Homemade Vegan Cookie and Cake Mixes in a Jar

We have been on a homemade present kick lately so when it was time to celebrate one of our good friend's birthday P and I made these super cool "vegan treats in a jar".

These are great gift ideas and are really simple to make. It also helps that P is a graphic designer so he was able to make these awesome labels but they would be just as cute with a little hand written instruction card.

To make the gifts just choose your favourite cake or cookie recipe that doesn't have a huge list of wet ingredients. We choose vegan chocolate cake, vegan chocolate chip cookies and vegan brownies for the mixes. Then in a glass jar layer all the dry ingredients that the recipe calls for. On an instruction card include the wet ingredients and measurements the person will need to make the mix and the method and cooking instructions for each recipe. Then package it up all nice and pretty and give away to some lucky people.

Facebook Challange

A few weeks ago there was a facebook status update going around saying:
"Pay It Forward 2011: I promise to send something handmade by me to the first 5 people who leave a comment here saying that they are in on this. They must in turn post this and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status.* The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent out to your 5 people sometime in 2011."

So I posted it. However I only received 2 comments back (I have to say it put my craftiness into question!) But I decided that these 2 lovely friends would receive a few handmade things throughout the the year rather than just one. This was the first: handmade postcards with owls on them (I have been very inspired by animal stationary lately).

 

Recycled Jar Pencil Holder

 Remember when you were a kid and made art projects using scraps of paper wrapped around the end of a pencil and glued to the page? I made this pen holder a little while ago for my desk at work using that same technique - except with tissue paper wrapped around wire to make a delicate flower.

Knit Tie

Another project I finished over the holidays - a knit tie for P. He is wearing it a lot which I take as a good sign. It was good practice for this new knitter on increasing and decreasing.

Coffee Cup Cozy

I just started knitting and I made these as x-mas gifts this year. They were simple to make but I think they are so cute.

Hand Made Christmas

P and I have a tradition of making collaborative gifts for family at Christmas. This year we did these really cool embroidered pictures of family members. P drew all the portraits then I hand stitched them. I think they were well received.