It’s that time of year again! The air turns colder, the leaves start to crinkle, and my urge to MAKE ALL THE THINGS comes out of it’s summer hibernation.

This year we are doing handmade gifts for most of our family so I am getting started early with my research. I have college age kiddos and grade school kiddos, high school kiddos and full grown kiddos. Luckily the internet is vast and the possibilities are endless. It’s important to find gifts that people will like, that can be made inexpensively, and that are useful in some way.

Of course one person’s useful is another person’s WTF? so it’s equally important to know your audience. For example, monogrammed coasters might seem like a useful thing to make but do your friends even have coffee tables that require coasters?

I’m starting with my college peeps. This year, there are a lot of them.

College Age DIY Gifts –

1. The Secret Book Safe – Keep your tiniest secrets hidden here, or at least your cash when you’re throwing a party for your fellow students. 
2. Study Carrel – You can’t make everyone else leave the room, but you can kind of make your own room.
3. Managing to sleep in a room with another person can be a challenge. A sleep away kit can make all the difference. A homemade eye mask can make it seem like you are home sweet home. A small homemade fleece pillow filled with lavender, a solid set of earplugs, and your softest pillow case combine to create a cozy sleeping environment where ever you actually are. 
4. An office in a box gifts your student with all the study necessities. Post-it’s, pencil lead, bookmarks, paperclips, highlighters, and more! 
5. A no-sew fleece blanket gives your student something soft to cuddle up in when they are tired and homesick.
6. A Mason-Jar Sewing Kit is an essential gift for someone moving out on their own. After all, your sewing stuff is staying with you, so it’s not like they can just run in and grab it.
7. Sick Day Cold Kit – Being sick away from home is the first time you really understand how much being a grown up sucks. Ease their pain a little. In a large mason jar place:
   1.  4 Emergency-C Packets.
   2.  A handful of cough drops.
   3.  A handful of throat lozenges.
   4.  2 packets of Throat Coat tea.
   5.  2 packets of Peppermint tea.
   6.  4 honey sticks.
   7.  A travel size tissue pack.
   8.  Lip balm.
   9.  Travel size menthol rub.
   10.  4 Nyquil Liquigels.
   11.  4 Dayquil Liquigels.
   12.  2 Advil packets.
   13. Chicken Soup packet.
   14. 2 saltine cracker packets.
   15. Quarters for the soda machine.
8. Magnetic Message Boards let roommates communicate with each other and avoid awkward moments.

There are more. The internet is full of laundry kits, first aid kits, coffee lover kits, etc. Really, if you can think of it, you can turn it into a gift for someone in college.