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

Kargo

Name of present?
The Coaster Cup - All In One Tea Mug & Coaster
Do you make it or buy it?
Both
Total Cost?
Free if you have the items.. otherwise I would say around £3
Details (the more the better)
Mum's spend the entire day cleaning up the house, polishing the cabinets, tables.. and the one thing they hate is when you place your hot cup of tea down on the lovely polished coffee table and it leaves a dreadful surface mark and suddenly that clean glowing table is back to the state it was in before.. This is a solution that im sure mums across the country will love

Get yourself a nice round mug and either a circular or square tea coaster and use the magic of super glue to stick it right under the mug, making sure that it is tightly fixed. and there you have it, you now have an all in one tea mug and something to rest it on without ruining your house furniture! Make sure that the mug is hand washed only, dont sling it in the dishwasher with the coaster attached :P

It's a simple idea but very effective. a perfect christmas stocking filler

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

My own invention

SWIL

Name of present? IOU
Do you make it or buy it? Make it
Total Cost? £5.00
Details (the more the better) Get some card and pens. Make up 10 different things that you will do for your partner - naughty or just nice and then add tear off tabs at the bottom to be redeemed ie I will run you a hot bath with a glass of wine or I will do the dishes tonight. Then the person can redeem them throughout the year. Put them in with a bath bomb and wrap it all up. Romantic, long lasting and cheap!
Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer

imonlynapping

Name of present?
Personal Charm brooch and matching earrings.

Do you make it or buy it?
Make it

Total Cost?
Between £4.11 and £5, before postage, which is £1.34- POSSIBLY LESS.

Details (the more the better)
First you need to visit the website https://www.stef-francis.co.uk, and set up an account. I have bought from them several times, and its totally secure.

You need to add the following things to your cart, which I have linked:

• 3 loop brooch pin
• Earring hooks
• Header pins
• Jump rings
• Charm of your choice

Next, you need to have a little charity shop and find an old necklace or bracelet with beads that you like on it. Finding one of these for 90p or less shouldn't be a problem at all. You need a minimum of 3 beads. They must have small holes. You could even save money on this by using an old piece of jewellery you or a woman in your household doesn't wear anymore.

You will also need:

• A surface to work on. If its slippery, use a pot or bowl to put all the little bits in.
• A small, delicate pair of pliers, preferably round nosed, or if you don't have this which most people wont, a pair of scissors with a sharp, relatively pointed end (not the ones with a rounded end like children use).

And this is how you do it:

1. Take one of the little jumprings. These have a tiny split in. You need to open it: to do this, poke the tip of the scissors or pliers in the ring, and open them until there is a small gap (about 2-3mm should do it) in the ring. You can even use your nails if they're long enough, the metal isn't particularly strong.
2. Now, loop it through both the loop that will be on the top of the charm, and one of the loops on the brooch-pin (your choice which). Holding it steady, use your scissors/pliers/fingers to close the ring, so that the charm is attached to the pin.
3. Now you want to attach the beads. You can use as many as you like, but for this lets say we are only using 1 bead. First you need to take your beads off of the old necklace/bracelet. I trust I don't need to include instructions for this!
4. Now, the beads will have a hole in. Push one of the header pins through, so that the bead rests on the 'head'. This next bit is tricky to explain- you have to create a loop with the rest of the 'pin' sticking out of the bead. How big this loop will be will depend on the size of your pliers/scissors, so you'll need to cut it down accordingly- its ok to get it wrong a couple of times because you have plenty to practise on. You create the loop by clasping the top of the wire, and turning it in a circle. This might sound odd, but when you start you'll see exactly what I mean. The loop wont be completely closed yet, but thats good- hook it first onto one of the brooch loops, then close it, in the same way you closed the jump ring. Repeat this for the other brooch loop- the brooch is now finished.
5. For the earrings, thread the bead/beads onto the head pin and create a loop the same as before, but this time, hook the loop through the small ring on the bottom of the earring hook, and then close it. The earring may look better with one bead at the bottom of a head pin, so you dont have to cut it down to size, or, you can use more than one bead.

Other points to note:

• You may want to use more than one kind of bead if you have them, for some variety.
• This is a great present as the charm you pick can be really personal- they have an excellent range on the site. They are good quality as well.
• Its better for a woman or girl, but don't limit it to the fairer sex- there are charms to suit everyone on the site.
• You will now have plenty of jump rings, head pins and beads, so you can recreate the present more cheaply if you want to make this for more than one person.
• The nature of the materials you are using means if you muck anything up you can always start again.
• These things don't have to be bought from that online store- you can always hunt down a different site or go to hobbycraft, but I've found this site to be the cheapest.

