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

vikki_louise

Name of present? Reading box
Do you make it or buy it? buy
Total Cost? under £5
Details (the more the better) Take a box and cut off the flats (at the top), next cover it in festive or metalic wrapping paper. Next go around charity shops and pick up lots of 10 and 20p books in good condition, with the aim of introducing new books to the bookworm your sending it too (I find as a book worm when someone gives me books sometimes i read and enjoy a book i would never of brought myself). Buy some cheep gummyworks (33p a pack in many places) and place in a small jar, add lable saying "Book Worms". Add a cheep bookmark, and a mug with hot chocolate saches. Place all in the box and if you have any lying around wrap in cellephane with some ribbon. Im doing this for my nan this year, which she will love.
Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer

vikki_louise

Name of present? A treat a day keeps the Dr's away
Do you make it or buy it? Buy
Total Cost? £4
Details (the more the better) Half cost are selling 21 day pill box for 50p. Take a 21 (or 28) pill box and fill each day with some sweets, be it fried eggs on a friday and gummy bears on a tuesday, put a different treat in each days "hole" (or course the lid is down so you can't see whats in tomorrows etc. Jan is meant to be one of the most depressing months of the year so this will be a little smile each day during jan for 21 (or 28) a day

Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer Half cost http://www.halfcost.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=11&productId=33005&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=11201&categoryId=11301&cache_entry=-1 although there are lots of places to get the holders offline

Woolies are doing large bags of Harbio for 99p and on buy 1 get 1 free at the moment

vikki_louise

Name of present? 5 minute chocolate mug cake
Do you make it or buy it? both
Total Cost? £2 although you might be able to do it for less!
Details (the more the better) I was given a recipes by a friend a while back for a microwavable cake and it turns out it can be made in a mug. So for the present give the person a nice (largest possible) mug. You could put things like a bag of chocolate chips, mixed nuts, raisins etc in the mug. Wrap nicely and attached the receipy and instructions

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1 000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

You could also layer up the ingredients in a jar (minus the liquid ones) but that will put time and cost up a bit




Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer

vikki_louise

Name of present? Suprise
Do you make it or buy it? make
Total Cost? £2 at the most
Details Not sure where I first heard about this. but after the kids are in bed on xmas eve, get a roll of wrapping paper and attach it to the door frame so the children are "wrapped into their room", they then have to do a big paper burst through to get to their presents!
Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer

vikki_louise

last one i promise!

Name of present? Warm fuzzy feeling
Do you make it or buy it? Buy
Total Cost? £5
Details (the more the better) take a tiny box (i used ones that used to hold a small square chocolate) or you could make them. Make a donation to a charity that you think the receipient would like. Then write on a little piece of paper that a donation has been made in their honour to X charity this christmas and that it is going to help *insert detail*, Tie with contrasting ribbon. I do this at christmas and display then in a little sleigh as the center piece for christmas lunch
Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer

vikki_louise

This wasn't my idea, I've just seen lots of people on this site doing it, and think its great!
Name of present? Put of gold
Do you make it or buy it? Make and buy
Total Cost? £5
Details (the more the better) Take a bowl or small basket, scrunch tissue paper up and place in it (to give it a more full look), add chocolate coins and a lottery ticket for the christmas draw, also add a scratch card if you wish. Do up in celephane with ribbon and add the poem

Heres a little pot of gold,
A festive nibble too,
I hope it makes all your dreams come true,
Merry Christmas from me to you.




A festive nibble too,
I hope it makes all your dreams come true,
Merry Christmas from me to you.

grahaml221

Phone your family or a old friend cost about 30p

vebeus

In this time of making/ customising your own items my suggestion for a gift is a book called "Make!" by Cath Kidston. It has 40 projects that are quite easy to achieve and looks a good quality book. The best thing though is that it includes a canvas tote bag for you to customise. It was originally £14.99 but can be picked up for £4.99 on The Book People website or in the current "School Link" brochure (which if you have delivered to school is free P&P). This is an affordable gift for Cath Kidston fans and would be also suitable for teenage girls as the projects are fairly straightforward.

smellymel74

I have several ideas. Not sure if any of them have been posted before so apologies if i'm repeating someone else's good idea
Here goes:

IDEA 1
Name of present: Framed photo

Make it or buy it?: Make it (can buy it too if you don't have access to a printer)

Total Cost: Around £3 to make it yourself (slightly more if you get it blown up in a shop)

Details: Pick a favourite photo of a loved one and blow it up then stick it in a cheap frame from The Range/Wilkos etc. - a perfect personalised gift for anyone. To make it extra special, use old photos.

I used an old black & white photo of my mum when she was a baby craddled in her mum's arms. It was only small and the negative was long gone but I scanned it with a digital scanner from university, then it's easy to print out as a 10"x12" on my home PC. (If you don't have access to a scanner, you could try snapping it with your digital camera then blowing it up at home, or take it to asda/tesco or the likes - they'll do it for you for a couple of quid). The frame cost £3 from the range and the paper was ordinary good-quality printer paper from university and it looked great.

IDEA 2
Name of present: Traditional cross stitch sampler

Make it or buy it?: Make it

Total Cost: Around £3 for material and thread

Details: Get some sampler material and coloured cotton thread from hobbycraft or the like (ebay also has loads of this stuff). Decide on a design - see below for links to some ideas - and get sewing!

I did this as a housewarming gift for my brother and his fiancee when they bought their first home together. What's great about it is you can personalise it in any way you want and make it as simple or complex as you feel confident enough to achieve - have a look on the internet for some ideas of designs if you're stuck. And it gives you a new hobby to while away the winter evenings!

Of course, it's cheaper - and more rewarding to make it yourself from scratch - but if you're new and don't feel you can do it without a pattern, you can buy patterns for around £5 in hobbycraft and the likes, which can be used again and again for different gifts for different people. Alternatively, i've included some links below that offer some free patterns to download.

Link: You can download free alphabet cross stitch charts here if you feel you need some help getting lettering right.


http://crossstitch.about.com/od/freealphabetsandborders/ig/Alphabet-Block-Sampler/

There are also various free patterns you can print out and follow. Here's a few:

http://www.cross-stitch-centre.co.uk/acatalog/free.html

http://crossstitch.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=crossstitch&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kaleidostitch.com%2Fcontent%2520pages%2Fproduct%2520page%2FFreebies%2FSweet.htm

http://www.aion-needlecrafts.co.uk/designs/complimentary.htm

IDEA 3

Name of present: Home made soap

Make it or buy it?: Make it

Total Cost: Around £5 for material

Details: Get some glycerine-based melt-and-pour soap compound (it's easier, quicker and safer than using lye). You can buy it from boyycraft or the internet. £5 should get you a decent sized chunk that'll be enough for several soaps.

Follow the instructions - basically melt it on the hob and add whatever you like: essential oils; food colourant; dried fruit/herbs/flowers. Stick in a mold (you don't have to buy expensive molds from the shops - a washed and dried yoghurt pot will do) and wait for it to harden.

Wrap in some tissue paper for a really professional finished look.

Link:
You can get some ideas for recipes here:

https://www.soapkitchenonline.co.uk/acatalog/Soap_making_recipes.html

This link gives you the basic instructions for a melt-and-pour soap:

http://www.soap-making.net/steps-to-make-soap.html


IDEA 4
Name of present: House plant

Make it or buy it?: Make it

Total Cost: Around £5 total for material (

Details: Get some spring bulbs - B&Q and other places have 50 daffs £5 so you could make a stack of presents for very little from this or a few weeks back Morrisons had 3 packs of 15 or so bulbs for £3.

Plant bulbs in clay pots (£1 for a decent-sized small pot in B&Q) in double their depth of compost (home made ideally to keep costs down).

To force plants on (ie: to ensure they're coming into flower at christmas when you want to give them), stick the pots in a freezer or other cold, dark place (shed?) for a month or so, until tips start to show through top of compost. Then bring them inside and they shoulod come into flower in another few weeks - perfect for brightening up someone's home.

Hope that's of some use!
:rotfl:

joannedickinson

Name of present - Personalised Calender

Do you make it or buy it - Make it

Total Cost - cost of paper/card, printer ink

Details - OK go to www.myfreecalendarmaker.com - upload photos for each month of the year, add a comment for that month and print.

Can even personalise with birthday dates/parties/special ocassions etc.

Fab personal cheap and long lasting gift for family and friends.

Maybe for gran you could upload pics of grandchildren and upload photo on their birthday month, for friends add old pics from parties/events, partners sexy images to see through to the following year.

All totally FREE and all calendars are saved.:xmastree: :xmastree: :xmastree: