Sunday marks the start of the New Year, so what better way to welcome it in than with party favors? Instead of spending your money on ones from the store, home and garden experts give easy tips on how to make homemade creations your family will cherish for years to come.

Experts say easy, crafty ideas for the entire family can come from supplies found in your kitchen cabinets.

“With these fun crafts for New Year’s Eve, the kids will be looking forward to the party all week long, and you won’t have to worry about how to keep them occupied until it is time for the New Year,” Home and Garden writer Shannon Cutts said.

Selma Ceramic Art Program director Candi Duncan said things like noisemakers or hats can be a hit for children.

“You can make noisemakers out of toilet paper rolls, rocks and put decorative tape around them and masking tape at the ends to close them up,” Duncan said. “You can make silly hats by taking a plate, roll it into a hat and decorate the hat with markers, crayons, tissue paper and glue.”

As the countdown until the New Year begins, Cutts gives these additional money-saving craft ideas.

New Year’s Resolution Magnets. This is a fun way to introduce the annual concept of resolutions to your children. You’ll need white and blue construction paper, or a darker and lighter color of your choice, glue stick or glue or tape, scissors, a strip of magnetic or self-sticking magnetic backing, fine point black marker and crayons or drawing pens.

“To begin, take a sheet of paper of the lighter or white construction paper and fold it in half, then cut it in half along the folded line,” Cutts said. “Depending on how big you want your magnets, you can either fold it in half again or use the half as-is. Use a darker crayon or black marker to write ‘I resolve’ or ‘my New Year’s Resolution is’ at the top.”

Use the white or light paper and glue or tape it to a darker piece as the frame of your work, Cutts said.

New Year’s Eve shakers, Cutts said, can also be easy and lots of fun at-home projects for children.

Materials needed: cardboard bowls or paper plates (durable kind), a stapler, a bag of dried beans or peas, coloring pens or crayons, paint pens, felt strips, colored construction paper, glue or glue stick, decorative glitter or glitter glue stick, stickers, mini pom-poms, sequins, ribbons and any other festive artsy decorating materials.

“First decorate the outside of either the cardboard bowls or the paper plates,” Cutts said. “You can decorate on just one or all sides of two cardboard bowls or paper plates. Next, fill the interior of one of the bowls, or the surface of one of the plates, with a handful of the dried beans or peas.

“Now, take the other bowl or plate and staple or glue it shut,” Cutts said. “When you are through, each member of the family will have their own homemade noisemaker to use when the ball drops at midnight on New Year’s Eve.”