The Festive Fivers competition is back!

Lillyann_2

Whether homemade or bought: Homemade

Total Cost: £5 per person involved

Details:

Ideal for children.

You will need a really old battered tin, if you can get one. Fill it with £5 worth of 10p pieces for everyone involved in the treasure hunt. Bury it in a suitable place in the garden, if you have a garden, otherwise another suitable location needs to be found.

Prepare clues, according to the age and ability of the treasure hunters, to lead to the treasure. If it's buried, leave a spade easily accessible. So exciting when the spade hits the tin!

lb364

Homemade

£2.29 (plus cost of printing)

People of all ages put great value on song lyrics so buy a papier mache box from hobbycraft and a bottle of pva glue from the pound shop. Mix a blob of glue with an equal amount water and paint the box to seal it.
Use a lyrics website to get the lyrics of their favourite song or several songs, if you don't know what it is then pick lyrics that mean something to you.
Copy and paste the lyrics into word and pick a font or several if you're feeling creative then print them out. Cut them up into lines or verses, depending on the size of your box. Then using more pva and water stick them all over the box, adding another layer of the glue mixture over the top to varnish it.

If you can't get a box, it would be just as effective to print a verse, mount it on card and place in a cheap/recycled frame.

http://direct.hobbycraft.co.uk/ProductDetail.asp?ProductCatalogue=16237

LittleMrsThrifty

Name of present: Wordle
Whether it's bought or homemade: Both
Total cost: £1-£5
Details:
The free website www.wordle.net allows you to create a personalised 'word cloud'. It's a great, personalised gift for those with little time and little creativity (like me!). In the text box enter words or phrases that you associate with a person. It could be their characteristics, places they have visited on holiday, things they have done during 2012, their 'favourites' of any category(!) or even just little catchphrases you have between the two of you. Add as many words as you can. Repeat words which hold more significance as the more times a word is repeated the bigger it will be in the cloud. Once you're done press "go" and your word cloud will appear. You can try out different formats until you're happy. Then save to your computer and print.
You'll then need either a frame (Asda, under £5) or a piece of card to back it onto.
You can also adapt this idea for other occasions such as weddings (words relating to them as a couple such as where they met, holidays etc) or a new baby (baby name big then names of other relatives in proportionate sizes).
A link to the offer if it's online: www.wordle.net
Take a look at this one I created for MSE...

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5969227/Money

cazza96

Sock Monkeys - These can be made into monkeys, dolls or 'ideal men' (for the girls).
The monkeys are an ideal xmas present for young children as can be made into various themes, styles and colours.
£3 to make.
Using a clean pair of socks create legs and arms and stuff using wadding, sew on mouth and tail.

Bevann

Name of present: Playdough
Whether it's bought or homemade: Both
Total cost: Up to £2
Details (where it's from, how to make it etc):
Ingredients for playdough
2 cups of plain flour
2 cups of boiling water
4 teaspoons of cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of oil
1 cup of salt
Few drops of food colouring

Mix flour, cream of tartar, oil and salt up in a large bowl, then add the boiling water and food colouring. You can use two bowls and do half and half if you want to do two colours. Mix together, then knead well (take care as will be hot!). If you have a small pot with lid, use that to store (any old bought playdough pot are good) or otherwize, wrap tightly in clingfilm. It will keep well for a few weeks if stored well.

Buy a cutter or playdough set. Wilkinsons have one for about £1 or the pound shops may do some. Even better look out for them at bootfairs or children's sales, as you can often pick up a bag of cutters etc very cheaply.

Put everything into a suitable sized used cardboard box, covered with wrapping paper, or plain paper and decorated. It is a nice touch to put the child's name on the front.

lb364

French Manicure
Bought
£3.30
Buy someone a french manicure set like the Sally Hansen ones and create a voucher for a 'manicure at <insert your name here> salon'. Get a set that comes with the little stick on guides and it's pretty easy to do. I did this for my nan one year and she loved getting a manicure without the hassle of leaving the house
Link: http://www.cheapsmells.com/viewProduct.php?id=325093

Edit: Or if this isn't their style, buy a coloured nail varnish, top coat and nail file instead.

