The Festive Fivers competition is back!

gayleygoo

Eco Tea Set

Homemade and bought

Cost £3-£5

Consists of - Teacup with loose tea leaves and HM reusable teabags.

Find a nice teacup or mug (charity or second hand shop, or other cheap shop, aim for no more than £1-£2 cost). Vintage is nice, especially if it comes with a saucer, but whatever your recipient might like is fine.

For this you will make your own reusable tea-bags. Make a little drawstring bag, about 2 inches square from small scraps of muslin, use cotton string or yarn for the drawstring and add a nice largish bead (to weight the teabag string outside the cup). I hand sew them because the machine wasn’t happy with sewing such small pieces of lightweight fabric! I usually sew two or three per gift. Buy a bag loose leaf tea - search online and it can be found for £2.80per 50g, or you might find some nice teas cheaper in an Asian supermarket. Bundle up the tea-cup, tea and teabag nicely, maybe with a teaspoon if it’s in your budget.

This is the tutorial I used.

~ If you have scrap wool yarn it wouldn’t take much to knit or crochet a cup/mug cosy or coaster to go with it, for pennies.

~ If you can get a teapot cheaply (my local Homebargains did some plain teapots on sale for £2 a few weeks ago and I stocked up! I think Poundland sells teapots too) you can give that instead of the cup/mug.

~ If you have money left over from the fiver (buy buying cheaper teas or in bulk, or spending very little on the cup/mug) you could add a new teaspoon or a little milk jug. Add a little ribbon to the handle!

Note: Muslin costs - it is cheap to buy, my local fabric shop sells it for 99p per metre and you could buy half a metre and make dozens. Online will cost you more because of postage charges and minimum length orders. You only need 10cmx8cm-ish for one teabag so use up scraps or repurposed an unused baby muslin square. I had some glass beads (10-20mm size beads) in the house but you can buy them for around 10p or repurpose some jewellery!

I’ve made them for some friends and they’ve loved them! They’re easy to just rinse out and dry after use, you may want to add a note so the person knows they’re reusable! A nice, eco-friendly change to the expensive, commercial tea sets in the shops this time of year.

Edited to add: Tesco sells earl Grey leaf tea @ £1.96 for 125g. Cheaper than many online shops for loose tea and you don't need to add delivery charges.

LindseyandMatthew

Name of present: crackle cd giftcard
Whether it's bought or homemade: homemade
Total cost: £2
Details (where it's from, how to make it etc): take an old cd, place it on a microwaveable plate and microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute, keep and eye on it though as you just want the cd to start to "crackle". Attatch to the front of a prefolded card bland and attatch a photo of meaning to the front. Inside include "vouchers" for meals out, a massage, meal in etc to be redeemed throughout the year

ejtjack

I make invidual cakes using a small cake tin. For the base of the cake I use cardboard which I cover in foil, I then place the invidual cakes and place icing over the top, using the waste icing I cut indivdual stars for the top of the cake which I then dust with edible gold glitter-this is great for adding sparkle! Add a suitable ribbon-e.g this could be tartan or themed for male/ female and place inside a £1.50 box from the card shop, write a tag with the recipe and add a personalised message.
This is great as every year I can make a different cake-each cake will have two servings but I custom them to the people's taste-e.g rum or whiskey for those who like a tipple, or choosing a chocolate cake for girlies. The stranger recipes such as chocolate and beetroot get great reactions and people love the thought I put in just to the recipe and ribbon.

xfive71

I've been so inspired with this thread and have hoarded all the great ideas. Thank you everyone! One more gift idea which might work well if you are thinking of gifting teachers, female work buddies and teen girls.

I've bought sugar scrubs before and love how it makes my skin feel so smooth. A jar would cost somewhere between £5 - 18 depending on the brand.

Name of present: Lemon Hands Scrub
Bought + homemade
Total cost: less than £5 per jar if you do a few jars
Details:

2.5 cups of granulated white sugar
1 cup sunflower oil
Grated Lemon zest & 4 tablespoon of Lemon juice

Mix them all up. Spoon into a glass jar with a tight lid. Decorate and add label. The sugar may settle which is fine - just stir before scooping out a teaspoon of scrub. Scrub over hands. The sugar acts as an exfoliant while the lemon bit will cut through the oil. Rinse and pat your hands dry.


Name of present: Minty foot scrub
Bought + homemade
Total cost: less than £5 per jar if you do a few jars
Details:

2 cups of granulated white sugar
1 cup sunflower oil
Peppermint essential oil or Tea tree oil

As above, mix the sugar and sunflower oil. Drip around 10 drops of essential oil into the mix and stir. Pop into a clean jar, seal and decorate with ribbons and mini candy cane. Add following instructions on a label :

Soak feet in warm water. Pat feet dry. Scoop a tablespoon of scrub and rub all over feet. Don't forget in between the toes. Rinse off scrub and pat dry. Put feet in socks and marvel at how smooth feet are the next morning!


You can gift one jar each in wrapped in some cellophane wrapping or if just the foot scrub, chuck in a foot file and a pair of jolly socks.

Lillyann_2

Homemade or Bought: Both

Cost: About £2.50 for knitting needles, though you might get them cheaper in a charity shop.

Details:

This is a suitable gift for adults or older children.