Sofie xxx

brassgirl

Make It
Under £5 (more Than One Gift If Cheap Enough)
Buy cheap plain Mugs, Dip Infant/young childs Hand In Paint And Press Onto Mug For Personal And Memorable Gift.

chris_g

How about buying someone £5 worth of lottery scratchcards?They have a chance to win loads of lolly and the sentiment implied-that you wish them luck is quite sweet-don't you think?:j

monkmorency

Name of present? Homemade cranberry sauce in a personalised jar
Do you make it or buy it? Make it
Total Cost? Around £2
Details (the more the better) The first time I made my own cranberry sauce I was amazed by how easy it was, but also how delicious. Once you’ve tasted homemade you’ll never go back to bland, shop bought cranberry sauce again :xmassmile

200g sugar
255ml water
340g fresh cranberries

Mix the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil, add the cranberries, return to the boil then reduce the heat. Boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and leave to cool at room temperature, then refrigerate. Done!

Now to make it look as good as good as it tastes, you can go to town on the presentation. Save an empty attractive jam jar (Aldi seem to sell jam in pretty jars) and sterilise by washing in soapy water, rinsing and putting in the oven on 130C for 15-20 minutes.

Fill the jar with your cranberry sauce, then decorate it to your own personal taste! You could go crazy with glitter or stickers, or tie a sophisticated ribbon around it, or whatever else takes your fancy.

This is an especially nice gift to take to Christmas dinner at someone else’s house – guaranteed to be a hit!

Lisa_j_4

name of gift idea busy girls chill out night in make or buy - buy .Total cost up to £5 - buy a gift bag in a £1 shop- usually 2 for £1 working out 50p - then fill with chocolate bar 50p- £1/hair and face masks 45p each home bargains/small bottle wine/lager - up to £1.50/£1 giftt card from boots/smiths/asda/tsco so your friend can pick her won magazine/bottle of bubble bath £1 - in boots/superdrug/morisons etc.Pick and mix for your friend but all ingredients for a chill out night in.

monkmorency

Name of present? The Gruffalo Gift Edition
Do you make it or buy it? Buy it
Total Cost? £3.99
Details (the more the better) The Gruffalo is a modern classic book suitable for young children – check out the reviews on Amazon – it’s 5 stars all the way! I just bought copies of this edition for my little girl and my niece for Christmas and it is beautifully presented. It’s a hardback book with a bottle green fabric type covering, inside a thick, colourful cardboard presentation sleeve.

I’m going to write an inscription on the inside cover in the hope that they will look back on it with fond memories in year to come.

I recently rediscovered a nursery rhyme book with an inscription written inside from my Nan at Christmas 1981 and it was very emotional – a lovely personal keepsake.

Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer Available for £3.99 from The Book People (don’t forget your 5% Quidco cashback). I have to admit I’ve cheated a little on the £5 limit, since it’s £1.75 delivery on one item, but there are so many great book offers on this site (children’s and otherwise), maybe you could share an order with friends and split the postage (which is £3.50 on standard orders, or free for orders over £25)

shellybird

Name of present? Photo Montage..
Do you make it or buy it? Make it and Buy it
Total Cost? £3.99 for pictures
Details (the more the better) Boots do an excellent service where you can take in about 20 pictures and put them all together on 1 poster, you can use digital pictures or they have scanners in store so you can use any old pictures. Put together a collection of pictures..a kind of this is your life, or a collection of pictures of family and friends. I've made a few of these and they always go down well, even made a grown man cry.
You could add a frame, either bought or get crafty and make your own

monkmorency

Name of present? Covered, personalised diary – practical yet sentimental
Do you make it or buy it? Both
Total Cost? Depends – can definitely be done for under £5
Details (the more the better)

1. Firstly you need to get hold of a blank diary – I think an A5 day to a page one is best to give plenty of room for your add-ins as well as for actual diary entries – check your local cheap shops, or of course eBay. It doesn’t matter what it looks like because you are going to cover it – time to get creative!

2. Select an appropriate covering for your recipient, such as…children’s artwork, sentimental fabric of some description (maybe from a beloved old piece of clothing, etc), a poster, wallpaper (Laura Ashley do beautiful wallpapers and are usually very generous with their free samples), a fat quarter of fabric from ebay, or remnants from a fabric shop, etc

3. Use the covering material to make a work of art from your diary. Here are some instructions to give you some idea, but it really requires only scissors, ruler, glue and a bit of time.

4. Now you can personalise some dates in the diary to cheer up the recipient throughout the year. Here are some of my suggestions, but obviously you’ll have your own ideas:

• Schedule in date nights / TV free nights / picnics / museum visits / breakfast in bed / DVD boxset watching days, etc
• Find out when your OH’s team are playing and schedule in an afternoon of guilt free sport viewing/listening for him/her
• Cheer up a Monday morning car journey by burning a CD of his/her favourite tracks and sticking it in
• While away the odd dull Friday afternoon at work by gluing in crossword / sudoku puzzles periodically
• Stick in a keepsake napkin / business card, etc from where you first met on the appropriate anniversary date
• Stick in handwritten messages from / photo’s of the kids on Mothers / Fathers day
• Attach freebie cinema tickets / freebie tickets to watch live TV shows, etc, if you can get hold of anything like that
• Stick in an envelope with a message and confetti inside on your wedding anniversary

5. Don’t forget to note all the dates for which you have planned something in your own diary too, otherwise all brownie points will be immediately lost when he gets roped into a trip round the Ikea sales on his guilt free cup final afternoon :rotfl: