Easy DIY Gifts for a Little Girl

Many types of people can be tough to shop for, but little girls are particularly challenging. Often, they have a budding sense of fashion or decor, so a gifted piece of clothing or tchotchke may get sniffed over carefully before receiving approval. 

Knitted Headband

If you’re not an accomplished stitcher, knitting a sweater under a holiday time crunch can seem like a daunting task. However, a smaller project, such as a headband, can still be a nice personal gift that gets use in winter or summer. Lanas y Ovillos demonstrates the techniques needed to knit a headband quickly. You may even have enough time left over to stitch a sweater.

Cardigan Sweater

If you’re a knitter looking to make a gift for a girl two years or younger, consider this easy knit baby cardigan. Knitting for Baby walks through each of the sweater’s rows in great detail so there’s little confusion about which type of stitch is needed where. The sweater video is over an hour long, so even less accomplished knitters should be able to follow along.

Memory Book

Memory books for little children come in all different shapes, styles and sizes. Some focus on the school year, others on summer vacation or everything combined. You can glue together a detailed scrapbook filled with photos and calligraphy or print up a stack of prompt-filled pages that will make the process a little easier to complete with a glue stick and crayons. You could even design a photo book on your computer and have a printer produce a book with high printing quality. However you make your memory book, the more research you do about the recipient, the better the end product will be. 

Pom-Pom Crafts

Pom-poms can be transformed into Christmas ornaments, sweater embellishments and more. In the above video, Moriah Elizabeth shows how mini pom-poms can be turned into fun room decor. Her pom-pom spheres and coasters are nice, but the pom-pom pillow is probably the most impressive. You’ll need to have some basic sewing ability and a lot of mini pom-poms, but the final result is cute, festive and perfect for a little girl’s room.

Blinged Out Coffee Mug

Okay, young girls may need a cocoa mug more than a coffee mug, but the approach for creating a fun and flashy cup is the same. Charmaine Galloway demonstrates how she glues beads and rhinestones to mugs to create cups that stand out on the table, sink or pretty much anywhere they’re put. Blinging out mugs can also be a fun craft to do along with a little girl. And, yes, with all of that glue and beads, it will probably get messy.

Bracelets

Depending on the age of your gift recipient, she may enjoy a few bracelets. DIY-Accessories demonstrates how to wrap and knot together beads into jewelry that works well with elementary school style. Be sure to know the style of the gift recipient before you invest too much time into making a bracelet. Also, these ideas may not work for every girl. One girl may turn her nose up at the sight of a rubber band bracelet. Another may love it.

Candy Jar Decor

Since just about everyone loves candy, you probably can’t go wrong with giving jars filled with it. Pick up one or several at a bargain home goods store and a few bags of the recipient’s fave sweets and you have an easy gift that almost anyone with a sweet tooth will appreciate. These can also be used for decoration, so plan wisely to pick up colorful candy that has a bit of a shelf life. You may want to opt for treats that don’t melt too easily.