You first need to create a giant ball of wool. You do this by beg, borrowing, (and I won't say stealing), any pieces of leftover bits and balls of wool. It doesn't matter how small they are, as long as you are able to tie a knot in them. You can unravel jumpers, scarves, unfinished projects, etc.

Tie together pieces of wool of different lengths and colours - the more mixed up the better. Leave the ends hanging from the knots. Gradually make a giant ball of wool.

Give the ball of wool, a pair of size 3/6.5mm kneedles and the following instructions:

Knit a Mystery Scarf

Cast on 40 stitches.
Knit with plain stitch until you run out of wool or your scarf is long enough.

It is impossible to predict what the scarf is going to look like, but it is guaranteed to look amazing. There is also no sewing in of the ends, because they are a feature of the scarf.

If the receiver can't already knit, this is the easiest of projects to begin with.

I wish I could show you the one I've made - I've a feeling I will be taking orders!

Blulu

• Name of present:The most annoying present you can possibly give
  
• Whether it's bought or homemade: bought
• Total cost: £2.45 - possibly less (Source, eBay)
  
• Details (where it's from, how to make it etc):

This is something I did for my best friend a few Christmases ago. Buy a cheap alarm clock that plays a tune. Try eBay, car boot sale, pound shop, etc. I bought one that plays the theme to Match of the Day.

Set it to go off at a time that will be effective, but not too cruel. I think I set if for 7.30. (Note, when setting it, remember that it will go off twice a day).

Wrap it while set to go off.

Give it to your friend a few days before Christmas - don't make it too far ahead, or they will probably murder you before Christmas.

Now then, this is the most important bit. When you give it to them, you must get them to promise faithfully, "That the present will not be opened until Christmas day." It's important that you word it this way. If they just promise they won't open it, it won't work, because they'll get someone else to do it. They must promise that the pressie won't be opened until Christmas day.

Then sit back and wait for the daily/twice daily texts of anger to come in as your lovely gift destroys all peace in your mate's household. I put my phone on 'silent' before I went to bed, because I didn't want to be woken up that time of the morning by them texting me.

The best bit was when my friend's teenage daughter came home late and drunk from a Christmas Eve party, crashed out on the couch, probably close to 3 in the morning, and then was woken up by my pressie playing MOTD's theme, a few hours later, right by her ear. To this day, I only have to hum a few notes of the tune to get the whole family twitching

MimiBelle

• Name of present: Chocolate Snowman
  
• Whether it's bought or homemade: Part homemade
  
• Total cost: £3
  
• Details how to make:-

I purchased a £2 bar of dairy milk chocolate and a felt santa sack from poundland. Total cost £3.00. You also need plain white paper (I used a sheet from my computer) and some old small buttons.


Firstly cover the bar of chocolate in plain white paper. I found sticking down best with a glue stick so you didn't see any cellotape.


To make his little bobble hat, from the santa sack, you need to cut a rectangle (depending on the size of the chocolate bar) which goes right round the bar of chocolate plus a bit extra for sticking down. Slide the tube over one end of the bar (I had a little turn up like a bobble hat does) and then using some of the cord from the santa sack tie around the middle and cut off any excess felt from the top, leaving a couple of cms above the tie.

Cut another thin length of felt to make a scarf to tie around the middle of the chocolate bar and fringe cut the end of the scarf. When the hat and scarf are in place, draw on some black eyes and a orange carrot nose and some little pink cheeks. Glue the buttons in place down the front of the snowman. We used these as teacher presents - which the children decorated themselves. You could also make these smaller with cheaper bars of chocolate or use glitter wrapping paper for a more expensive looking gift.

Joandmike81

Name of present: Personalised Calendar
Whether it's bought or homemade: Bought, but also kind of homemade
Total cost: £5
Details how to make:-

Get voucher code from moneysavingexpert.com for 50% off calendars at bonus print, make a special, personalised calendar for £5 delivered. Will make an extra special gift that will be kept and cherished.

xfive71

Name of present: Movie night in
Bought
Total cost: £5
Details

Get a cheap DVD from play.com. You can search for DVDs under a fiver and filter them according to price. There are some great titles like

French & Saunders for £1.89
The Bourne Ultimatum for £1.99
Sex & The City 2 for £2.67

Buy a big bag of Tesco own brand Tortilla chips (£0.89), a pack of sweeties and a bag of microwave popcorn (3 for £1.99). Wrap it all up in a ribbon and attach a promise label to spend a movie night with the receipient.

skintchick

Most of my ideas are on here already (salt dough deccies, candles in cups, anything sewn or knitted) except this one:

Love the birds feeder heart
Homemade
Cost: pennies but a bag of bird seed is £3 from Tesco and will do loads
You need: bird seed, lard or suet, dried fruit and nuts (although those are optional)
Also a heart shaped cutter

Mix melted lard or suet with seeds and fruit and nuts, making sure it is not too lardy, then press into a heart shaped cutter, adding a loop of ribbon or string OR pressing a hole through with a skewer, whichever is easiest for you.

Lay on a piece of baking paper and leave to set, in fridge.

Take out of cutter and add string for hanging.

Voila, an expensive looking bird feeder. These would be lovely gifts for anyone with a garden and if they have kids then the LOs will love watching the birds feed.

Also great fun to make with your LO.