DIY is all the rage, but if you can’t do it all yourself, there are kits to help. They come with almost everything you need, all in one place — and have clear instructions, which will lead you from point A to the finished product. With these kits, you’ll be able to make everything from whiskey to a library all by yourself.
Age Your Own Whiskey Kit by Woodinville Whiskey
It comes with two 750-millilter bottles of 110-proof White Dog un-aged whiskey, step-by-step instructions on how to age that whiskey, the 2-liter barrel you’ll be aging the whiskey inside, a pouring funnel and two tasting glasses. The small barrel size will accelerate the aging process to reach three to six months, and you can re-use the aging barrel more than five times. $149.99 at binnys.com
Kiss Naturals DIY Lip Balm Kit
You’ll get to mix beeswax, shea butter and safflower oil to make six scented lip balms that you can put in a jar or a twist tube (the kit includes three jars and three tubes). It comes with grapefruit and orange scents so you can flavor your balm as much as you want. It’s a great gift for children, though smaller children (10 years or younger) will probably need help from an adult to make their lip balm. It’s a super fun activity for adults and children. $19.95 at kissnaturals.com
Ricki’s Basic Cheese Making Kit
You can make 10 two-pound batches of cheese using just this kit and some milk (any type of milk works). There are instructions for making all types of cheese, including cottage cheese, gouda and feta. If you’re making hard cheese, you’ll also need to buy cheese wax — but other than that, you’re all set. This is an introduction to cheese making – you’ll learn that it’s a little tricky, but this is a good for beginners. $29.95 at cheesemaking.com
DIY Nut Milk Making Kit
While almond milk is a fantastic alternative to cow’s milk, many of the supermarket versions come with added ingredients. With this kit, you control everything so you don’t have to add anything. It includes the mesh bag for straining, the juice jar to refrigerate your milk and the clamps so milk stays fresh. Making the milk is actually pretty simple — you only need two ingredients: raw almonds and water. Once you soak 1 cup of almonds overnight at room temperature and then blend them with 5 cups of water until creamy, you pour the milk through the mesh, and it’s ready. You can also add vanilla bean or a dash of vanilla extract to make vanilla almond milk. $26.95 at williams-sonoma.com
Personal Library Kit by Knock Knock
Children and adults will be able to create their own library via this kit, which comes with personal library labels, return date stamps, library loan tags and more. The tags you create to put on the front of your books — perfect for the person who lends their books frequently — look like those from libraries before they went digital. It’s an adorable nostalgia kit, but it’s also useful for teaching children how libraries work. $16 at knocknockstuff.com
DIY Quilts by Haptic Lab
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This is for the person who wants to sew their own quilts but needs some help. It comes with a map of a city already on a quilt (they’ve got Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco and more), and you can stich something meaningful on top of the map — your neighborhood, the marathon you just completed, the route you walked on your first date or the outline of the entire city. Starts at $38 per kit at hapticlab.com.