Resource Spotlight: D.I.Y. Holiday Gifts

This holiday season will inevitably look and feel different from most years. Of course, there are some things that haven’t changed, such as our inclination to gather (even virtually), exchange gifts and reflect. Whether you’re wrapping up or mailing off holiday gifts for your friends and family or just searching for crafting ideas while stuck inside during cold weather, these resources are sure to help!

In this post, you’ll learn how to find relevant crafting items and collections in our apps and how to use our Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center to advance your D.I.Y. skills!

Let’s start with finding crafting collections in our apps. You won’t need to log in to the apps to browse the collections, but you will have to log in to download or check out items. If you’re new to our apps, find help in this blog post or call our AskUs hotline at 918-549-7323.

• In CloudLibrary, you’ll see the Browse option in the top menu. Click that, and then select Nonfiction to find the Crafts & Hobbies collection. (Tip: Some collections will be automatically selected. Just click the collection title to de-select it.)

• When you access Freading, you can select “Categories” from the top and then choose “Crafts & Hobbies” from the alphabetical list. Once there, you can browse all items or filter by the subcategories suggested at the bottom of the page.

• In Hoopla, hover your mouse over Browse at the top, select Ebooks from the dropdown menu and then Categories. DIY Holiday: Gifts, Decorating & More will be under the featured categories, and Crafts & Hobbies is listed under All Categories.

• Once in OverDrive, select Subject from the top. You’ll find two crafts collections, one in general nonfiction (available here) and one in juvenile nonfiction (available here).

Our Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center is another great place to find D.I.Y. gift inspiration this holiday season! This EBSCO database offers detailed "how-to" instructions and creative ideas to meet the interests of virtually every hobby enthusiast. Full text is provided from leading hobby and craft magazines.

Since this database is dedicated to resources for crafting, the categories are already relevant! Still, you can refine your search by browsing through the collection offerings such as Arts & Crafts, Kids’ Crafts, Needlecrafts & Textiles, and Papercrafts. (By the way, each of the categories we just mentioned are great places to find holiday gift inspiration!)

We searched for the word “holiday” and then chose some categories from the Subjects option on the left-side menu, such as “do-it-yourself work” and “Christmas decorations.” Clicking on the title will take you to a page with more information about the excerpt and the publication from which it was found. Clicking “PDF Full Text” will take you straight to the article view.

From the results, we decided to look at a few of the articles, described below. Find them by entering their Accession Number (AN) into the Search box in the Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center.

Last-Minute Holiday Gifts (AN: 21985910) from Clotilde’s Sewing Savvy. This article offers instructions, templates and patterns for four different sewing-based holiday gifts.

Fun Zone Holiday Gifts (AN: 27392452): This article offers step-by-step instructions for making several holiday gifts including Dipped Pretzels, Pinecone Candle Jar, and Jingle Bell Ornament.

Happy Holidays (AN: 110608082) card instructions from CardMaker. 

Holiday D.I.Y (AN: 47559662) from Kids World Magazine. This article offers step-by-step instructions for baking gingerbread cookies, making a photograph cube and a Christmas tree ornament.