LOW COST homemade christmas gifts

Anne_Marie_2

Brilliant thread, thank you all.

I'm having friends round for Christmas dinner, and thought it would be a nice idea to give the men socks in a beer tankard.
I'm thinking of doing something similar for the ladies in a wine glass. I'm looking for ideas of what to put in, don't really want to do chocs or sweets.
I do have some little mini skin care pots and tubes and I think that I have still some tiny shower gels, which might fit the bill. Other thing that I thought of was filling with a pretty lightweight scarf. I could probably pick those up pretty cheaply at the local market. Any other ideas folks?

mum2one

Anne_Marie wrote: »

Brilliant thread, thank you all.

I'm having friends round for Christmas dinner, and thought it would be a nice idea to give the men socks in a beer tankard.
I'm thinking of doing something similar for the ladies in a wine glass. I'm looking for ideas of what to put in, don't really want to do chocs or sweets.
I do have some little mini skin care pots and tubes and I think that I have still some tiny shower gels, which might fit the bill. Other thing that I thought of was filling with a pretty lightweight scarf. I could probably pick those up pretty cheaply at the local market. Any other ideas folks?

that sounds a lovely idea, dont know if you have poundland or poundworld as they do lovely scarves for £1, look a lot more expensive, Poundland call theres evening scarves, there in silver, purple or black, I've brought them for DD to give to the TAs in the class xx

Anne_Marie_2

Afraid that I don't have any pound shops near to me, but there is a market. Also got a Christmas charity fayre on soon, which usually if past years go by, has some pretty good craft makes at very reasonable prices. I got some nice scarves there last year for around £1.50-£2.00. In fact, must check and see if I still have some, as can't remember if I gave them all away or not. Will have a look there. If I can get the scarves cheaply enough, could always add a little mini skin treat, or make some truffles. I have wine glasses galore, so that won't cost me any extra.

Also got some glass tankards, which are never used, so that will clear some cupboard space. I have packs of mens socks in black. Just need to get some white or cream socks, or I do have some white flannels which came with towel sets, and have never been used.

fawd1

mineallmine wrote: »

You could almost wrap that frame in pages from the atlas too! Fab idea. Are printers ok taking 2 layers of paper/card like that? I guess you could do a quote on plain paper to stick onto say the middle or something.

Most printers are absolutely fine with it. Atlas pages are generally no that thick, so if you get some cheap cardstock the difference in thickness is negligible. In fact, when I did it with book pages, the card and paper stuck together was still thinner than the higher quality cardstock. You just need to be careful to make sure they are securely stuck otherwise you risk tearing the paper as it will fray.

Katiehound

ljaybrad wrote: »

I've just got a batch of limoncello made up... fingers crossed that it will turn out nice

I made limoncello last week. It looks identical in colour to the bottle of real limoncello that I brought back from Sicily- only difference , the original is 40% proof!

Save the pulp when you have sieved- not suitable for a present but when pips are picked out makes a large plain yogurt deliciously lemony! Maybe enough for 2 yoghurt pots even!

I used sterilised bottles from salad dressing for some of mine- they hold 250ml and great for a 'taster' gift with a 'homemade' label.

Katiehound

dramarama wrote: »

Ok, I've got a big favour to ask, can anyone inspire me of something to send to my cousins I can use a sewing machine, stick and glue stuff to my hearts content. I need to send gifts to my cousins, 1 male, 1 female and these gifts need to go in the post, I can just about stretch to £20 but would rather go to £15...


I'm a retro kind of girl, like second hand & charity but my cousins like to travel, they also seem to like the more expensive things in life!
. Xx

Ideas for your travelling cousins.
The very best thing I ever bought was a luggage strap with my name woven through it. It makes picking out a black case from the millions a doodle! Sorry you can't make it and probably too late for this year, but this site has BOGOF ( can be 2 different names): http://www.able-labels.co.uk/luggage-straps/

Cheaper items are luggage scales- about £2 (especially useful if you fly by one of the cheapie airlines) travel clothesline & pegs, or a twisted elastic clothes line when no pegs needed, and lastly a swishy , squashy pillow. These contain something similar to polystyrene beads, have seen in the cheapie shops (no Poundland near me)- you could make a lightweight drawstring bag for the pillow to keep it clean- and under control! and personalise the bag.

karren

Anne_Marie wrote: »

Brilliant thread, thank you all.

I'm having friends round for Christmas dinner, and thought it would be a nice idea to give the men socks in a beer tankard.
I'm thinking of doing something similar for the ladies in a wine glass. I'm looking for ideas of what to put in, don't really want to do chocs or sweets.
I do have some little mini skin care pots and tubes and I think that I have still some tiny shower gels, which might fit the bill. Other thing that I thought of was filling with a pretty lightweight scarf. I could probably pick those up pretty cheaply at the local market. Any other ideas folks?

I made 'glass of indulgence' for a charity do, we got given 30 glasses, so home bargains had pink nody wash things for 39p and we had loads of facemasks given so popped both in glass wrapped in cellophane a they were £2 each (i work in hospice and all funds went there )

nannygladys

I made the cupcakes with microfibre cloths and used tubes of lip balm for the 'cherry' part, I just pushed the tube down the middle and then I covered a 'fat' yogurt pot for two of them and covered a plastic cupcake holder for the other one, OK they arent perfect but they look good.
Jxx

KiWi13

pinknfluffy28 wrote: »

rachmc - your dream catchers keyrings are beautiful, i know i would be delighted to receive one, so unique!
thought i would share my latest idea with you all, its not a gift as such, but a unique, free way of giving a gift!
this year, santa will not be leaving the kids main presents under the tree (a second-hand but mint ipad for dd12 & lego friends house for dd5), instead, these will remain hidden at the bottom of my wardrobe, nicely wrapped. Then, at christmas lunch, when they think its all over, i am going to hide the first clue for the scavanger hunt in littlest ones cracker! its taken me a while to come up with 10 rhyming clues and hiding places which i can set up on christmas eve night, but the last clue will read "i know you have both been good this year, so how could i forget? Go and look at mummys new dress, and i hope this is the best christmas yet!"
im so excited!!!

I'm just catching up on this thread and when I spotted this I had to reply.

I'm 30 and my brother is 23 and we still get one of these scavenger hunts at my mums house every Christmas. When I turned about 15 I was tasked with having to do my brothers clues and my mum still did mine.
After tea my brother and I tear around the house looking for the presents to see who can get to theirs first. :rotfl:

Just isnt Christmas unless we mess around like kids and I've just had my first wee boy and can't wait until he is old enough for us to do it for him too.

I hope your kids will love it as much as we do!!

On another note ... Keep the ideas coming folks -> they are FAB.

KiWi x

mee1973

I can't really do it again this year as it was last years gifts for older relatives. But basically I bought some cheap wooden frames from wilkinsons and sorted through a very old black and white album, I found a few pictures of passed great grandmothers and grandads and put the in the frames as gifts for my nan/mum etc. They were very much appreciated, much more than the previous years presents