The best tool for making beautiful ornaments to give as gifts (or even hang on your own tree) is those clear Christmas balls. You can often find them in sets of 12 or 24. If you go to Hobby Lobby this week, unfinished ornaments are 40% off.
Swirl Ornaments
Clear Christmas balls
Acrylic paint (I think the best pairings are blue and silver, red and green, red and gold, green and gold, blue and white, gold and white, silver and gold, etc, but be creative!)
Ribbon to match/go with your paint choices
Remove the tops from the Christmas balls. Put a TINY squirt of two colours (or sometimes three, but much more than that and it gets too crazy) into a ball. Swirl it until the entire inside surface is covered (or until you get the effect you want) with swirls of the paint colours. Turn the ball upside down (into a cup or something) and let the excess paint drip out (if you do this right, you might be able to re-use some of the paint in another ball. Generally the colour will be changed, but mixtures like silver and blue look REALLY cool mixed). Let the ornament dry as you make the others. Try different colour combos, or make them all coordinate. Be creative. If you did one with two drops blue and one drop silver, try another with two drops silver, one drop blue. Or try one that is one drop blue, one drop silver, one drop white. It looks nice if you've given a set of bulbs that coordinate, but not necessarily match (but even if they do all match, every swirled ornament will be DIFFERENT! Which makes a really unique and pretty set). After they've dried completely (I'd give it 24 hours), put the little caps back on the bulbs. Tie a coordinating ribbon to the cap, long enough that it can be hung on a tree branch.
These can be put in a box of four ornaments to be given as a coordinating set (or six, or twelve, depending on how many you want to give!) or you can tie them individually to gifts in place of a bow or ribbon (rather than using a bow that will be thrown away, you can add decor to your gift, but it's something that can be reused by the family on their own tree next year)! (be careful if you do it this way- glass is sharp and you don't want them breaking!)
Frosty Melted!
This is a great gift if you have friends or family in an especially warm climate.
Clear Christmas Ball
Clear-drying glue (this is supposed to look like water, or melted snow, when it dries)
Small twigs (two for each ornament; these are supposed to look like the stick arms on a snowman)
Small black pieces of coal-shaped felt (a few for each ornament; these are the buttons, eyes, and smile of the snowman). You could also use *very* tiny buttons, but the idea is to make it all small in scale!
Small orange cone (either make one from paper, or take a toothpick, colour it orange, and cut it into small pieces; this is the nose)
Kabob Skewer
Optional: Other small objects for a snowman, like a TINY scarf or hat
Put some glue into the bottom of the bulb, to make a little pool of liquid. Let it sit until it's almost dry, then drop in the twigs GENTLY (if they stray too far from where you wanted them, the skewer can help you arrange them a bit better; the idea is that the surface will still be a *little* tacky so the items can stay put). Follow this with the other items, arranging as needed. Replace the cap on the ornament, and add ribbon for hanging. Package and send with a message saying, "I hope the snowman arrives safely!" or "Hope he didn't melt in the mail!" or "Sending cool thoughts your way." or "We told Frosty we didn't think he'd make it if he came to see you... but we sent him anyway!" Something witty involving their hot climate and the fact that inside the bulb is a melted snowman will work just fine...
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