If you would rather make a gift for your friend than purchase something generic at the store, anything off this list of DIY birthday gift ideas will make your friend so happy.
For more crafts, check out all of our DIY posts.
It’s so easy to go into the store and purchase a gift for your friend.
Actually, I’m lying. Buying gifts is really hard. Sure, you could pick some generic candle or a bottle of wine and wrap it and give it to your friend. That’s fine. But, it’s not really that personal and honestly, not a gift anyone wants to receive.
I mean, Pete really loves candles and if he got one, he would be very grateful, but, if you saw that SNL skit a couple years ago you know that people feel like candles are cop out gift.
And they are. You don’t set out to buy your friend a candle. You end up buying a candle when you can’t find what you’re looking for.
So, you should just make a gift for your friend instead.
The thing about making gifts, though, is you want to make something that your a friend would actually want and that doesn’t quite look like you made it. Because no one wants random crap, regardless of if you made it or not.
So, we’re here to help. If you wanna make a gift for your friend and you want to make something that they’ll actually want, this list of DIY birthday gift ideas is for you.
If you found this post because you were feeling ambitious, but now you would rather just buy a gift, we have a huge gift guide with tons of ideas.
The guides are broken down by interest, like gifts for Wizard of Oz lovers and gifts for road trippers, so you’re bound to find a gift for everyone’s birthday this year.
DIY Birthday Gift Ideas
Affiliate links are included in this post and Drugstore Divas may make a small commission if you use them.
When we add more handmade birthday gift ideas to Drugstore Divas, we’ll update this post. So be sure to save it (pin it, bookmark it, however you save posts) and come back from time to time to see what new gift ideas we’ve added.
40 Is Fine When You Look 29 Wine Glass
A couple years ago, we knew a bunch of people turning 40. So, to kind of help with the ease into the new decade, we wanted to gift them some wine. Which, I just said it is a pretty generic gift. But, it’s a good gift idea when one, someone wants to drink away their new decade and two, you make this 40 is fine when you look 29 wine glass.
I will be very honest and say that you need a steady hand when you’re making this because you are hand lettering all of the text with a paint marker, but I promise you it’s worth it.
Just don’t drink wine while you’re trying to paint straight.
Candy Puns Gift
I love puns. I think almost everybody likes a good pun. So, pair some puns with some sweets and you have this Candy Puns Gift.
My cousin actually made this for me for my birthday a couple years ago and I absolutely loved it. It was a way to indulge my sweet tooth and my sense of humor And if you have a friend who likes candy and jokes, definitely make this for her.
We have a ton of examples of candy puns in the post, but of course, you can come up with your own puns if there’s some other candy that you want to buy your friend that we don’t have.
DIY New Driver Gift Tutorial
If you’re shopping for someone who is turning 16 and getting their drivers permit, our DIY New Driver Gift Tutorial is perfect.
The gift filled with a bunch of bunch of car-related items, plus a gas station gift card (because we all know that once you start driving, you quickly learn how expensive gas is).
Lollipop Tower Birthday Gift
Entering a new decade is hard for some people. There are other milestone birthdays, like 75, which just feel a little bit jarring. When you’re a kid and you hit those milestone birthdays, like 16 and 21, it’s all fun. But when you’re a little bit older, it can suck.
I mean, aging is better than the alternative, but seeing a zero at the end of your age is hard.
So, take a little bit of the edge off with this lollipop tower gift. You make a little card to go in the center of it that says your friend’s age and the word sucks after that. I know, I called this a lollipop tower, but there are people who called these suckers and so the play on words comes from there.
DIY Hats For Wine
If all else fails and you really do want to give your friend a bottle of wine, at least dress it up for the occasion. Make these super cute wine bottle hats to go on top of the wine that you’re gifting.
They’re really fun and make it looks like you thought about your friend ahead of time rather than just picking up a bottle of wine at the grocery store on the way over to their house to celebrate.
DIY Birthday Gift Boxes
If you want to buy a gift, but you want a cute way to package it, make our DIY Birthday Gift Boxes. They’re made from toothpaste boxes, although you wouldn’t know unless I told you.
See, there’s a very good chance your friend is throwing away whatever packaging the gift comes in (gift bags, wrapping paper, etc.), so you might as well upcycle some trash into birthday packaging before it ends up in the trash (because even gift boxes can’t avoid their fate).
More Handmade Gift Ideas:
We kept this list to be that our specific to birthdays, but they’re not the only homemade gift ideas that we have on the block.
We have a great list of handmade gifts for women, with ideas like cutting boards and photo coasters. And we have a list of handmade gifts for men, with ideas like baseball cookies and a travel humidor.
So if you’re looking for more ideas, check out those lists.
Have you made any of these DIY birthday gift ideas? Let us know in the comments.