Challenge: Handmade 2010 xmas

MrsTinks

Careful of Lemonbalm... it's part of the mint family and like mint it SPREADS! Keep it in a pretty large container and you're onto a winner
You can buy it in any half decent gardencentre

Well figure it's time I own up and admit I should have joined this thread a long time ago... LOL
So far I have made bath bombs (one very successful batch and one not quite as successful ) - tip for ya... use a little mousturiser or butter (as in cocoa butter or whatever your preference is... not moocow butter!) to help it bind without needing to add water or alcohol also good for the skin!
Made soaps (cheated and bought 2 kits... well I wanted a practice, needed the moulds and went halves with a friend LOL)
Going to make Limoncello and Peppermint creams as well as fudge and chocolate brownies (obviously those would be last minute) and make hampers Oh and already have blackberry vodka liqueur and sloe gin... as others have found then the only thing really hampering me is the lack of small bottles! ARGH
For my daughter at christmas I want to make her an advent calendar... but pretty though the ones you can buy from hobbycraft are that you have to pad and sew etc then I have this thing in my head from when I was a wee nipper... I don't know who made it for me or what happened to it, but I'm almost sure it was a kind of hessian base with red and green and white felt decorations... could be wrong though LOL Might ask my mum if she still has it somewhere...
ANNNNNDDDDD I want a diecutting machine but just not sure I'd get enough use out of it to justify the expense! WAAAAHHHHHH (I need it to make pretty boxes for all my goodies LOL)

Cyril

Without creating a storm can I just ask whether all your home made efforts are appreciated and wanted. I am just asking because it seems to me that there is more effort made here to save as much money as possible which seems rather out of the spirit of christmas in terms of giving, rather than considering whether the gifts would be liked by the recipient. I know no-one I give to would like / want / appreciate something amateurishly made in the craft stakes. Grandchildren to Grandparent aside.

Just food for thought.

RedcarBlonde

cheap bottles can be found at ikea in the kitchen storage section they dont have a screw top they have the same tops on as kilner jars!!! no more then £2 i dont think

I got half litre size kilner jars for my home made chutneys for 69p each BARGAIN!!!!

youngoldlady

Hi! I'm very new to all this Last year we did lots of homemade biscuits, flapjack, cheese stars etc and tried to bargain buy the other bits. We overspent, but hey ho it was our first family xmas since my divorce. (I'm now happily engaged to a new partner ) I think we panicked and went out to buy things so people didn't feel we'd been stingy. This year we've been planning xmas since January!

This year we plan to homemake nearly everything. OH thinks I'm mad and it will be too much work :rotfl: We're doing hampers of homemade food for the extended family and small hampers for those further out. Thankfully everyone in this family adores food! Since March I've been doing homemade cards which will be a big help I used some value peppers and chillis to make a Jamie Oliver chilli chutney the other day. I'm very proud of it, especially the jar decoration

Also making;
Iced biscuits
Cheese Stars
Muffins
Cakes/xmas cake
Mincemeat
Xmas puddings

Will put in some wine (which is hugely cheaper at Netto!) and lots of other things I haven't thought of yet!

The best and quickest jam recipe I've found it the Rachel Allen Food For Living one.

wendall

Look out at Home and bargains about a month ago they were selling 275ml glass bottles containg some fruit drinks i bought them and kids drank the juice and they were only 25p each. Mine has none left now but others may.

nicola00

I'm looking for little favour boxes or small boxes for my daughters homemade chocs. alternative is just the plain cello bags or christmas ones but thought the boxes might look nice for the adults

She's going to do a few xmas shaped ones if i can find the moulds and also some peppermint creams with iced holly decorations on top

any reccomendations on the boxes and any more themed choc/sweets ideas

Christmas cookies are a must , going to wrap these in the bags with ribbon and tags. Seen some receipes on a thread somewhere just need to find it again.

Just touching on what Cyril said and yes I think you might create a storm. I personally would love someone to have gone to the effort of making something homemade for me, amaturish or not. its the fact they put their time and care into it, lovingly wrap and decorate it that make it special.

I never receive anything like this as noone else is this way minded however last year my friend gave me a bag of xmas cookies she had made. 9am xmas morning in the chaos of gifts and wrappings the family sat down with a cup of tea and we got tucked into the cookies, I txt my friend to thank her for the kids gifts and said we were enjoying the cookies she replied saying she was just doing the same, and hard to explain but it was just nice knowing she had made these for me and the family to enjoy.

I also know that not everyone I give these homemade gifts to appreciate the time and effort put into them and may think cheapskates for not buying them a gift. I do tend to give the homemade items as little extras and cut down on £'s of the main gift I get them. The homemade gifts I make with my daughter so these are uually her gifts to give.

Homemade also doesnt mean cheap, so its not all about saving money. The gift of giving is still there regardless of the cost and more time and effort are certainly put into these than just shopping on line or going into a store

nicola00

oh youngoldlady, forgot about cheese stars, thanks

Do you have photos of your jars?

youngoldlady

Cyril - Point taken. It depends how you do it. It doesn't have to be Waitrose quality, but if you make it prettily decorated and geared towards what the recipient would like it goes down really well. Like when I make cards I stick with a basic design because I'm rubbish at intricate ones. I think everyone would rather have something simple done well than something showy done badly. Some examples for you;

• My soon to be brother-in-law, who is 16, said to me the other day "For Christmas I'd like a BIG jar of your homemade chocolate truffles. Then I'll be happy!" He meant on its own! He's actually getting lots more chocolate related food.
• For a secret santa gift at OH's work last year we sent a few bottles of real ale, some homemade xmas biscuits decorated by our daughter and some cheese stars. They lasted 5 minutes from the minute they were opened as he ate them immediately!
• For birthdays, Fathers Day, Mothers Day etc we fill up big jars of sweets and homemade biscuits, truffles, flapjack etc. It goes down a storm and everyone sends us back their jars to refil for the next birthday/xmas. Sometimes I send them as gifts just for the hell of it or because someone is havng a bad month at work.
• My step dad is a curry fiend. So for every Fathers Day and birthday he asks me to make him as many tubs as I can of homemade spicy vegetable curry!! That's all he wants for his gift. He even saves me containers so he can come throughout the year for refills. (Saying that it's actually very hard work.)

youngoldlady

Nicola00 - Not yet, but I can do some later in the day for you I have to be out soon.

Typical that I've just thought of lots more examples of well received frugal gifts but I've already posted the reply to Cyril!

youngoldlady

Favour boxes - I'm not sure what size your after, but this is my plan. Earlier in the year OH and I bought each other expensiv cards in posh boxes for valentine's day. We saved the boxes, which are A4 sized ish and a centimetre or two thick. I've bought some petit fours cases for about 50p from morisons. I'm going to make some cholocate truffles, put them in the cases, then into the boxes to make our own boxed chocolates - much better than spending £10 on one in Thorntons!! You could make a net out of strong card to make a favour box. - I'll be making about a hundred of those next year in preparation for our wedding!