I'm a big fan of homemade food gifts, which in my mind include alcoholic items, condiments, spices, etc. In fact, my mom recently told me that one of her favorite gifts in years past was a jar of Bronzed Chicken Spices that I mixed together in a big batch and doled out to family members along with the recipe. Mom said it took the hard part out of making a yummy dinner, and it was a thoughtful and helpful gift. Bonus!

That conversation greatly influenced my selections when I sat down to choose the items in this year's Foodie Gift Guide. It can take just pennies to make a gift that's likely to end up as someone's favorites list this year, so why pick products that cost a fortune, no matter how cool they are? Sure, we'd all like to have a fancy mixer or espresso machine, but in today's economy, a nice whisk or a pound of good coffee are just as welcome.

So here's a baker's dozen of food and kitchen items that you can either make as gifts this holiday season, or pick up without emptying your larder, er, pocketbook. (Puns definitely intended!) I'd love to hear about other gifts you plan on making or buying for the foodie in your life. Please tell us about them in the Comments! Merry merry, happy happy!

Homemade Coffee Liqueur
A few years ago we made two different versions of coffee liqueur, dutifully marking them brew #1 and brew #2. Some recipes call for instant coffee and some call for a pot of brewed java. The bad news was that we forgot which recipe went with which number. The good news was that both batches were tasty, and our friends and family really appreciated the gift, especially when certain name brands can be quite pricey. This also needs to sit for a month, so factor in the time this needs to sit on the shelf aging to perfection.

Adam @ MAKE writes:

Symbology befitting a Dan Brown novel exudes from these handcrafted iPhone home button earrings. Do they imbibe the wearer with mystical iPhone powers? Does wearing two buttons break Apple's Human Interface Guidelines? You'll just have to acquire a pair to find out.

As a special preview for MAKE's upcoming Alex Rider Dream Gadget Contest, we're giving away two copies of Scorpia and Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz, the fourth and fifth books in the Alex Rider series. Just leave a comment in this post and tell us why you or your kid(s) needs one of these books. Please make sure you include your email address in the comment form field (it won't be published). All eligible comments will be closed by Noon PST on Sunday, November 14th. The winners will be announced next week on the site. Good luck!

More:

• Alex Rider's Radio Mouth Brace
• Alex Rider's Smokescreen Bike Pump
• Alex Rider's Geiger Counter Game Console
  
• Alex Rider's High Tensile Yo-Yo
  

Today the Craft and Make teams held it down at the Great Santa Rosa Hand Car Regatta. The scene along the tracks was controlled chaos, with equal parts corsets and mustaches. Hand built mechanical wonders flew down the tracks, drag race style, and my team and car, the Bumpin' Contraption finished 4th!

Les Claypool announced the races. Children ran rampant on the rail road tracks. Costumes were SO inspiring. Musicians and magicians roamed around. It was like traveling through time to the past and the future simultaneously.

I'm off to pack up the Make Firetruck. Phew! If you were there, share your images in the Craft Flickr pool!

Here's some circuit board candy Collin @ MAKE found in the MAKE Flickr pool. It's based off of the iPhone circuit board and has some innovations I haven't seen before including a sour straw ribbon cable. Nice!

Instructables is having a sound contest, and these speakers are one of the prizes. You can find out how to make a pattern for your own fuzzy monster speakers and give your sound system a little personality.

From The New Yorker site:

"I got a phone in the beginning of February, and I immediately got the program so I could entertain myself," says Colombo, who first published his drawings in The New Yorker in 1994. Colombo has been drawing since he was seven, but he discovered an advantage of digital drawing on a nighttime drive to Vermont. "Before, unless I had a flashlight or a miner's hat, I could not draw in the dark." (When the sun is up, it's a bit harder, "because of the glare on the phone," he says.) It also allows him to draw without being noticed; most pedestrians assume he's checking his e-mail.

Watch this video below to see how he composed the cover.

