Social distancing is having a huge impact on how we live our lives. While we are having to see loved ones less right now, we can plan to have big celebrations later in the year for birthdays, weddings and just finally being able to hug each other!

 

With all this extra time you have (and in an effort to keep everyone in the house occupied!) here are a few ideas for gifts you can make, create and find without having to buy too much extra stuff and using or reusing what you already have.

 

Create a recipe book

We all have staple recipes that we love to make. Why not create a mini recipe book to give to loved ones that love your cooking? Or maybe try a bit of culinary experimentation; choose a loved one’s favourite ingredient and make delicious new dishes that they would love. You can great beautiful digital recipe cards to share or even handwrite copies of the recipe for that extra special touch.

Find books you love to share

If you’re an avid reader and have more books than space, this is a great one to try. We recommend books to each other all the time, so instead of just giving a recommendation go through those bookshelves and pick out the books you love but wouldn’t read again. Ask yourself who else would love this book. Then as soon as social distancing is over, you can give them the books just because you know they’d love them. This is a great gift for anyone at any time – no occasion needed.

(A digital alternative would be to buy the kindle version for a loved one or download your digital copy and share the file.)

Create a beautiful life drawing

Use all this spare time to practice life drawing. Better yet, draw something for a loved one that has a birthday or celebration coming up. If you’re a beginner, there are some excellent resources out there, but our recommendation is Draw Brighton.

Draw Brighton is a social enterprise and because they’ve had to close their Brighton studio, they are running online tutorials that anyone can sign up to. You get to create a beautiful gift and help support artists, tutors and models. You can sign up to their Patreon for as little as £3, find out more here.

Make comforting gifts with patchwork and quilting

Leftover material or fat quarters you don’t have any other use for? Patchworking and quilting is the way to go. You can make beautiful creations to give as unique gifts for all occasions. If you’re a beginner, we recommend Jo Avery’s book “Patchwork and Quilting Basics – A handbook for Beginners”. You can order it here (and you can even get a digital copy here).

 

We’d love to see the gifts you make, create or find! Please share them with us on Instagram @curlicue_uk, Twitter @curlicue_uk and Facebook @CurlicueUK.

 

Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash