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

alicatsta

Kids England shirts £3.49 with a player's name on the back. Available at Sports Direct in most cities in UK. Usual prce £34.99 so a bargain to be had.

sparker_2

How about personalising your gifts yourself for Christmas, especially if you have children. In todays' economic climate if you have your own digital camera use it, if not ask to borrow someone elses. You can either dress the kids up or just take pics anyway (12 different ones) and make a personalised calendar to give to family and friends. For a cheaper version just take one picture of the whole family and use the tear off calendars you used to have in school and send those to people. :T

Good Luck

miniloopie

Name of present? Home made Christmas decorations
Do you make it or buy it? Make
Total Cost? less than £5
Details (the more the better) Make your own Christmas decorations either with the kids or on your own using salt dough.
Plenty of recipes for salt dough around but essentially it's salt, flour, water and oil so all cheap ingredients.

Shape the dough into Christmassy shapes - you can use cutters or your own talents! Colour the dough with food colouring/glitter etc beforehand if you want. Bake the dough in the oven until set, let it cool and then decorate as you like. You could paint and varnish etc...

Put holes in the top before you bake and tie ribbon through the top to use as tree decorations. Other ideas include making letters using the salt dough - you could tie these together to spell out Christmas messages or people's names as presents.

Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer
Look online for salt dough recipes, there's one here: http://www.gigglemoose.com/salt_dough_recipe.htm
I bought some pastry cutters online too, still under a fiver: http://thecookskitchen.com/search?do_submit=1&minprice=0&maxprice=99999&words=cookie+cutters

alijxx

Name of present: Personalised Choc Bar
Do you make it or buy it? Make it
Total Cost: As cheap as the ingredients you buy, but under a £5.
Details:

Get a loaf tin and line with cling film. Ice a name or message on the bottom (backwards remember so its the right way round when you tip it out!). Then cover with sweets of your choice. My kids like mini smarties, M&M's, fill any gaps with hundreds and thousands, silver balls, whatever you have available. Then melt a couple of bars of choc and pour over. Let it set in the fridge then tip it out, remove the cling film and wrap in greaseproof paper. Add a bow or a ribbon and you're done. My kids love doing this and it can be a child or adult orientated as you like.

:T

hilljud

Name of present: Photo in a frame
Make or buy: I brought a frame from tesco economy range for 99p, printed a picture of my son (wearing a santa hat we already had) on photo paper. He wrote 'love Jordan x' on some fancy paper (recycled from an old birthday card) and glue'd glitter (we already had) all over the outside of the frame. We assembled the frame and wrapped in recycled tissue paper and made a tissue paper rose to decorate. We added a wooden raindeer and holly leaf (recycled from last years cards).
Total cost: less than £2
Details: We made this the year before last. My mom loves this picture. She got it out agian last year and will display it this year too. All the neighbours and relatives thought it was a lovely gift and thought it had been done professionally! We had good reactions from close firends and relatives when we did similar last year.

ih8stress

Name of present? 'Emergency' Photo Frame
Do you make it or buy it? Both
Total Cost? Anything from free to £5
Details: A personalised 'In An Emergency Break Glass' Framed Gift

Get a photo/picture frame (bought new, car boot etc. or already have a suitable one). I used a 8" x 10" one. Paint/decorate it as required.

* Wilko's currently have Decoupage Box Frames which are ideal and save messing about trying to 'deepen' the frame yourself. They have a 3" x 3" one for £1.50 and a 6" x 6" one for £3.*

Cut a piece of thin card (any colour you like) to fit inside the frame.
Mark out in pencil the part that will be visible through the glass. This will be your working area.
On the top part of the card insert the words 'In An Emergency'. This can be printed on, handwritten, stuck on using letters from a newspaper, or by using the rub-on transfer letters available from stationers (approx. £1 a pack). I used the latter.
Select your 'emergency' item based on who the present is for (a list of ideas below).
Centre this on the card and make a pencil mark of the position.
On the bottom section of the card insert the words 'Break Glass'
Stick the coloured card onto the picture frame backing (be careful not to overdo it if you use glue as this may show through the card). I stuck mine using double-sided tape on just the edges and centre - where the object is placed. (Alternatively use sellotape, folded in half, sticky side out).
Get your 'emergency' item and stick in place (using glue, double-sided tape, blu-tack etc.)
Rub out the pencil marks made earlier.
Assemble the photo frame.

TIP: It's best to roughly measure out where to place the words and item beforehand - leaving a border where you can. If printing, you may need to experiment with various fonts and sizes.
I made a rough copy on a plain sheet of paper first before doing the final version in card and placed it in the frame to see exactly how well it would look/fit.

If your emergency item is quite thick you will need to deepen the frame. This can be done by glueing a band of sturdy card or wood onto the INSIDE of the frame. Make sure the glass is in position first, then glue the SIDES (frame not glass) and press the card/wood in place - leave to dry. Complete the coloured backing as before. Glue the top edge of the card/wood then position the backing over it (face down) and stick this onto the raised bed. Holding the frame and back together,carefully turn your work over to check that the wording/item is level. If not, re-position the backing, whilst the glue is still wet.
When the glue has dried use masking tape to join/cover the top and sides of the backing board.
TIP: If you have to attach screw-in picture hooks (24p for 10 in Wilko's), remember to insert them in the frame and NOT the backing board or added depth.

