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

russellxena_2

• Name of present? Keepsake Box
• Do you make it or buy it? Make
• Total Cost? £1
• Details (the more the better)

For your Partner
Get a old shoebox and cover it and the lid with nice wrapping paper then fill it with memories of things you have done together, photos, old cinema/theatre /holiday tickets (I am terrible for hoarding stuff!)

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

russellxena_2

• Name of present? Night in box!
• Do you make it or buy it? Buy/make
• Total Cost? £4-£5
• Details (the more the better)

Cover a shoe box with nice paper, then fill with either
Girls: 99p face mask, £3 cheap dvd or cd (tesco do a large range) book, or magazine & bar of chocolate
Mens: bottle of beer, cheap dvd,book cd, bag of peanuts/crisps

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

Juliav_2

Name: Cinema Outing For The Children
Price: £1 per child

Cineworld show childrens films on saturday mornings for £1 per child, adult goes free. You could create a voucher for your child saying you will take them and one friend to the cinema in the xmas holidays. You could easily do this for all your children or send out invitations to a few of your child's friends and have a cinema party where adults accompany their child and all watch it together. Could always follow it up with meal using tesco clubcard deals??

For £1, it keeps the kids busy during the holidays when they are already BORED with their new xmas toys!!

choccyface2006

Name of present? Canvas wallart
Do you make it or buy it? Both
Total Cost? Under £5.00
Details (the more the better) I bought my daughter a plain blank canvas, size 50x60cm for £1.99, some acrylic paints and brush £1.99 and a black marker 49p. These were bought at Home Bargains, a nationwide chain.

My daughter (16) then created her unique design which I think is excellent and is giving this as a Christmas present for her dad (I have bought her another canvas as I hope she will do one for me too!)





Amys artwork, and another present sorted!



Sarah x

kuromi

Name of present? Photo poem
Do you make it or buy it? Made it
Total Cost? About £1?
Details (the more the better)

Using a piece of good quality card (from a craft shop, or somewhere like The Paper Shop), I printed out a nice photo of me & my boyfriend and mounted it on one side of the card using sticky tabs.
I then chose a poem,changed it a bit to make it relevant (included our names etc...) typed it in a nice font and printed it out and stuck it on the other side.

Simple idea, easy to make, super-cheap, but thoughtful

jogrant69

Name of present? Shoebox of gifts

Make it or buy it? Make it

Total cost? Well under a fiver (however generous you feel)

Details:

I work in a school and we ask the children to sacrifice some small gifts and sweets to put into a shoe box to send to children less fortunate to themselves, I have two daughters in the school and we usually put in some jelly sweets, crayons and paper, a cuddly toy some jewellery etc we usually buy what we need for less than a fiver and this helps the children to help others who are less fortunate than themselves and I think it helps our own children to understand that when they are asking for really expensive presents then they should think of the children they have sent their shoeboxes to who open them and are very grateful for some basic items that our own children sometimes take for granted or would be very ungrateful to receive as a present. We also include a picture of the children who donate the boxes and the children love the idea that their boxes are open on Christmas Day and the children smiling and looking at their pictures - it makes them very happy.

:j :xmassmile :snow_laug :santa2:

redwellies37

Name of present: Cheap and easy lip balm
Make or Buy: Buy then make
Cost: Depends on quantity you want to make but under £5
Details: This is one of the quickest and cheapest ways of making your own lip balm to suit you.
Buy a pot of vaseline and leave it on a warm radiator so that it goes soft and malleable (until it is almost liquid form). You can then either make it taste nicer or have some colour by adding different ingredients.
To make it taste nicer: get some hot water and add hot chocolate powder. Add a few drops to the melted vaseline and mix together. Leave to cool and set. Other powdered drinks can be added e.g. orange or blackcurrant.
To make it look better: Leave a cheap lipstick on the radiator to melt down a bit then mix some of that with the vaseline. Leave to cool and set.
Tins for keeping the mixture in are easy to come buy in pound shops or empty make up containers e.g. empty eye shadow containers.

I posted this on the wrong section earlier today! Doh! First timer at this.

baxterc3

• Name of present? Photo Frame
• Do you make it or buy it? Made it
• Total Cost? £4.58
• Details (the more the better) Basically I found a pic of me and my boyfriend that I really liked. I got a piece of card and cut in half making sure there was a 2 inch margin around the photo. On one bit of card I then drew around the photo and cut the centre out of the card with a knife. I got bits and bobs lying around the house like old buttons, badges, a bit of bath sponge (dried out!), foreign coins and even bits of blue tack to create some texture and glued them all to the piece of card with the centre cut out. When it was dried I sprayed it with a metallic coloured spray (the only thing I actually bought other than the piece of card). When that was dry and placed the photo over the first piece of card and glued it in the centre and then glued the decorated peice on top creating a fab photo fame. Even though I used old household items when it was all sprayed it looked really good and it was personal as it was a picture of use both that I loved. Spray and card were bought from Hobbycraft.
• Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer

Brown.Owl_2

Screen Cleaner Phone Charm

Cost: about 75p each

Make it.
You need:
A chammie leather
Washing up sponges
shearing elastic & a large eyed needle
Scissors
PVA glue
blank phone charms

Buy a chammie leather (small one was £1.99 from wilkinsons)
Get some washing up sponges (24 from the £1 shop) - make sure you haven't used them.
Cut the scourer bit off the bottom then cut it into 4 pieces as euqal as possible.
A small chammie cut up into about 8 or 9 pieces with enough overlap to be neat.
Use PVA glue to secure the neatly wrapped chammie in place.
Use a piece of shearing elastic to secure one corner to an empty phone charm (using elastic will allow it to reach for different size phone screens)

(I bought 20 blank phone charms from ebay for £1.99 inc postage from here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=330275494747)

JodieUK

Name of present? 21st Century Mixed Tape
Do you make it or buy it? Both
Total Cost? £3.95 for 5 setimental songs
Details (the more the better) For a twist on the romantic "mixed tape" why not download (legally at around 79p per song) 5 songs that mean something to your other half, friend or loved one. buy download and make a new playlist on their ipod. I love music and think this beats getting a CD as you know the song choice has really been thought out. Not sure if you'd get away with stealing the ipod on christmas eve, sorting the downloads and wrapping it up but Im giving it a go this year! or you could even just leave it as it is unwrapped and title the playlist "happy christmas, all my love xxxx" and wait until they next listen to it, make a nice surprise.