[ via iPhone J.D. ]

I just got an Amazon Kindle 2, and my husband pointed out that the Kindle is not dissimilar to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the Guide itself, I mean -- the book within the books). Hence, my case with large, friendly letters that say "don't panic". It's my own design, and I didn't even have to buy any fabric -- this was a scrap project. It's also well-padded; the inner pocket as well as the cover and back are all lined with batting to protect the precious Kindle.

Did you get a Kindle 2 and mod a case for it? If so, leave us a comment!

Etsy seller Digitalsoaps makes realistic replicas of game controllers in soap. I wonder if this will encourage epic gamers to bathe more often. Available in Xbox, Playstation, NES, and more. Via Geekologie.

On March 19th, I had my book release party for Fashion Geek: Clothes, Accessories, Tech at Pop Lounge. It included a fashion presentation of all of the DIY electronic fashions in the book. Here's a look behinds the scenes of making the DIY projects into a fashion presentation.

Jen Parker and Elizabeth Owusu were the hair stylists armed with headbands to give the models' hair Gossip Girl style. About an hour before the show an EL wire driver breaks! Edith Kollath steps in and helped hand sew a replacement EL wire driver on the back of a model's skirt, just 15 minutes before the show's start time.

Finally, the models are in place on Fashion Geek platforms. Fashion Indie did a fantastic job running the event. They helped find the location Pop Lounge, managed the guest list, told the models when to smile, and the DJ's where to stand. As the guests begin pouring in, someone noted that the nerds tended to congregate towards the back of the room, while the fashion designers stood in the front near the models. Everyone munched on bacon toffee and chocolate covered Pop Rocks from Danielle Bilton. We listened to digital music from Eric Skiff. Then DJ Joey Mariano played digital music live from his hacked guitar and hacked Game Boy. In the end, I think everyone all had a good time.

You can watch a video of the fashion presentation by Bre Pettis here:

Thanks to CRAFT for letting me share my behind the scenes with you. I'll be back here later next month with a fashion project. Until then, catch up with me on my blog Fashionnerd.com.

Here's all the Behind the Scenes posts:

• Behind the Scenes of Fashion Geek: Designing Fashion with Electronics
  
• Behind the Scenes of Fashion Geek: DIY Fashion Show
• Behind the Scenes of Fashion Geek: Quick Update

The fabulous Lisa Katayama points to these adorable felt speakers on her equally fabulous TokyoMango blog. Whether they're Russian stacking dolls or Kokeshi, they definitely seem like something you crafty, techno-savvy readers could easily re-create at home. Send us some photos if you do, or post them in the Craft Flickr pool.

Got an iPod or laptop that needs a portable sound system to go with it? One of CRAFT Volume 07's awesome offerings is Syuzi Pakhchyan's Rock 'n' Roll Speakers project. Using this clearly photographed and laid out step-by-step, you can make your own pair of low-fi travel speakers. Here's an image of what you'll need:

The coolest part is that since they're driven by a simple power amplifier circuit and a tilt switch, you turn them on and off by tilting them. When both little white speakers are visible, they're on, and when only one is visible, they're off! As the intro says, "Whether you're in a hostel in Bangkok or backpacking in Goa, you can rock out to your favorite tunes with the portable Rock 'n' Roll Speakers."

Here's a peek at the project in our Digital Edition. You can still pick up this back issue in the Maker Shed.

If the thought of getting into "smart crafting," or incorporating electronics and smart materials into your crafts is exciting but perhaps a little intimidating, be sure to check out Syuzi's book Fashioning Technology:

This DIY Intro to Smart Crafting is an invaluable resource that walks you through the materials and tools you can use, gives technical primers on everything from LEDs to soldering to troubleshooting, and then offers 12 innovative projects of wearables, home goods, and toys you can make. The book is filled with clear, instructive photos for anyone who wants to expand their crafting horizons. There's really no other book out there like it. You can also check out the Fashioning Technology community site for tutorials, resources, and forum discussions.

Lime & Violet found this knitter's kit that is due out in March 2009. The Knit Kit includes a crochet hook, scissors, tape measure, stitch counter, thread cutter and a compartment for items like stitch markers. I know I always want more tools, but this seems like the perfect kit for the traveling knitter.