petalsanders

Here is my idea for a xmas present for under a fiver

Name of present: Hometown
Whether it's bought or homemade: Bought
Total cost: up to £5
Details (where it's from, how to make it etc): Buy a postcard from ebay of the recipeint's home town. buy a clipframe or customise a second hand frame. Type in ebay search "postcard and the town name" you can get some really old and quirky postcards at a reasonable cost

suzeesu2000

Name of present: decorative bottle
Whether it's bought or homemade: homemade
Total cost: few pennies depending on what you have in the house
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]you will need:[/FONT]
- Clean and empty glass bottle
- double sided tape
- jute in a light natural colour
- scissors
- paper napkin with motif
- PVA glue or similar
- soft flat paint brush for applying glue

[FONT=&quot]How to: [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1. Cut long stripes of tape, stick these down sides of the bottle. Put extra tape along the bottom of the bottle as [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] well & along the neck & the where the neck gets wider to guarantee a good hold.
2. Start wrapping the jute along the bottle & keep wrapping it tightly around the bottle until you reach the bottom.
3. When you’ve reached the bottom, cut the jute and press it firmly against the bottle. Use a drop of strong glue to [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] secure the end to the row above it.
4. To apply the paper napkin motif, separate the layers then first tear the motif out. A torn edge leaves a more natural [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] look once the napkin is stuck to the bottle.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5. B[/FONT]rush a light amount of glue onto jute & press the motif onto it, flatten into place. Lightly apply more glue to the
napkin, gently brushing it in place as you go, at the same time pressing the motif slightly into the grooves of the jute
until the entire motif is covered & adhered to the bottle. Be very careful doing this because the wetter the napkin
becomes, the easier it will tear.
6. Let the napkin dry for a couple of hours and the project is finished.

because the bottle is glass, you can safely use water to make this a bid vase for real flowers.
Alternatively you could do this with three bottles of various heights for a stunning display.
Takes approx two hours to complete.

vikki_louise

Dustpan cookies
Cost £3 or less
Homemade very simply

This year I am doing 'dustpan cookies' for my grandparents, I'm known for running out of time and also dropping things!

Buy a cheap dustpan (you don't need the brush), I got mine from matalan. Wash well or put through dishwasher.

Buy a pack of cookies or biscuits, I'm getting a packet of my grandparents favourite ones.

Break some biscuits up, leave others whole and put them on the dustpan. Wrap in cellophane and tie with ribbon at the top and attach a label (printed or handwritten) with this poem


While baking you some cookies,
there was knocking at the door.
As I jumped up to answer it,
the pan fell to the floor.

I stood among the cookie crumbs
and wondered what to do.
The day was late, the time was short,
I had no gift for you.
I bent and swept the cookies up
into a small dustpan.
A friend like you, I told myself,
would surely understand.
The gifts that matter most in life
are those the heart does send.
With that in mind, I give to you
these cookies from a friend.

vikki_louise

Charming
Under £1
Buy on eBay then make into something
You can buy different charms on eBay, they have just about anything and everything made into little charms these days. The ones I buy often work out just 1p each, I even got some for 0.5p!

Choose a charm for the person and thread it onto ribbon and tell them it's for holding. I came up with the idea after some parents whose child has cancer said they kept having to hold onto believe no matter how hard. So I made this, a charm with 'believe' on, just used a bit of ribbon I had and presented it in a pretty tiny bag I had.

I used more of the charms to make brackets, I simply threaded them onto some silver elastic that came around some chocolates! When the desired amount was on I tied a knot which forced them into the flower shape. Tie a knot as well between the 2 ends to make a bracelet.


My lovely Chaplin told me that the American indians believed dragonflies carried Gods light, I was having a rubbish time in hospital and she gave me a dragon fly sticker. I've now brought 100 dragonfly charms for a grand total of 99p. I'm threading them onto ribbon like above and sending them to her to give to other patients. I got 25meters of ribbon for 19p so each one costs less than 2p!

My most recent one was this, I bright a mixed bag of word charms, I threaded on laugh, love, wish, inspire, believe and then I repeated them in the same order. It's for my physio who is off abroad to help in another country, I will do a card saying something like 'thanks for all the laughter, keep loving what you do and inspiring others, believe in yourself and I hope all your wishes come true.