Allrecipes and Better Homes & Gardens are teaming up to help you entertain with ease.
Food Gifts
1. Bringing a bottle of wine to the party? Personalize it with one of these free printable wine labels.
2. Bringing food to a potluck? Add a gift to the presentation. Wrap a pretty tea towel around a casserole, tie a decorative spoon to a jar of preserves, or place desserts on a pretty tray your host or hostess can keep afterwards. Here's where you can find crowd-pleasing potluck recipes.
3. Cookie and brownie mixes make delicious gifts your hosts can enjoy long after the party. Pick out a favorite mix recipe, layer the ingredients in a glass jar, and tie on the recipe with bright ribbon or twine.
Crafty Gifts
4. Create destination artwork. If your hosts have traveled during the year, frame maps or quirky postcards depicting their journeys.
5. A miniature sewing kit is a gift that keeps on giving. Start with a canning jar,metal lid, and screw band. Fill the jar with sewing essentials: small scissors, spools of basic thread colors, buttons, small measuring tape, thimble, needle threader, and packets of needles, safety pins, and straight pins. Make a pincushion top by stitching together two circles of patterned fabric wrong-sides-out. Leave an opening about an inch wide. Turn right-side-out and stuff with filling. Stitch the circle closed and sandwich the pincushion between the metal lid and screw band.
6. Decorate an index file box for recipe cards or greeting cards. Wrap the box with pretty paper, ribbon, or fabric. Add scrapbooking embellishments from a crafts store. Cut divider tabs from patterned card stock. Add labels to the tabs and enclose in the box.
7. This pretty set of homemade coasters is useful as well as decorative. Stitch together two sizes of felt, stringing on seed beads as you go, if you wish. You can use a circle template to help cut out the shapes, or use a die-cutting tool. Stack six coasters together and wrap with a contrasting color ribbon.
Practical Gifts
8. A framed calendar is an easy gift your hostess can appreciate year-round. Fill one side of a hinged dual photo frame with a mini monthly calendar, and fill the other with a special photo. Include the other months in a plastic sleeve, along with additional photos, so the recipient can update as needed.
9. A handmade bookmark is sure to please. Cut two lengths of felt and layer the pieces; use decorative stitches to attach. Embellish the bookmarks with felt scrapbooking letters and buttons. Using embroidery floss in a contrasting color, surround buttons with stitched-on petals or other fall appliques.
10. Make a cozy throw. Start with a small blanket-size piece of wool-blend felt. Cut simple shapes in fall motifs from colored felt. Attach to the large piece of felt with fusible web.
