try contacting The Palm Room in Ballard http://www.thepalmroom.com/
i also think they now do classes on making terrariums

They have a gift guide page that used to be linked from the homepage. Although the link itself seems to be gone, the page still exists (and is updated). This is usually my first stop on Etsy. :)

http://www.etsy.com/gift-guides/

I guess my favorite search terms might be: cute, kawaii, plush, kitty or cat. Usually the kawaii stuff is pretty cute. Once I find one thing that looks promising I tend to delve in from that point of departure.

I like to meander through the forums (community>forums from the front page) and click on either folks with really pretty avatars (they usually have equally awesome shops), or folks who are making really smart, interesting points (their items are usually equally smart and interesting). Other than that, check out the treasuries (by clicking the see more link right above the items featured on the front page). If you're just searching, always hit the relevancy filter. You can also find good stuff by association- if you find someone you really like, try seeing if her item description or profile mentions a team she is part of and then search for other members of that team, or check out a really awesome seller's favorites by going to her profile page and looking for the favorites section to the right and below the profile info.

Joann's in Ballard had some last Christmas, and they were pretty cheap. Joann's selection of products can be highly unreliable though, especially at that location.

I've often seen wooden recipe boxes in Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Value Village. These stores usually organize stuff by material, so look for the wood section. The boxes are almost always painted with a little bit of decoration, but some sandpaper will take it right off.

Personally, I like to look look at the "galleries curated by Etsy members" lists. They do the browsing for you and just show you the good stuff in the category they choose. To get to them, just click on the BUY tab.

Make a hookah out of an old wine bottle--one of my friends has done this. Search for "wine bottle hookah". You could use the glass paint to make cool designs on the bottle.

i made "looks like you ornaments" that were a hit. i made the kind of playdough you cook in the oven - recipe below - then rolled it out, used a gingerbread man cookie cutter to make little people. i stuffed some dough thru a garlic press to make their hair and poked a hole at the top of their head for the string. when they came out, i used a thin sharpie to draw their faces and then painted clothes on or cut out material and glued it on. you don't have to be a good artist to do this. my mom has black curly hair, glasses and always wears black clothes. hers didn't look exactly like her, but everybody knew it was her.
fun to make, cheap and kind of different.

BAKER'S CLAY
Shape and bake Christmas ornaments, jar lids, etc.

Mix together:

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup water
Knead until smooth. Add food coloring if desired. Make shapes and bake at 300 degrees until set and golden (1/2 hr to 1 hr). Seal with shellac, or for a more golden appearance, paint with a beaten egg.

Props to the reference to Jaquard dyes. Jaquard is awesome -- they've got tons of different kinds of dyes and fabric paints, suitable for everything from watercoloring on silk scarves to heavier painting on canvas. Check out their website -- http://jacquardproducts.com -- different dyes and paints are meant for different applications. You should find something that suits your purpose.

Several places in Seattle carry Jaquard dye and the various dye fixers that are needed. I've seen it at Nancy's Sewing Basket, Artist Craftsman/Supply in the U-District, Pacific Fabrics. I've never seen the whole line of paints and dyes in any one shop; fabric stores tend to stock the dyes, and art supply stores frequently stock the paints.

Here are some suggestions for sellers on Etsy. They might be better to talk with to get the best fit.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Planengrain

http://www.etsy.com/shop/bigfam15

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftSanity

The fabric paint you're thinking of is probably the stuff in little cylidrical tubes that looks like art paint right? I've never watered those down to paint with. I think it might just become clumpy. It probably depends on what the base of the paint is.

I would mix up some fabric dye in little containers, like yogurt cups, and paint with them! I find that stretching the fabric on a frame works the best, and the colors will probably run together like watercolors. If you're looking for an inexpensive option, that's probably the way to go.

I'd mix the powder dye with water until its the right consistancy for what you're painting. Rit from Joann might work, or you can get Jaquard procion dyes for about $5 a piece. You can mix colors too, so you probably would only need to buy 4. You'll need to set the dye too. Look for the instuctions on the package. I always just heat or steam set.

The Harrisvle and Cricket are basically the same thing. They are called rigid heddle looms.

The school loom is more for small pieces of fabric and tapestry weaving. I would go with the rigid heddle: you can get them in a nice width (looks like these models come in 10-12 inches) and then put on a long length of warp to make a scarf. You could also sew these lengths together to make a blanket. It would be a lot more versitle. You can also buy different reeds for different size yarn to make different kinds of fabric. There are whole books on the different kinds of patterns you can make. Look for the Weaver's Idea Book by Jane Patrick. Its a great one.

Personally, I would go with the Cricket loom. I like the finish and construction a little bit more than the Harrisville Easy Weaver. Its a really good seller too; lots of people love it. I hope that helps!

