Win £200. Festive Fivers Competition 2008: The best Xmas pressies for under £5

pwf_2

Title of present:- Personalised song
Make or buy?:- A bit of both
Cost:- About £2

Before you all cry off ‘I can’t write a song’ let me tell you that I’m not Lennon or McCartney, but I did this for my girlfriend and got a huge amount of brownie points, it cost me almost nothing, and lasts a lifetime! I did it for her birthday, but it works at any time throughout the year, and is especially good for Christmas or Valentines Day. Here is what I did. First of all, choose a song which they particularly like or has a special meaning to you both, I chose ‘Me & Mrs Jones’ by Billy Paul as it’s one of her favourites. Next, down load the lyrics from the internet – just Google (name of the song) lyrics, and you’ll find loads of sites with them. Print it out so you have a copy, I found it best to make to tables in MS Word, put the original in the LH side, then start writing your own lyrics in the RH side.
Some Tips
1 I found it best to keep some of the original words/lines and change others. I.E., I changed the title from Me & Mrs Jones to Me & Mrs. A (her surname)
2. Make it personal to the receiver. I.E. in Me & Mrs J there is a line which goes ‘We’re going to meet and talk it over, talk it over’ As my girlfriend is a councillor, (and hence talks all the time…) I changed it to ‘going to meet and she’ll want to talk it over, talk it over’. (and yes, she did find it funny)
3. There is a useful website called www.rhymezone.com. Just type in the word you want to use and it will give you a list of words that rhyme with it!

When you have your song print it out and sing it through to yourself so that you know it sound right. (You can also frame the words so they have a copy of them on the bedside table.). The next job is to download a karaoke version of the original song (about 79p) and put it on a CD (another 80p ish). The karaoke version is best so that when you give it you can sing your new version without someone who can really sing getting in the way! As a final touch, make up a personalised in-sleeve for the CD case with your lyrics printed on the inside.
This all might sound a bit cheesy, but believe me it works! In fact, I’m thinking of making my own web site and offering it to others with even less musical talent than me! (And I’ll sell you a personal copy of Me & Mrs ? for only £5)
Best of luck,
Phil

sopwat

Name of present? Painting on Canvas
Make it or buy it? Buy the Canvas and get the kids to paint on it
Total Cost? under £5. Bargain Madness, Netto and Wilko usually have canvases from £1 - £5 depending on size, and sell paints cheap too.
Details? Let the kids get creative! Even very small children can create brilliant works of 'modern art' - different sized paintbrushes and bits of cloth and sponge are useful, but handprints and footprints are brilliant too. The grandparents will love it!

Name of present? Personalised Mugs
Make it or buy it? Buy the Mugs and Paints and Get Creative
Total Cost? Lots of shops sell paint your own mug kits forunder £5, and you get enough paints in a kit to paint several mugs - so you can buy some extra things to paint too (mugs, shot glasses, teapots etc!). Morrisons have paint your own mugs on sale for £2.50 at the moment, and also sell plain mugs for 49p each.
Details? Just get creative and paint some mugs / glasses / teapots.....paint the person's name, or a simple 'I love you', a portrait, a personal message 'for my aunty', etc......

sewob

Name of present: Paint your own tea set (ELC)
Make it or Buy it: Buy it
Total cost: £3
Details: Childrens ceramic tea set comes complete with paints and brush on sale in Debenhams in doncaster. Knocked down from £10

beckyblack_3

Name of present? 3 boxes of Marks and Spencer Chocolates for £5.00!

Do you make it or buy it? Bought from M&S stores nationwide

Total Cost? £5.00 (£1.66 each)

Details (the more the better) How can you go wrong with this wonderful present!? Either give one away to three different people or three to one special person in your life! Fantastic chocs too (inn fact, in some stores they are even giving away free samples before you buy!)

mam68

For that special someone in your life (with a wicked sense of humour)!

Name of present? Death Clock

Total cost? £4.99

Details? A countdown clock thats DEAD accurate. This CD-ROM asscess your lifestyle and calculates how long you have to go until you turn up your toes. It then places a countdown clock screensaver on your PC which counts down, second by second, each and every day.

Buy it or make it? Available to by at http://www.underfivepounds.com/store/house-and-home/death-clock

Best of all they have an offer if you spend £20 you get free delivery. So you could get 4 christmas gifts of a fiver each!

alijxx

searchingforlight wrote: »

Name of present: Magical Reindeer Food

Make or buy: Bit of both

Cost: 1p per cello bag (can recommend a good supplier!), handful of oats about 1p, sprinkle of glitter about 1p, strip of ribbon about 2p and a homemade label or note about 2p - total cost about 8p plus time (many of these items will already be around the house so total cost could be less!)

Details: Mix a handful or so of oats with some sparkly glitter (red/green is very Christmassy). Place in bag and either seal with tape or tie with ribbon. Make up a label on computer or handwritten/drawing to place on the bag or use the ribbon to tie it on.

