Soap Balls

• Handmade soap balls are a great gift.Westend61/Inmagine
  
  Kids can make scented soap balls to give to mom or dad. Moisten ivory flakes with water until they feel like stiff dough. Divide into three small bowls. Add a different color of food coloring and a different perfume or cologne fragrance to each bowl. Then have kids shape a large spoonful of the soap mixture into balls. Put the balls on a baking sheet or tray to dry. To make the gift more personalized, have the child sign her name on it or write the name of who she is giving it to on the ball before it dries. Let it harden for several days. Have kids wrap their soap gifts in colored cellophane or tissue paper and tie with a pretty ribbon.
  
  

Hand-Painted Oven Mitt

• Paint a mitt.Polkadot/Inmagine
  
  If your child is artsy, let them express themselves with a hand-painted oven mitt or pot holder. Start with a solid, light-colored oven mitt or pot holder. Have the child trace the shape of the mitt onto a sheet of paper and try different designs until she comes up with one she likes. Sketch the design on the oven mitt and color it with fabric markers such as Marvy or FabricMate.
  
  

Desk Organizer

• Leather organizermakingfriends
  
  This gift can be for a working mom or dad or for a home office. You'll need some leather or suede (you can cut up a purse purchased at a garage sale), three empty food containers (all different sizes and heights), some tacky glue and scissors. Cut a piece of material for each container that is large enough to fit around it with 1/4-inch overlap. Make sure each piece is twice as tall as the container it is going to wrap around. Cover a container with tacky glue. Wrap the material around the container, lining it up from the bottom edge and put extra glue on the overlapped edges. Let it completely dry. Then coat the inside with tacky glue and fold material in and smooth it as much as you can. Do this to all three containers, then glue the three together with the seam inside. Decorate with cutout pieces in a different color and affix it on the containers with tacky glue.