In addition to the 12X12 squares of felt, we also carry wool batting that you can make felt from. It comes in a natural color, so you most likely will want to dye it. We also have wool/rayon felt squares and some 100% wool yardage.

I've done cards several times, it was very cheap and very easy. I buy some nice looking card stock from Kinkos, and a set of cheap watercolors, and a glitter glue pen or two. Then, I go to the bar and drink a hot toddy or egg nog while putting a few swishes of a couple different colors on the card, line a couple of those with glitter glue, and voila!

The biggest expense was the drinks, but I've met lots of nice people while doing these, and the people sometimes help. :)

For the menfolk: embroidered handkerchiefs! I think handkerchiefs are so charming, and I think one with a guy's intials embroidered in the corner would be such an awesome gift.

Check this out:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=301135.0
(Or if my crappy internet skills are sucking as much as usual, go to craftster, search Watercolor Stencil Portrait + TUTORIAL by weighanchor.)

Basically, you get some art paper, a set of watercolors, and a jar of a little craft supply called masking fluid. Then you need photographs of friends or family (or whatever else--my first one was a copy of a weezer poster for a friend who loves them). You need to manipulate the photographs on your computer to get a really clear black and white pic. (Many more details about this step at the location above). Once you've got a good pic, you print it out, slap it up against a window in sunlight (or a 9x13 pyrex pan with a light underneath it) and put a sheet of your nice art paper on top, and, looking through the paper to the pic underneath it, paint the white parts of the pic onto the art paper with masking fluid. When your masking fluid dries, you paint over it with the watercolors (two colors close to each other on the color wheel work well) in a pleasing way. Then you wait for the paint to dry, pull off the masking fluid (it peels up- an eraser makes this process easier), and voila! These portraits are incredibly beautiful when finished (as long as you are painstaking and patient when making them) and make you look like a total artistic badass. Seriously. This particular craft is not SUPER cheap (ie; free), but the supplies should make quite a few gifts, and the dollar store often has watercolor sets that will work just as well in this project as what you'll find at any craft store.

On another note, something I've been thinking about doing this year for my brothers and sisters are handpainted wooden recipe boxes with favorite recipes from both my Mom's and my kitchens.

Stenciled t-shirts are relatively easy, especially because pre-designed stencils are all over the internet. Just make your stencil on some contact paper, attach to your shirt, and use fabric paint on a sponge brush to daub your design on. Make sure to put a piece of cardboard inside the tshirt so it doesn't bleed through to the other side!

Every year I sponsor a craft project for my office mates during the slow Christmas week. Last year we did Solstice magic wands - everyone found a good branch and after we cleaned them off, we adorned them with feathers, glitter, ribbons, paints and anything else we could think of.

Just took the artsy crafty bits, free branches from the trees, a glue gun and imagination and we were all pretty happy with the results.

You can make your own wool felt by going to Goodwill and buying old 100% wool sweaters and washing them in hot water and a little detergent with some old towels to beat them up. Wash them two oe three times to make sure the fabric is really felted well.

What about paper mache? I love the idea of making paper mache portrait figures of my friends. Now if I'd just make the time to do it. Here's a link to some cute paper mache squirrels made by kids for inspiration: http://manualescanigo.blogspot.com/2010/10/ardillas-ardillas-ardillas.html

Granola. Everybody likes some good home-made not-too-sweet granola. Unless they are down with people.

http://www.thesunbreak.com/2009/12/08/give-the-edible-gift-of-maple-granola

Kristen over at Schmancy Toys just did a fun series of blog posts featuring diy projects.

If someone were to force me to make something with glass paint, I'd probably get some glass plates from Goodwill and paint the back of 'em... then decoupage over the paint.

Also, have you tried the needle felting? It's fun for the people.

Well, there are two potential answers that I can think of:

1) The more likely of senarios: The exess dye from the dyeing process isn't washed out. Synthrapol is a great product that washes out the exess dye and holds it in the deturgent, so it won't ruin the other colors. I'd wash it a couple times just to make sure. (We sell Synthrapol at the shop, and I think you can get it most places dyes are sold.)

2) The dye isn't set. Assuming they used procion dye for plant fiber, you might need to fix it with a soda ash bath. Vinegar works for protein dyes.

To add to Rosalie, you could do that but add their pictures in a "dirty magazine". My friend did that for another friend's bachelorette party and it was hilarious!

Other ideas:
with your glass paint, personalize cups and dishware from the thrift store.

magnets

embroider vintage pillow cases

embroider stockings

Nancy's on Queen Anne sells all wool felt square's for less than $2 and felt by the yard. So much nicer than recycled bottle felt!

Can I ask a related question? What time should a person show up if they don't care about swag bags and would just like to get inside without waiting in line? The line up for the swag bags irritated me so profoundly the last few years I'm not sure I even want to come.