At the moment Vistaprint are doing great offers on Return Labels for free and I've used that system to get some lovely printed Magical Reindeer Food labels with my own version of a rhyme that is often used for this sort of thing.

It is a lovely gift for children, who can sprinkle the 'food' outside their door to help Rudolph find his way to their house!

I made up this poem to put with my 'Christmas Dust' last year :-

Christmas Dust
When Santa's sleigh is full of toys,
ready for Christmas day
Use this special Christmas Dust
To help him find his way.

Sprinkle it outside your door
The glitter will give the light
The reindeer will smell the oats
And bring Santa on Christmas night.

Lillyann_2

Name of Present: Children's Crafty Box

Total Cost: Anything up to £5 according to what you put in it.

Details: Cover a shirt box (preferably) or shoe box with wrapping paper - lid and bottom separately.

Fill with any or all of the following materials, many of them recycled:-

Pieces or shapes of wrapping paper, coloured or shiny card, coloured envelopes pictures and patterns from greetings cards.

Beads from old or broken necklaces, ribbon, bows, sequins, fancy buttons.

Doilies from cafes, restaurants or wedding receptions.

The fancy bits from used Christmas Crackers, including the hats for pieces of tissue paper.

Buy different shaped pasta each time you need to replace it and take out a few for the box.

Collect wallpaper books, paint charts, fabric samples, etc. etc. to find more materials.

Don't throw out any fancy packaging without examining and dissecting it.
Keep a look out for things, but make sure they are all clean and neat looking.

Make different sections in the box to put the bits in, or use recycled boxes and pots or wrap in cellophane bags.

Just buy a few items such as scissors and glue to add to the box.

Lillyann_2

I forgot to mention you need to make it!

jotc13

I've got the children (aged 2 and 4) painting their own canvases this year for their relatives...

• Name of present? Hand painted canvas
• Do you make it or buy it? Make it
• Total Cost? I bought two sizes of canvas (depending on the recipient!) 10 x 10" for £2.79 and 10 x 8" for £2.49 from the Range - nice quality and about 2" deep so can be hung as they are, and we already had some acrylic paints (£6 from Tesco) - one box was more than enough for the 7 canvases we made. So for each one the cost was approx £3.60.
• Details (the more the better) We put a light-coloured colour wash on first, covering the whole canvas and the sides and let that dry. Then using the children's hands and feet we made several different designs e.g butterfly using a foot for the body and hands for the wings and a flower lusing lots of hands for the petals, the side of a hand for the stem and two feet for the leaves. They weren't given too much free-rein (so as not to make a big mess!) but they did decorate with finger prints etc. And they signed them. I've written on the back that they were 'Created with the hands and feet of x and x with a little help from Mummy' and the date. The result is a very unique picture that perfectly captures the size and shape of the nieces/nephews/grandchildren of the recipients (and everyone has room for a cute picture like this in their house surely?) and has allowed us to continue the tradition of the children making things for their relations (in an attempt to help them learn about giving as well as receiving!) without making yet more sweets!
• Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer No direct online link but there are lots of sites around with hand and footprint ideas for inspiration http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/handprint_craft.htm

Have fun!

Marymo

Name of Present: SHADOW BOX

Make it/Buy it : Both

Total cost : Under £5

Details: At the local jumble sale or charity shop buy a deep picture frame and a small wooden picture frame. (10p -£1) (You may even have these lying around at home)

Cover the inside "walls" of the large picture frame with wallpaper or any coloured paper lying around.

Cut the small frame in two at a suitable height and stick to back of large frame. Where the "fire" should be stick an image of a glowing fire stuck to a piece of card. ( Look in catalogues for pictures of fires)

Make a mantel piece from a cut lolly stick.

From materials around the house (bottle brush,green pipe cleaners,) create a small Christmas tree and trim with broken "jewellery".

Around the tree place tiny parcels made from pieces of foam wrapped in tissue paper and tied with gold/silver thread.

From an offcut of carpet, or face flannel, create a "rug" to place in front of fire.

Find a chair that is in proportion to the box and place in a corner.(This can be borrowed from the doll house, found in a charityshop or jumble sale). Make a little cushion in cheerful colour (red).

Cut out small images of Christmas cards from a catalogue and stick to mantelshelf.

Above the mantelshelf stick a picture/photograph/mirror.

The beauty of this box is that you just use your imagination and anything lying around the house. :O)
Christmas cracker contents from previous years often provide inspiration in the form of small cats/dogs.toys.

Every visitor raved so much about my little shadow box I made several the following year to give away as gifts!

Cost in a craft shop at least £25.

( When I created this for myself I added a Christmas novelty earring in the shape of a holly wreath that lit up and placed it above the fireplace.It looked great.)

Don' t forget to point out that the shadow box can be changed to display celebrations: birthdays,Hallowe'en eg.