The Festive Fivers competition is back!

Name of present: ANTI-STRESS KIT
Whether it's bought or homemade: homemade (most items you will have around the house)
Total cost: £1 approx.
Details: Get a small clear plastic bag like the ones you get a birthday card in. Put in the following items - a rubber, a penny, a marble, an elastic band, a piece of string and some chocolate sweets. Seal the bag and write or print the following and either attach to front of bag or put it inside.

ANTI-STRESS KIT

A RUBBER to make all those little mistakes go away
A PENNY so you will never be completely broke
A MARBLE for those days when you’re sure you’ve lost all yours
An ELASTIC to help you stretch beyond your current limits
A STRING to hold it all together when it seems to be falling apart
And CHOCOLATE TREATS to remind you that someone cares about you.

Name of present - Homemade vouchers
Cost - pennies
Simply cut up some paper and make into vouchers for your services. E.G. dusting, vacuuming, window cleaning, car washing etc. Try to offer vouchers for the specific chores that the recipients detest doing the most to make them really appreciate your gift. Wrap them up really nicely so they have a gift to open.

I first did these a few years ago and keep on getting requests to do them for friends, family and when new additions arrive in a family.

Name of present: Personalised Christmas baubles.

Whether it's bought or homemade: Mixture of both.

Total cost: The initial outlay is around £10 but then once you have the items you only have the cost of the bauble to consider. I would say that it works out at around £3 per bauble if making over 6 of them (the more you make the cheaper it becomes and the price also depends on the type of bauble you choose).

Details (where it's from, how to make it etc):
Time it takes: About 10 - 15 minutes per bauble at the begnning but the more you do them the quicker you get! If you do a few at a time it also takes a lot less time, plus it's quite fun to do.
What you need:
Firstly buy some plain baubles, I like cream or gold coloured ones (around £2 each, normally on some type of offer eg 3 for 2 or in big packs. The glass ones are more expensive than the plastic ones although I find the glass ones slightly easier to work with and the end result better. Preferably a matte surface rather than completely smooth). Try B&Q, Homebase, BHS etc. until you find one you like.
Secondly go to a craft shop and buy a little pot of red paint (I use ceramic paint as that's what my local store had and it was cheap, but I'd have thought glass paint would be just as good. It needs to be fairly thick.) around £2 but this will do lots and lots of baubles. I'm still using the same pot after 3 years! You will also need some small flaked silver glitter (less than £1 but, again, will do many baubles, doesn't have to be silver but I think it goes best with the red paint), a thin fairly decent paintbrush (£4-ish), some optional pretty ribbon (£1 for a few metres) and some grease-proof paper (most people will have this in a kitchen cupboard!). Oh, and a pencil!
What to do:
What I do is go onto the computer and print out a stencil of the name I want to place onto the bauble in a pretty italic font and suitable size (this means it will be evenly sized, smart and professional looking). I use a dark pencil to trace the outline of the name and then turn the grease proof paper onto the other side and trace again filling in the complete font (so it is not just the outline but whole letters, and it will also look like it's written backwards). Now place this trace onto the bauble and rub the pencil over the top and the pencil lead should leave a mark with the pretty italic name directly onto the bauble (this is why you need a matte, not smooth, bauble).
Get your paintbrush, dip into the paint and fill in the name left by the pencil mark on the bauble, make sure not to paint it too lightly/thinly as I think it looks better with fairly thick paint as it gives more depth and is better for the glitter to stick onto. When you are finished painting the name on then you get the glitter and sprinkle it over the paint whilst it's still wet. Leave it to dry by hanging it up somewhere (i use a clothespeg on a clothes line and dangle it by the attached thread). When dry I like to use some pretty ribbon (maybe red tartan) to smarten it up a bit for hanging it on the tree instead of the thin nylon hanging thread baubles normally come with.
A tip: if you make a mistake with the paint, if you get a cotton bud and dip it in nail varnish remover then you should be able to fix any small mistakes.

A link to the offer if it's online (where possible): It's homemade so not available online.

With the stencilling I find that they look really professional and it means that if you have a family to do baubles for then they all look similar. We hang ours on our Christmas tree but friends hang them from the bed headboard, above the mantelpiece, they end up in all sorts of places.
I will try and dig out the Christmas decoration box and show you some of my first attempts - as with most things they tend to get better the more you do them - but my first two were for my parents and they adorn the tree every year.

Enjoy! I find making them fun, relaxing and very satisfying. I'm not normally very arty but even I can do these, no artistic skils necessary!