At a recent holiday gathering, a friend carried in her hot dish on colorful, looped potholders.

Did your kids make those? someone asked.

“No. My dad did,” she said.

She proceeded to share a sweet story about how several Christmases ago, her father reminisced about making the woven, looped potholders on a square loom.

The next Christmas, his daughters gave him the weaving kit. The following year, he presented each of his children with a colorful set of pink, blue, yellow, white and green hot pad squares.

“You may borrow my hot pads, but you can’t have them,” the friend told us ladies in the kitchen.

There is something special about a handmade gift.

“Something so rewarding,” said Lisa Benenson, editor-in-chief of Hallmark Magazine.

For the creator it is a source of pride and a demonstration of personal feelings. For the recipient it is something special, something unique.

And for both, there is the undeniable fact that this gift came from the heart. It came with much thought. It was made with much love and dedication.

The potholders reminded me of a gift I received from my father more than 15 years ago — a handmade basket he wove at some pool party with lots of other women and men who dipped long wooden reeds into the clear blue water. My father died suddenly the week before Christmas 11 years ago. But his basket — the first and last one he ever made — sits in a corner of my bedroom holding the tools of my craft — yarn, crochet hooks and knitting needles.

Women love the idea of making homemade meaningful gifts. They also love the idea of receiving them.

But the reality is “real women don’t have time to spend hour upon hour on crafts,” Benenson said.

And many women do not possess the self-confidence to think the gift they made is gift enough for someone they care about.

Or worse yet, they don’t have an idea of what they want to make or could make.

So when Benenson sat down with her staff of incredible crafters at Hallmark in Kansas City, she told them to come up with handmade gift ideas that were inexpensive, incredibly simple and don’t take a lot of time. She wanted ideas that would inspire people to say, “Hey, I can do that,” or “What if we did it this way?”

 She also suggested gifts that  can be created as a family project from the littlest fingers to the most nimble hands.

Hallmark came up with 17 (semi) handmade gifts, which are featured in the December/January issue of Hallmark Magazine. We will share some of their ideas here — you can find the rest in the magazine sold at Hallmark Gold Crown stores, Barnes & Noble and various drugstores.

Benenson and her staff of “elves,” as she joyfully refers to them, inspired us to do some researching and thinking on our own. What are some other ideas? What kinds of gifts can we make for teachers, aunts, uncles, neighbors and friends?

With 11 days before Christmas, we offer 11 of our favorite meaningful, useful and relatively easy gift ideas that you can do in an hour or so.

1. Bejeweled Domino Magnets

“This is my favorite thing ever,” Benenson said. “It is so cute.”

What you need:

Set of dominoes

Austrian crystal rhinestones (available at craft stores)

Magnets

Craft glue

Strong glue (such as E-6000)

What you do:

 Place a drop of craft glue in each domino dot and drop in an Austrian crystal (size 20) and secure it.

Use strong glue such as E-6000 to attach the magnet to the back of each piece.

Source: Hallmark Magazine

2. Good Dog Bowl and Bones

For the bowl: Start with a plastic pet dish. Make a design on the bowl. Paint it with paint marker. Let it dry.

For dog bones:

You will need:

2½ cups whole wheat flour

½ cup nonfat dry milk

1 egg

½ cup vegetable oil

1 beef bouillon cube dissolved in ½ cup hot water

1 tablespoon brown sugar

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In large mixing bowl combine ingredients, stir until well blended. Knead the dough two minutes. On a floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out dough to ¼-inch thickness. Use a 2½-inch long, bone-shaped cookie cutter to cut out bones. Bake 30 minutes on an ungreased baking sheet. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen dog bones.

 Source: “Gifts of Good Taste,” Leisure Arts

3. Hand-colored oven mitts

Moms, grandmas and anyone who cooks will cherish these cute mitts

What you need:

Oven mitt or potholder

Colored fabric markers

What you do:

Trace the oven mitt or potholder onto a sheet of paper and experiment with different designs.

Next, resketch your selected design on the mitt and color it in with fabric markers.

 Source: Family Fun magazine

4. Button Hair Ornaments

What you need:

Plain hair clips or combs

Decorative buttons (available by the bag in craft stores)

Thread

Hot glue gun

What you do:

Tie a piece of coordinating thread through each button that you plan to use, and knot in back so that the buttons will appear to have been sewn on. Use a hot-glue gun to secure the buttons to the hair accessories, layering the buttons to fully cover the unfinished barrette or comb base.

 Source: Hallmark Magazine

5. Printed Memo Blocks

Simple and useful. Start with a cube of precut memo sheets.

What else you need:

Colored duct tape

Ink stamps or Foamies craft foam, plastic bottle caps and double-sided tape.

Ink pad

What you do:

Cut a strip of duct tape that measures 2 inches longer than the height of the stack of paper you are using. Lay the tape sticky side up on a table.

