The Festive Fivers competition is back!

lou69

A mug of love
Total cost approx £2 per person
Bought and Homemade
Details .. I did this for my daughters five friends ...purchase 5 cheap but nice mugs from the pound shop or poundland or even the charity shops .Then purchase a tub of hot chocolate 99p from Home Bargains and a bag of small marshmallows 99p from home bargains.You then need to purchase some cellophane bags or cones from ebay . Divide the hot chocolate between 5 cellophane bags or cones and do the same with the marshmallows then fasten the bags with some festive ribbon and add a label with the persons name and place the bags or cones inside the cups...a lovely mug of hot chocolate made with love xx :heart2::heart2:

supermiffy

Name of present: TeaCup of Candle
Whether it's bought or homemade: Homemade from leftovers
Total cost: £1..20 = charity shop teacup 80p, 30p wick from an art and craft shop, left over candle wax from all the left over candles around the house.
Details (where it's from, how to make it etc): buy an old teacup at a charity shop and some candle wick at an art or craft shop. Tie the wick onto a pencil and suspend over the cup so that the wick touched the bottom of the cup. (A dab of wax on the end of the wick will help keep it in place.)Take an old jam jar and put the left over candle wax from one candle.Put this jar into a pot of boiling water, melt the wax and pou into the teacup. Repeat with the dregs of another candle, and another till the teacup is almost full.(one cm from the rim). Let cool and wrap in cellophane or rough tie a brown paper tag on the handle for a lovely xmas pressie. xx
A link to the offer if it's online (where possible): Not online.

MSE_Debs wrote: »

We're re-launching our Festive Fivers competition to find the best clever, weird, romantic, thoughtful or practical present idea to make or buy, for a kid or grown-up for less than £5.

There's £500 up for grabs for the winner plus 2x£100 prizes for runners up.

What's a 'festive fiver'?

A sub-£5 present that can be bought (inlcuding any delivery), made, or a combination of the two. We've had a fantastic response in the past, with some truly original entries, including the "perfect" (gingerbread) man, sand art brownies and an edible art set for kids.

See the full list of past winners and runners-up in the Festive Fivers guide for some inspiration and get your Christmassy thinking cap on!

What'll happen to all the suggestions?

A list of the best suggestions will be categorised and published on the site in mid-November.

Remember, there's no such thing as a bad suggestion and even if you don't think it's a winner, submit it anyway as a gesture of goodwill for all the MoneySavers out there looking to save some pennies.

Previous entries won't be accepted (and this includes previous ideas rewritten).

For obvious reasons, entries that have been in previous competitions will be winners, so have a quick read of the previous Festive Fivers article to see what's already there before submitting your idea.

What's the deadline?

*Mon 12 Nov 2012*

The winners will be announced on the site and in Martin's Money Tips within a week or two from then. You'll then be contacted via private message, so please make sure you check your forum inbox to see if you've won.

How to enter?

Simply hit 'reply' and enter the details of your suggestion. You can enter as many times as you like, either in one post or several (and of course it's free).


Please put your answer in the following format

• Name of present:
• Whether it's bought or homemade:
  
• Total cost:
• Details (where it's from, how to make it etc):
• A link to the offer if it's online (where possible):
  

For example

• Name of present: Feet of love
• Bought or homemade? Homemade
• Total Cost: around £2
• Details (the more, the better): Buy some clay from an art store and mould into a flat circle. Leave an imprint of your child's foot in the clay, carve in the name and then decorate with glossy paint. You could tie string through it to make a nice wall hanging. Alternatively, for a simpler (and messier) version, you could do the same with paint and paper and frame the footprints.

Good Luck!

The MSE Team

Auntyfeefi

Homemade Voucher
Cost - Card or print at home/ your time
Details: A gift of some free time to busy parents in the form of an offer to babysit. The voucher can be decorated in the style of a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket/ Winning Lottery Ticket or Nanny McPhee/ Mary Poppins/SuperNanny relief voucher or a really basic IOU - the parents will not mind!

Bevann

Name of present: Baby bathtime box
Whether it's bought or homemade: Both
Total cost: £3-£5
Details:
Instead of buying clothes or toys for a baby (when most of them have too many of both already), make a gift box with bathtime products. The baby will have fun in the bath and the parents wil be happy too as they won't need to buy bubble bath for a while!
Buy some baby bubble bath and other bath related products, such as shampoo and baby lotion. You should be able to get these for £1 or less each in supermarkets or pound shops. You can also get packs of bath toys in the pound shops if you want to add those. Cut off the front of a box and cover with wrapping paper. Arrange the items inside, using tissue paper/bubble wrap or other paper to pad out. Cover the box with clingfilm and you have the finished box.

NicNak247

Name of present: Personalised Framed Family Tree
For: Any family member
Whether it's bought or homemade: Bought and Made
Total cost:Up to £5
Details: Buy a photo frame of your choice in a size preferable A4 or larger.

From Ikea: A4 £2.50 http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60167742

From Ikea A3: £5.00
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90186051/#/80186061

Next, on paper the size of the frame, either print out a free online family tree template and write in the family details or make your own template.

It's a nice gift which can be passed down through generations and added to.

A few links to Family tree templates:

http://www.sugaranddots.com/2011/10/family-tree-print-printable-craft.html

http://www.familytreetemplates.net/category/formal

xfive71

Name of present: Let's make a Mess
Whether it's bought or homemade: Bit of both
Total cost: £3-5
Details (where it's from, how to make it etc):

Buy a cheap whisk and bowl from Poundland and a box of ready-made Meringues from Tesco. Pop the box of meringues and whisk in the bowl and tie the lot with some ribbon or festive wrapping with the following very easy recipe for Eton Mess :

" This is my promise to spend time with you to make this easy peasy Eton Mess. We just need some strawberries, a small pot of double cream and a tablespoon of sugar.

Cut strawberries into half. Scatter sugar over and mash the berries
Whip the double cream till really thick
Dump the berries into the cream.
Crumble the meringues into the cream + berry mix
Mix it round and pop in the fridge for 1/2 hour before eating

Leftovers (if any!) let's pop them in the freezer and have them as icecream. "

You may find you will be doing the whipping but the kids luurrvee mashing the berries and crumbling the meringues into the bowl.


A link to the offer if it's online (where possible):

vikki_louise

Name of present: happy year ahead!

Whether it's bought or homemade: homemade

Cost- under £5

Buy or reuse a cheap vase/pretty pot. Cut up some squares of paper-this could be normal paper or scrapbook paper if your a crafter*. Type up instructions telling the family/household to keep it close and every time they have a special or happy moment, write it down, fold it up and put it in the vase. It could be the time you all found a joke so funny you couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes, the day grandad fell asleep while eating dinner, your child getting star of the week or a fun day out. There's no unfolding the bits of paper until next Christmas (or the new year, when you read them all as a family and remember those special little moments that slip your mind.!

*crafters may also like to decorate a drinks mat, stick post it's and a pen holder on it and magnets on the back for it to go on the fridge as a crafty alternative to a stack of paper squares

vikki_louise

Name of present: shinning memory

Whether it's bought or homemade: homemade

Cost- under £5

Buy or reuse any plain vase or glass tumbler. Take a sheet of A4 vellum (lots of crafters have some in stock but v.cheap from eBay, craft shop, hobby craft etc) and print a favourite family photo onto it. You will need to set the printer to vellum mode so it uses as little ink as possible. When it's printed don't touch it for a while to let the ink fully dry. When dry paint the back with modgepodge or pva and stick to the glass, you can size the photo and cut it to what ever size glass your using. Wrap the picture around, smooth down and leave to dry. When fully dry give it as a gift with a little elelectric candle or led light in (v.cheap on eBay), the light will shine through the photo looking beautiful and it becomes a very personal and unique gift

vikki_louise

Name of present: personalised tree decoration!

Whether it's bought or homemade: bit of both. Ordered from Artscow

Cost- under £5

I design on the computer and buy personalised Christmas ornaments from the site artscow. If you sign up they always send offers and the prices varey, this week you get 2 ornaments for£3.09 delivered, a month ago I got one for 67p delivered.
You can use their very simple software or upload your own photos, ones ive done
-Photographer friend who is very hard to buy for, I used his own photo of snow capped mountains and added a little fine white glitter to the snow when it arrived
- someone who likes bling I did a black one and used their 'diamond font' which looks like sparkly diamonds and I added diamontes when it arrived
-'roll on January' for someone who says Christmas is too much effort(but has a tree)
-family/pet photo.
- babies first Christmas written on one side and his picture on the other (you can buy these elsewhere but are mega expensive
-photo of the character dwarf grumpy for someone known as Grumpy
-a photo of a cuddly toy dressed up


http://www.artscow.com/photo-gifts/ornaments

You can do the same with playing cards, drink coasters (one of each family member and make a set), iPhone covers, cosmetic bags, notebooks and more all for under £5 if you get the special offers

vikki_louise

Name of present- balloons in a box
Cost £2
Homemade

Get a big box, fill it with blown up cheap balloons, wrap it up in wrapping paper. Kids love huge gifts and will have great fun playing with all the balloons (and older relatives are bound to join in playing keep the balloon in the air!)