Craft reader Adrienne tipped us off to this cool motorized yarn winder on Robot Party - if you don't have a small child around to turn the crank on the ball winder, you might want to automate it.

Nicole from Making it Lovely provides a helpful list of her top ten must-have tools for DIY home improvement projects.

A while back, The Wurst Gallery in Portland held a great show called We Heart Gocco, which centered on artwork created with the much-beloved Japanese tabletop screenprinting device. It's so impressive seeing how different artists have utilized the gadget's capabilities. Amazingly enough, you can still nab some of the prints online at the gallery's website--what a great way to grab some fun and affordable artwork from some of today's coolest artists. Here are two examples of the 14 prints available, "Little Love" by Mizna Wada (above) and "Love with a Needle" by Evan B. Harris (below). Link.

Related:
• We Heart Gocco - Link.
• Print Gocco Tutorial - Link.
• Save Gocco - Link.

Sarah from The Small Object came up with a great way to put her logo on her wooden creations: this super-handy electric brander. This would be so useful for anyone working with wood! Check out her blog to find out how to get one of your own. Link.

I love Cathy of California's work because it looks like it's straight out of a fabulous '60s-era craft shop. She's just created a new line of craft kits, which she puts together from vintage and "new old stock" materials. As she explains:

If you read my blog you know that I am just nuts about loomed flowers. The thing is that the supplies to make them are super hard to find. In fact most of the stuff is not even made anymore.

That's why I have decided to seek out all of the vintage and new old stock flower looms that I can get my hands on. I've made it my mission to spread the word that making loomed flowers is one of the best crafts around and I hope to be teaching classes very soon.

The materials included are in great condition and should provide hours of fun. You can turn the flowers you make into brooches, use them in shadowboxes or attach them to a handbag, or just fill a bowl with them and admire your work. FYI, Cathy's mushroom pincushions are on sale too. Link.

International Fashion Machines is releasing a kit version of their fabulous Electro-PUFF light dimmers. No special skills are needed, so it could be a fun project to do with kids or give to a crafty friend interested in "smart" materials:

The ElectroPUFF Craft Kit makes it possible for anyone to create a fun and funky item that's also on the cutting edge of technology. The ElectroPUFF Lamp Dimmer is a soft, whimsical pompom that connects to any incandescent table lamp and controls light levels with just a gentle tap. IFM's patented electronic-textile technology is the magic behind the ElectroPUFF. Special conductive yarns that sense your touch are combined with colorful recycled carpet fibers to form the soft switch. Because it combines crafting with innovative technology - and is so easy to make - it has wide-range appeal for kids, grandmothers, science enthusiasts, techies and anyone who enjoys crafts. And it's as safe as plugging a lamp into a wall.

They're even offering a special 10% discount for CRAFT readers on all products until the end of the year. The promotional code is "craft" and can be entered into the shopping cart before checkout. (Not applicable with any other offer :-) Link.

Here are my newest iPhone cases made from recycled items. I do alterations for a high end denim shop in SF called Self Edge, instead of throwing away the scraps I try to recycle them into wallets and coffee cozies. The denim for this particular iPhone case came from a pair of Nudie Jeans and the cool packaging that Nudie ships their underwear in. When it's closed the headphone cable can remain plugged in and the phones speaker is left uncovered so you can still hear the ringer. These cases also fit Blackberries and iPod touches perfectly.

Phil @ MAKE writes:

Texterity (the company that digitizes MAKE & CRAFT) have iPhone editions of both our magazines right now. Point your iPhone to http://iphone.texterity.com and you'll be able browse MAKE 10 and CRAFT 04! It's beta at the moment so there are some things getting fixed and I'm not sure how long we'll have these available - but for now enjoy!

I hate flowers. They're expensive and they just die in a few days. That's why this past Valentine's Day I opted not to go with traditional flowers, rather I maniverated some LED flowers that not only look good, but last forever!

They are easy to make and score big points with the woman in your life (wife, girlfriend... mom?), plus total cost was less than $7.

A little short on details, but I figured anyone that has ever used LEDs can pretty much figure it out.