Yahtzee!

This was another Pinterest inspiration!
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/376613587563295472/

My family loves to play games and when I saw the picture of these dice I knew I couldn't go wrong giving this as Christmas gifts.

I couldn't find really solid instructions to creating the dice, but thankfully I have a handy husband. We purchased a 4x4 and he cut it into equal blocks. I measured out all the holes using a real die to make sure the numbers were on the correct sides. We sanded them, stained them, sealed them and glued some black felt into the holes.
I took home some old milk crates from work, cleaned them up and spray painted them all black. I created seat cushions for the top of the crates so they could double as an extra seat.
Each milk crate got a 6 dice, a booklet of a ton of dice game instructions, score sheets needed for a few of the dice games, a smooth piece of wood painted with chalkboard paint and a box of chalk to keep score with.
It makes a great outdoor game to play with friends and family.

Gingerbread

I was looking for something unique to bake for some Christmas gifts and came across an Irish Gingerbread recipe. This makes your whole house smell like Christmas.
I gifted some loaves and used a loaf to make a gingerbread-eggnog trifle. This is a very moist bread that gives you the taste of a gingerbread cookie, but with the texture of a cake. It tastes great with a thin layer of butter and a hot tea to sip along with it!

Woof Woof

I saw this idea on Pinterest, (see the link below)

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/376613587563295435/

As a leash and treat holder, I thought it would make a great Christmas gift for a dog lover!
I found a scrap piece of wood from a prior shelf building project and painted a light coat of grey left over from our bathroom reno. After the pain dried I wiped it with some dark stain. You can't really tell from the picture, but it gave it a nice rustic/country look.
I happened to have some brown material left over from another Christmas gift so I cut out a paw print and using hot glue, attached it to the board.
I found a hook and the 'o' clamp at our local Home- Depot for a very low cost. The screws that came with the hook were a little too long so I looked around in my husbands tool room and found some smaller self-drilling framing screws. They were very easy to screw into the wood with just my kitchen screwdriver. I got my husband to attached the 'o' clamp as I was having trouble getting the screws through the tiny slits. He then tightened it up with the jar inside and voila!
I added some picture hanging hooks on the back so I can be easily hung on the wall.
Overall this was a very easy and relatively inexpensive homemade gift. I liked it so much that I'm making one for myself!