DIY Gifts for the Family: Build Them With Care for Loved Ones

Make a Magnetic Knife Block

This is a gorgeous project for the chef on your short-list. It allows him or her to display and store high-quality knives, while simultaneously protecting those knives. Most store-bought knife blocks have magnets and exposed metal rails. Here, the magnets are placed within the wood, and the knives never touch a metal rail, which prevents unwanted nicks and dents.

Upgrade a Coffee Table

Upgrade a coffee table by adding a four-bar linkage to form a proper surface for your laptop or to eat a meal on, while maintaining a place to put your feet up. This is the type of modification that makes you wonder why coffee tables aren't already built like this. If, while watching TV, your dad hunches over his laptop or plate, the way mine does, this will be a great gift.

Build a Crooked Knife

From a standard file, you can shape a traditional knife to use for woodworking or even for trimming horses' hooves. The Crooked Knife is a draw knife, meaning you cut with the stroke that draws it toward you. Such a stroke might seem counterintuitive, but if someone on your list is a craftsman, they'll appreciate this tool.

Create a Countertop Greenhouse

My dad loves to garden, but since he lives in the Northeast, indoor gardening is the norm for the winter and sometimes into the spring. Even with steam heat, indoor humidity can be too low for some of the herbs he wants to grow, so an indoor greenhouse is the perfect solution. Custom-made means it will fit perfectly in the chosen window.

DIY Noise-Canceling Headphones

There's no better combined way to say "happy holidays!," "keep making cool stuff," and "I want you to be able to hear what I'm saying" than the gift of jackhammer headphones. They plug right into an iPod, so even if protecting hearing isn't at the top of your dad's or brother's list, listening to music or an audio book while belt sanding might be.

DIY Gifts for Friends: Make Them in Bulk

Fashion a Concrete LightBulb Wall Hook

Everyone needs hooks to hang coats and towels, but there are few hooks that are actually any cool. Solve this problem by giving Concrete Light-Bulb Hooks--they're irreverent but completely functional. Since you're the one with the tools, you'll get to help install them if you're lucky, and drill holes in your friends' homes.

Turn Bacon Into Soap

If you're a true DIYer, you're probably a great breakfast cook too--or at the very least you can sizzle a mean plate of bacon. Save up all that bacon fat (or any other fat for that matter) and use it to make soap. Bacon soap is just as good as regular soap, and it doesn't retain any bacon smell. Your friends will be falling over themselves to give it a try. Maybe they'll even volunteer to do the dishes.

Distill Your Own Perfume

Distilling your own perfume is actually pretty easy with some preparation. Choose a scent you're fond of (flowers, fruits, herbs, spices, freshly cut grass), and even if the scent wasn't selected by the best of designer noses, the gift will be treasured because you made it. For the cat lovers in your life, try catnip extract.

Make A Kerosene Light-Bulb Lamp

High-priced designers have recently taken to the light bulb as a medium for creation. Beat them at their own game for a hundredth of the price with this light-bulb lamp (here's another option.) You probably have all the materials at home right now.

Build a Marshmallow Gun

Once the holiday tension reaches a boil, break out the marshmallow guns to relieve the pressure. At just a few dollars in parts per gun, you can make enough guns for everyone at the office or family get-together. Get a PVC cutter to double your production speed and keep your marshmallow ammo moist.

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