I have a friend who is a genius when it comes to arts and crafts. She has a wonderful way with her hands. And anything she touches gets transformed into something gorgeous! Since we were kids, she never bought anyone birthday gifts. She always MADE them! I always envied her, because her gift always had a special personal touch to it. And needless to say, it made the receiver extremely happy. Now she's a stay at home mom, and she still makes these great craft articles. So, I decided to ask her if she would be willing to make her awesome crafts and sell them! She was skeptical at first, but now she's doing really well. If you too want to have your creativity and corresponding talent earn you some money, then go ahead and make some easy crafts and sell them! You've already got the talent, why not use it? If you're a fan of lamp shades, you can use this interest to make some. Try some really creative ideas and you can sell some stunning pieces for sure! Keep some simple, some intricate, some colorful, some plain and classy. Try out any kind of material that you want, and see what sells best. Paper, metal, glass, ceramic, etc. there are so many different kinds of things that you can try with all of these. Make a list of all your friends and design the lamp shades according to each of their personalities. Begin so and then widen your area of sale! Jewelry making is one of the best avenues that you can explore if you want to sell your crafts. You can experiment with different types of necklaces like beaded, simple strings, pearls, fancy stones and pendants like butterflies, angels, flowers, etc. For bracelets, you can try different hemp bracelets, knotted wool bracelets, charm bracelets, glass bead jewelry, etc. you can also make a complete set using the above mentioned idea and pair them up with matching earrings! Unique handmade jewelry looks and feels fabulous because there's a story behind each one! Scrounge a flea market or a garage sale in your neighborhood for some old and discarded picture frames. Take the poor things home and use your imagination to transform them into sparkling new masterpieces! Use shells, beads, sequins, sand, mirrors, printed fabric, ribbons, etc. to design picture frames with a personal touch. Once they begin selling, you'll get a fair idea of what your target clientele wants. Then, you can begin customizing the picture frames as per their requests. This will not only improve your customer base for business, but it will also help you make friends with a lot of new people and that's never a bad thing, is it? You know what looks great as a cover for a portable DVD player or on a gift? A handmade paper or crochet doily! If you're an expert at crochet, you can make them and sell them straight out of your home. And if you're not too nifty with the needles, you can try out paper doilies. Cut out a paper into a circular (or any other shape that you wish). Then, fold it to form a cone. Just below the curved edge, mark three spots and punch holes through them. Cut off a curve from either side of the cone and when you open up the paper, you'll have a beautifully patterned paper doily. You can try out different styles and designs on different kinds of colored paper. Once these doilies are ready, you can display them on empty gift wrapped boxes to show people how they can be used to decorate gifts. Paper crafts are always some of the best sellers. Even simple things sell like hot cakes for their plain functionality. Too much heavy talk maybe, but you cannot deny that making and selling something as simple as bookmarks along with your other handicrafts is not only easy to do, but it will also get in that extra bit of cash. You can experiment with different things like paper, cardboard, a combination of both, even some pretty printed fabric maybe. As far as shapes go, there's no limit there either. Traditional bookmarks may be oblong in shape, but you can experiment with the shapes as well. Drops, commas, flowers, etc. are some options for you. Who can resist a bunch of pretty, aromatic, serene looking candles! Hardly anyone! So, if you already know how to make candles, make some pretty ones in different sizes, shapes, and colors. Add fragrant aromas to some and package all of them in beautiful sheer drawstring pouches (which you can also make at home). If you don't know how to make them, well, you can join a class that teaches it, get the necessary material and begin making your own candles. There's no greater joy than seeing something you created unfold right in front of your eyes. Potpourri is a wonderful addition to any home. It adds to the aesthetic value of the décor, and at the same time also renders a lilting fragrance to the air wherever it is placed. What's even more wonderful about it is how easy it is to make and sell! You can make potpourri with almost an fragrant flowers, herbs, and even spices that you wish. Try out different combinations of flowers with herbs and spices along with different fixatives and essential oils to create your own recipes. Make sure you try out on a wad of cotton before you use the flowers and leaves that you've so painstakingly dried. Once your mixture is ready, you can sell it in different sized glass jars. Another option is to pack and sell your potpourri in pouches made from fabrics that breathe easy. However, at the time of sale, these pouches should be wrapped in ones that don't breathe, so as to preserve the fragrance. Do you have a whole lot of wire lying in the basement or the attic? You thought you'd need it, but turns out you did not. Now you can't take it back to the store since you bought it eons ago! Why not make some money off it? You already know that wire is very flexible. So, you can twist and turn it into almost any form you wish. So, begin by making rough drawings of what you want to make, then go about the actual bending of the wires. Begin with small shapes, and once you get the hang of it, you can move on to elaborate designs and shapes like the one given alongside. Slowly and steadily, you can also begin making wire crafts that revolve around a particular theme. For instance, three blind mice, the three wise monkeys, a tribal scene, etc. They're a great addition to home accessories! You can also make jewelry out of wire. This idea may seem very mundane, but you can enhance it with your own creativity to make it the exact opposite. When you think of hand fans, the first thing that comes to your mind is understandably the traditional Oriental fans. While many may think that it's a just piece of paper folded and then unfolded (like we did in school), you being a craftsman, know and appreciate the beauty and the intricacies involved in fan making. So, take it up as a challenge, and make different kinds of fans, using paper at first. Once you're comfortable with it, you can get a little more creative and paint different designs on the paper. Then, once you're OK with that, you can delve into the more stylish and traditional silk fans. They're gorgeous, whether you want to just look at them or use them. So they're bound to sell! Every time a kid begins to throw a tantrum over a stuffed toy, the parent sighs inwardly at the exorbitant price of it and if not determined enough, ends up giving in to the kid's demand. If you too have either experienced or at least witnessed such an incident, you'll know exactly what I mean. You can put a lot of mothers out of their misery, and make their kids happy by making them some cute stuffed animals right out of your home! It's true! Making stuffed toys is not as difficult (and certainly not as expensive) as some would like to have you believe. There are a lot of online tutorials that will give you step by step instructions on making adorable stuffed toys. So, learn how to do it, make them, sell them at lower prices and hit three birds with one stone! For all those who can paint their way in and out of mood swings, art classes, competitions, and the like, here's an idea that can help you make some money on the side with your talent. Begin with small clay objects, and then move onto painting large vases like the ones depicted in the image here. Initially, to save up on capital, you can gather old and discarded pots from your home, flea markets, garage sales, etc., clean them up and paint them. Then when the selling kicks off really well, you can start buying the vases in the shapes and sizes as per your desire and paint them. You know how sometimes you spend so much time over agonizing how to perfectly gift wrap an item, but end up handing it in an ugly bag that your toaster came in? If you've been through it, chances are a lot of people you know have too. You can help such compulsive 'gifters' by making pretty gift bags at home. Use different kinds of paper, fabric, cardboard, etc. to come up with various ideas for gift bags. The more innovative the better. It will keep the interest of the customers alive and will also enhance their loyalty as they'll know that you have something different to offer! Those were some ideas on crafts that you can make and sell. Begin by first selling to your family and friends. Once you see their response, you can muster up the courage and go a little more public, like maybe a crafts fair. You can also ask a local boutique to sell your crafts for you. After that, you can widen your scope by opening your own store or selling straight from a room in your home. Create a website for yourself and your products. It's not very difficult and it will help you immensely in marketing and selling your products online. Once it all picks up, you can decide how far away you can afford to ship your crafts. Good luck with your new venture!