’t writing their letters yet, you can give them letter stickers like these to spell out the gift receiver’s name.

Once the masterpiece is complete, laminate it with sheets like the ones pictured here and below! The thicker the laminating paper the better the place mat will hold up.

Repeat for as many place settings as you want and pair the kid-made gift with a new set of dinnerware or pretty wine glasses.

“Love is…” Art

Roo and I did one of these for her Daddy for Father’s day and it was a blast. The art work is such a cute keepsake!

Start with a blank canvas like the one pictured and add the background color. Then let this dry and add the letters. While this dries clean the kid’s hands and feet and pick a color for the hand and feet prints. For a full video tutorial on this visit my Facebook page here!

This is a perfect kid-made gift for Father’s or Mother’s day alone, or you can frame it and pair it with something else for a Teacher gift or Christmas Gift.

Preschooler-made Gifts (3-5)

Wind-chime

Pinterest has a lot of ideas for kid-made windchimes using all sorts of materials. You can use found and recycled things like bottle caps and sticks and colanders. Some of my favorite materials are these I found on Amazon.

The crystal beads are so pretty when the sunlight shines on them! The clear pony beads can be strung as is, but you can also melt them in a muffin tin to make pretty rainbow ornaments that tinkle when they hit each other. When you hang mini terracotta pots upside down, they look and sound like bells. The seashells remind me of a beachside getaway and can make a sweet sound when hung together. These pictured already have holes in them!

Use a wooden plank like this one to hang the materials from and add some monogram letter stickers to personalize it. I love this font from Amazon! What Grandma or Aunt wouldn’t love a kid-made windchime personalized with their intials to hang in their garden? You could pair it with some other garden or porch accessories.

Picture Frame (With Artwork)

Another one for your little artist. Have your child create a masterpiece for the intended recpient and frame it! Even better, get a plain frame and have them decorate it with monogram stickers and other fun shapes.

These wooden frames from Amazon come as a pack of three so you can make three different kid-made gifts. I love the fun colors in these alphabet stickers to write out the gift reciever’s name. And this pack of planner stickers has 44 sheets of awesome choices, you’ll definitely find something to suit Grandpa or Uncle Steve’s interests.

Another option could be instead of the child’s artwork, frame a family picture!

Polk-a-dot Dish Towels

Start this kid-made gift with some plain white dish towels. This 12 pack from Amazon is perfect! Place monogram letters over the corner or center of a towel and tape the back of it to hold it still. Use the same fabric paint we used for the potholder and either Qtips or a pencil eraser to create polk-a-dots all over the letters. Once it’s dry, remove the letters to reveal the white initials!

Pair with some other kitchen utensils or gadgets.

Flower Pot

Choose a terracotta pot like one of the ones below. Then use some of the ideas from above to personalize this kid-made gift. You could like them scribble or polk-a-dot around letters before removing them, or you could let them paint the whole pot and let it dry before placing monogram stickers on top. Either way you choose to personalize the pot, finish it off with a water seal spray like this one so prevent the paint from washing away.


Your favorite gardener would love this with a new succulent planted in it or with some new gardening tools!

Kid-made Gifts (5 and up)

Coasters

Personalize some coasters by adding some letter stickers to a ceramic tile. Cover it with a layer of Mod Podge to prevent chipping and water rings. I love the contrast the bold black letters make to the white ceramic tile. And these 8×8 squares are sold indiviually on Amazon so you don’t have to buy an entire box for just one gift!

Pair it with some new glasses to set on the coasters and a bottle of their favorite drink.

Jewelry

I love these silver lettered beads. They’re much more grown up and sophisticated that your typical “BFF” type beads. Your little jewelry maker can personalize this gift with a full name or initials on a bracelet, necklace, or even earrings!

Pair this with a new jewelry holder or box.

Personalized Kid-made Gifts

Letting your kids get involved not just with picking out the gift, but making it is so much more special than grabbing a Starbucks gift card for them to hand to their teacher on the way out the door. Adding monogrammed initials or names is that final special touch to make it a gift they will treasure. I hope you found at least one idea for personalized kid-made gifts this year, and I encourage you to let your child come up with their own ideas too!