Homemade Christmas — Quick and easy ideas for holiday crafts

OREM — Take some paper. Add ribbon, a few stickers and other trims. Throw in some quick-and-easy ideas, and it's a great way to add more heart to your holidays, says Carrie Warner, director of marketing and advertising for Pebbles Inc., a local scrapbook company.

Paper crafting is big all year, but it is especially fun at the holidays, she says. "There are so many ways to add personal touches to decorations and gifts. You can add cute little touches that make a big difference. Lots of times, women feel stressed out because they don't consider themselves 'crafty,' but there are so many easy things you can do."

Just adding a simple gift tag or a fun little topper to a bag of goodies, for example, "adds a touch of homemade, makes the gift seem more heartfelt."

Mostly, she says, what people want are things that are "inexpensive, that don't take a ton of time and are easy enough that anyone can do them." There are so many fun things out there to work with, she adds. You can take some patterned paper, add a sticker, print out a saying on your computer — and there you go.

For a lot of people, making cards and gift tags "is therapeutic," says Ashlee Ward, manager of the Pebbles In Your Pocket store in Orem. "The digital world has arrived. But people can turn to hands-on projects and feel more a part of the gift. It makes the gift more special, personalizes it."

Plus, adds Trinity Nelson, a sales associate at the store, "lots of parents involve their kids in these simple projects. It's like going back to the old-fashioned idea of making your own Christmas. It's become so commercialized that adding handmade touches brings back the old-fashioned feeling."

Here are some of their ideas and suggestions.

Tree ornaments. Take some double-sided scrapbook paper. Cut it into thin strips several inches long. Curl the strips around a pencil. Buy some clear glass ornaments at a craft store and tuck the curls inside.

You can also make a chain out of matching paper to have a garland for your tree.

You can buy small, metal picture frames that look like slide holders. Add small pictures of your kids and tie on bright ribbons for little ornaments.

Make snowflake ornaments by attaching a die-cut snowflake to a cardstock background with a metal brad. Add a ribbon.

Make snowmen out of tongue-depressor-size sticks. Paint them white, add a face and tie a ribbon around the neck.