I don't have any ideas offhand, but love the site familyfun.com for any idea I need that involves children.
Check there......
Julie

I worked in a Montessori School with children from 3 to 12 yrs of age. I did Arts & Crafts with the kids all the time. It's nice that you want to give them something from yourself. A nice idea would be to take their picture of them, and then make a nice frame for it and put the date on it as well. I used to do this as a parent gift from the kids each year, for the Holidays.
It's something that's 'generic' and can be enjoyed by All, no matter what Holiday they celebrate. It became a Tradition for some families, when I would have a brother or sister of a child who had been in my class previously, and now it was their turn. You can use almost anything to make the frame. I've used Popsicle sticks painted, and Glued Colorful Buttons (all kinds and shapes) and Small Colorful tiles on them. Even if you don't want to glue them ALL over the sticks...You can just glue them to the four corners. Also, there are many Flat Wooden shapes in the craft stores that are cheap that can be painted and the picture mounted on them...One year,with the older kids, I taught them how to crochet. They crochet round almost snowflake shapes, and mounted and glued their pictures in the center. When it comes to gifts...pictures of the kids ALWAYS seemed to be a hit. Since your crafty, then the easy part is to take a picture and Let Your Imagination 'FLY'..
Hope this helps some.

My preschool teacher, who also taught me in grade 3, did the same thing each year, and I still have both!

One of the years (cant remember which) she painted little ornaments. The type you can buy at a craft store, like michaels. They were little animals. And on the bottom she put To:Student name. Her name, the date, and some sort of quick "Way to go" kind of message. in a gold or silver pen.

The other year, she did the exact same thing, except she'd found ornaments with little picture holders in them, and put the individual pictures in them.

Might be worth looking into. They were all painted very simple. And I doubt they were very costly at all. And all personalized.

The puzzle piece wreath would make a nice picture frame for the pics of the kids, and they are easy and quick to put together...
Suzan J

Well, I don't have them out yet but my son made some cute ones over the years and I'll describe some.

Puzzle pieces, spray painted by you in green, Then using 3 popsicle sticks in a triangle shape glue together and then glue on the puzzle pieces to make a "tree". Add a brown stump cut out of a rectangle and glue on. Then take a picture of the kid with a santa hat and glue to the back and attach a ribbon for hanging. Very cute and one of my favorites.

2. Take a big colored christmas light bulb like what you'd use for outdoor string of lights. The kid can stick on googley eyes and you can attach brown pipe cleaners in the shape of the antlers on a reindeer. Attach a cord to hang.

chinajewelrywholesale.com has a lot of fashion jewelry, like bracelets, necklaces. They will make a great gift.