IDEAS,

£2 Coin
Sachet of Shampoo
Sachet of Hot Chocolate/Coffee
Sachet of Seeds
Sachet of Sugar
A couple of Teabags
1st & 2nd Class Stamps
Alka Seltzer/Paracetamol
First Aid Plaster/Corn Plaster
A Comb
A selection of Screws/tap washer/fuses etc.
A Nail File
A Cigarette/Cigarette Patch/
A Pen
A Beermat
A Golf Tee
A Needle and Thread
A Safety Pin
Fish Hooks
A Recipe
A Dummy
A Bar of Chocolate
A Matchstick
A stick of Chewing Gum
A Spark Plug etc
A Gift Voucher

Obviously it's best to choose something that is fairly lightweight and thin if possible.
(I made one last Christmas with a £5 note). Think of things relating to the person - job, hobbies etc. It can be daft or useful - the choice is yours.


Edit: I entered this on the other list in September of this year (thinking it was a current competition) so have moved it to this competition

arieslynn55

Name of present: Wooden letters
Make it or buy it: Buy letter + cost of some paint + your time
Total cost: £2.80 + (postage included but is reduced for buying more than 1 letter)
Details: Ideal for all ages. Purchase the appropriate letters from guy on eBay. Just paint whatever colour/finish you like. Having seen the price of such things in the shops and online I think this is a brilliant alternative. Quick & easy to do.

Item no. 270289070758 on eBay
cnc wood shop

:xmassmile

ih8stress

Name of present? Personalised Mannequin Figure
Do you make it or buy it? Buy materials and make it.
Total Cost? £2 - £3 plus scrap materials etc.
Details: Wooden, poseable figure as a completed gift or kit to be made

Buy an artist's wooden mannequin figure. I got mine for £1.99 in Home Bargains, Wilkinsonplus have them for £3 or try Ebay.

Gather together an assortment of scrap materials (some suggestions at the end) and dress the figure accordingly.

For the face scan a photograph of the person, print it out onto a sheet of plain paper (you may have to experiment to get the size right), then cut out the face and stick it onto the mannequin. (Double-sided tape is probably best as some inks can 'bleed' through). Alternatively you could paint a face on.

TIP: If the type of paint won't adhere to the shiny surface either rub the surface down to provide a 'key' for the paint or as an alternative glue small pieces of toilet roll/kitchen roll paper in place and paint when dry.

You could also source pictures of celebrities from the net, magazines etc.

Hair can be added if required using various materials or by building up layers of toilet/kitchen roll paper and painting.

Dress the figure, getting ideas from photos, fashion magazines etc. as necessary.

You could also just paint the mannequin (as above) or cover it in wrapping paper prints as an abstract form.

If you are making it in kit form assemble an assortment of clothes and accessories and prepare the figure as required (eg. just add a face, hair, painted shoes).

Scrap material ideas:

Old (washed) clothes, tights, scarves, socks, hankies, nightwear etc.
Net curtains, cleaning cloths, bedding, tablecloths, cushion covers, towels, tea towels, rubber gloves
Handbags, jewellery, toys........
Wool, string, hair (rescued from hairbrushes), netting.
Dolls clothes, accessories
Cardboard cut to shape and painted eg. sunglasses

Look round the house to see what can be utilised (eg. belt made from an elasticated hairband)
Go round car boots, pound shops etc. (it's surprising what can be found if you inspect items for this purpose). Jewellery can be great for converting into all sorts of things eg. just using part of an earring for a belt buckle. Before throwing ANYTHING away check to see if any part of it is usable.

Happy crafting!

Edit: I entered this on the other list in September of this year (thinking it was a current competition) so have moved it to this competition

woolly_bison

Thispressie for under a fiver involves a bit of budget buying and a bit of making.

It's "Bespoke Booze"

You make and buy it.

Choose a bottle of wine for under a fiver, could be an Aldi purchase or say one for £3.99, alternatively it could be a nice bottle of beer or ale for £ 2.99. The choice is yours depending on the person you are buying it for.

Measure the labels on the bottle for size and then use your creative artisistic skills to make a label that fits the person. Nice if you can do a drawing of them or something that relates to what they like ( could even be a collage), do the same with the back label which usually has the written descriptive bit, this you can type out and print as long as it is the right size. You can write what you like about the person , teh more personal the better. Then when you know you have managed to fit it in to the right size, take it down to the printers and get them to do a colour copy... cut it out and stick it on. Remember to include the printing in your fiver budget though ( usually about a quid for an A4)

It doean't take long but they can be nice and personal!

Happy cutting and pasting
Woolly B

AMH999

Hi - I've just bought lots of these for grans, aunties etc...

Snapfish - Poster Calender (usual calendar's start at £14.99!) Simply load as many as 30 photos onto one poster calendar for £3.99. I've personalised each one so for gran it's pics of the grandchildren, for my friend it's pics of our holiday in 2008 etc etc.
If you feel really adventurous you can always get them laminated or buy cheap certificate frames in bulk just to make them look a bit more glam!