Small Woodworking Projects
Christmas is over for 2011, but you can get a jump on next year, anyway small woodworking projects make great any occasion gifts. You can make all sorts of great little gifts from small woodworking projects. Toy cars, trains, doll house furniture, and bird houses all make great homemade gifts. These gifts show how much you care and can be individualized to each person who is recieveing a gift. Nothing shows how much you care about someone as beautifully crafted and well thought out individual gifts made from an exotic hardwood.
Toy cars and trains can be made from templates that you made yourself or purchase as plans. You can even make the wheels and axels if you have the right equipment but dowel rods make execellent axels and need only be cut to length. Young boys love to roll these homemade hot rods around and many end up being kept for sentimental reasons later in life. To really individualize these gifts you can have the youngster come and help choose his or her design.
This works just as well for doll house furniture and little girls will love to give their opinion on what their furniture should look like. You might need more specialized tools for some furniture but it is possible to buy kits where some of the tooling is already done. The young ladies will never know that it was not all done by you and think you spent hours working on these just for them. If you want to be really creative, you can match the sizes of siblings gifts to each other. This would mean that a toy wooden car could pull up to his sister’s dollhouse to take her doll for a ride or he could use a toy truck to move her wooden furniture to a new location.
Bird houses are fun small woodworking projects, and make great gifts for the grown ups in your life. These can be stylized to match their personality as well, or how about a bird house that is designed after the home of the person recieveing the gift. This can take longer and you will most likely have to design this on your own. There are plenty of birdhouse designs that you can purchase to save you time and some of these might match a house you were looking to reproduce. Another small woodworking project is bird feeders, not only do they make good gifts, but you will help feed birds who winter in harsh climates.
These are by all means not the only ideas for small woodworking projects that can be given as gifts. Small furniture items such as hand made shelfs or display racks can be great gifts. A beautiful coat of stain will make them appear rich and warm, the perfect place to put much loved collections. Just like any other handmade gift these can be made to match the personality of the person recieving the gift. With some time you can also find good deals on wood, best woodworkers plans, stain, and paint in order to save yourself some money as well. In the end, it is the thought that counts and what has more thought than homemade gifts.