Place one edge of the memo cube pad onto the center of the tape. Wrap the tape ends over the top and bottom of the stack, pressing down firmly to bind the paper. Use more tape to cover to the edge, if needed.

Lift the top sheet of paper and cut the tape just above the second sheet so that the binding is flush with the top of the pad.

Use ink stamps and colored inks to create designs on the three untaped sides of the cube. You can make your own ink stamps by cutting shapes out of Foamies craft foam, and using double-sided tape to stick it to a bottle cap.

 Source: Family Fun magazine

6. Decorative tacks

What you need:

White matte mini tiles (available at home improvement stores)

Dimensional squeeze paints

Mod Podge or white glue

Acrylic paint

Paintbrush

Tiny doodads, such as tiny pictures cut from magazines or photo copies

Thick, strong glue like E-6000 or Plumbers Goop

Large, flat-backed thumbtacks

What you do:

Cut the tile pieces apart. Scrape off any remaining gummy stuff with the edge of your scissors.

Decorate tiles. Some tips: To make a colored background, paint the tile with two coats of acrylic paints. Be sure to let it dry between coats. Glue on tiny objects and decorate with dimensional paint, or decoupage on a paper picture using Mod Podge.

Let tile dry. Turn over and glue on tacks with gooey strong glue like E-6000. Dry overnight.

 Source: “Best Friends Forever” by Laura Torres

7.  Candy-filled gifts

What you need:

 Open style cookie cutter

Lightweight cardboard

Clear tape

Nuts or small candies in holiday colors

Corsage bag (available at floral shops)

8 inches of holiday ribbon

What you do:

Draw  around the cookie cutter onto the lightweight cardboard. Cut out the shape. Tape the cardboard to the back of the cookie cutter. Fill the cookie cutter with nuts or candies. Leaving the treat laying flat, slide the corsage bag around the cookie cutter and tie a ribbon bow around the open end of the bag.

 Source: “Simply Handmade: 365 Easy Gifts and Decorations You Can Make,” Meredith Press

8. Salt Shaker Ornaments

What you need:

Basic clear glass salt shakers ($1 each at restaurant supply stores)

Satin cord

Silky ribbon

Tiny holiday candies

What you do:

Screw the top off the shakers and thread a piece of thin satin cord (long enough to fit over a tree branch) through the holes. Knot on the underside of the cap. Then thread a thin silky ribbon through two other holes and tie the ends into a bow on top of the cap. Fill the shaker with tiny holiday candies and replace the top.

 Source: Hallmark Magazine

9. Tasty trio

Use your imagination to decorate these unpainted shaker boxes, found at craft stores, and fill them with handmade treats, such as Chocolate Dipped Nuts or store-bought candies.

For the boxes: Select boxes of desired sizes and shapes. Paint with two coats of acrylic paint. Decorate as desired. You can use ribbon, beads, buttons and felt or leave plain and simple.

For Chocolate-Dipped Nuts:

You will need:

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/3 bar paraffin

4 cups whole almonds, pecan halves or walnut halves

What you do:

In the top of a double boiler, melt chocolate chips and paraffin. Add about 1 cup of nuts to chocolate stirring to coat well. Remove nuts individually with fork. Place on waxed paper to set. Repeat with remaining nuts.

 Source: “Gifts of Good Taste,” Leisure Arts

10. Walnut shells

Don’t throw away those walnut shells. Turn them into Santa or Mrs. Claus.

Paint a face on the walnut, and use a cotton ball for the hat with a tiny pom-pom on top. Red yarn at the neck completes the look, while a magnet on the back lets you hang them.

 Source: McClatchy Newspapers

11. Candles with a personal touch

When it comes to candles and the holidays, it’s hard to limit yourself to just one — so we offer you several bright ideas

* Buy some candles in glass jars  and glue beads or ribbon around the rim or the entire jar for decoration.

* Buy a scented pillar candle. Cut a piece of vellum so that it fits snugly around the candle. Use a festively shaped hole punch, such as snowflakes or stars, (available where scrapbooking supplies are sold) and punch shapes into the vellum to create a stencil. Tape the stenciled vellum around the candle and lightly apply spray adhesive over the cutouts, then cover with glitter in a shade deeper than the candle. Allow to dry completely before removing the vellum. (Hallmark Magazine)

* Sparkling beaded candle holder. Cut a piece of beading wire approximately 36 inches long. Place one bead on the end of the wire threading the wire through twice to secure it. String beads on wire as desired, securing last bead the same way you did the first. Wrap beaded wire around the candleholder or votive holder to determine placement. Secure one end of beaded wire with hot glue gun glue at the top edge of the candleholder. Wrap the beaded wire around the candleholder, securing with glue about every inch. (“Simply Handmade)

* Canning jar luminaries. Fill canning jars with common, yet colorful nonflammable items, such as buttons, candy, marbles or aquarium rocks. Place a candle in a votive cup and nestle it in the middle of the jar for a glowing effect. (“Simply Handmade”)

Reach Erin Andersen at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.