In typical Forks in the Dirt fashion, I have gift ideas for you that cover a lot of ground. You could even say gifts from the ground up. So, here’s my lovingly curated, Mix + Match, Handmade, Local, Always Learning + Eco Friendly Holiday Gift Guide.
Homemade
Calendula Salve: Calendula Salve is a super healing and soothing balm great for cold northern winters. I make it with my homegrown Calendula Resina, but Mountain Rose herbs has high quality herbal products.
Soap: I love gifting homemade soaps, especially when it contains some of my own floral or herbal infused oils! I keep it simple and usually have make the hot process soap. We go over this recipe in detail in our book, Small-Scale Homesteading.
DIY Cocktail Infusing Kits: These are super simple to make but are really a big impact gift. The recipes I share in THIS ARTICLE are some of my favorite, but you can get creative – just don’t forget to make a few extra for yourself! All recipes can be made into N/A options.
Vegetable stamping towels is an easy craft project using vegetables (and fruit) to make your very own unique gifts.
Combining my love of vegetables and a homemade gift was a natural. These also make awesome teacher gifts, hostess gifts and are a fun eco-friendly way to wrap up some preserves or pickles!
This is a very simple process which is the only reason I do this!! I am the first person to admit I’m NOT crafty. Basically, if I can eat it, I’ll spend hours making it; but when it comes to a ‘craft’, well- my patience evaporates. But this is a project I keep coming back to, so I figured it was time to share!
Project Prep
Buy Towels
I can often find 100% cotton made in America towels for $1 a
piece at places like Fleet Farm. You can also buy organic cotton towels online
in bulk if you really want to go for it!
Buy Paints
Most craft stores will have a wide variety of fabric Paints,
make sure you do buy FABRIC paint as the others will wash out. Grab some paint
brushes while you’re in the aisle, I ran out of brushes for all the colors and
using sponges got old towards the end 😉
Buy Veggies
You want to buy firm veggies, slightly under-ripe is best.
And think of all the different ways you can slice to get different shapes. I’ve
got lots of examples here, but feel free to play around with other ideas- and
if you come up with a cool print, please share!
I like to get a little funky with the cabbage – making
Christmas tree shapes with the marbled effect is too fun to pass up.
*You can also use a cookie cutter and/or carve out any shaped stamp you’d like out of a potato. I did not highlight making potato stamps here, as I think nature has provided us with enough beautiful designs.
Set Up
You’ll want to do this on a table you can easily wipe down
between each stamping or lay down a plastic tablecloth to wipe down. The paint
will almost always soak through the towel. Get lots of separate paint
containers, and trays on which to set the painted veggies. You’ll also want to consider where you’ll dry
these – I strung a clothesline in our basement to dry overnight.
Get Stamping!
Now for the fun part. Designing your towels – or not! I sometimes wing it, sometimes have a planned pattern or design. The best part is you get to decide! Another fun stamping tutorial is over on the Homestead and Chill website, a great all around website for all things homesteading.
Both turn out fun and whimsical because with vegetables, fruits and paint each piece, each stamp is different. And that, my friends, is what makes these so fun!
So stamp away – and remember to save any unused fruit and veggie halves for later. I also cut off the paint-soaked parts and added the limp bits to our compost.
Not my normal vegetable project – but these sure are fun, and are a craft my kids can join in on too. Playing with your food is fun for everyone! If you’re into a more natural DIY crafty projects, check out my recent Calendula Salve DIY article!
