Help with gift ideas? (Harry Potter & Girly)

taylorswift

I have two gift ideas I need help with this Christmas!

One of my best friends is turning 16 on December 1st, I also have her as my secret santa, plus I would've got her a gift anyway! I was going to make her a hamper, and give her it as a birthday/christmas gift. However I've decided that I want to give her two seperate presents ideally - Birthday and Xmas/Secret Santa.

If I'm going to make her a hamper what kind of things should I put in it? And what else could I get her as a seperate present? She is typically quite girly, but I don't want to get her make up. She loves vintagey things, toadstools and that kind of thing, she is also very creative and fashionable. I have about £20 (can go a bit higher for the right thing) to spend on her secret santa AND birthday. I'm finding it hard to find things that'd be good at a price I can afford!

The other gift is for my other best friend, she is a Harry Potter fanatic, she adores it completely and has read all the books about 30 times minimum! I wanted to make her a 'Hogwarts Care Package'. I was going to wrap it in brown paper and address it to her with some old ribbon wrapped around it.

My ideas for the care package are as follows:

• Hogwarts acceptance letter or a letter to her at hogwarts
• Bertie Botts every flavour beans (Jelly belly beans in a handmade box)
• A little owl to put on the package (as if it has sent it!) I found some great little ones in Sainsburys for £3 for a pair. If anyone has seen any cheaper that would be hugely appreciated.

I have a few others, but would like to know if anyone has more, I will write the other ideas when I have my list in front of me.


She already has a Hufflepuff hat & scarf (her house!), all the books & dvd's, the charity books and many posters. My budget is around £15, but I would, as above, go higher for the perfect item.


I want the presents I give them to be really special and thoughtful, as this will probably be our last christmas being really close as we are most likely all going off to seperate colleges.

Thank you very much in advance!

podperson

For the girly hamper maybe some pampering type items - Lush has some lovely girlie and xmas themed soaps, bath bombs etc. Nail polish, vintage pattern make-up bag. I'm quite into vintage style jewellery and you can get some lovely and pretty cheap items from Amazon and ebay. Or if she's creative maybe some vintage style charms with chains etc that she can make her own jewellery from. A friend of mine makes lovely Alice in Wonderland style jewellery - things like pocket watches on long chains with little charms attached like keys/white rabbits/teacups etc so she might like something like that.

For the Harry Potter theme - maybe chocolate frogs if you could find them, a ticket for the Hogwarts Express, I saw some wands last year in like presentation packs and different versions that matched the description of the different characters wands - so Harry's wand, Hermione's wand etc. Could ptobably pick them up on ebay. Maybe get coloured drinks (alcoholic ones if she's over 18) and put them in little glass bottles with labels saying things like 'love potion' or 'luck potion' etc (I think they have proper names you could look up).

Sounds like you could really have fun with them

deltasbutterfly

i've got my dad harry potter stuff for xmas and i wanted to get him bertie botts until i saw just how expensive they are. i was going to get normal jelly beans and put a bertie botts cover on it, but i have since found Bean Boozled (available on @m@zon)
you get normal flavours and disgusting flavours but cheaper than bertie botts. if you have a Mr Simms sweet shop near you they are selling these for £1.99.
hope this helps and that i haven't misinterpreted what you've written.

moneysavingmumofone

I would bulk out the Harry Potter one with sweets mainly as its so easy to do! Freddos as choc frogs, white mice, 'butterbeer' and 'pumpkin juice' etc. I done this for my brother one year all wrapped in brown paper parcels with home-made labels. Heres a list of all the sweets stuff from the films, many are easily made using sweets from supermarkets etc!

• Acid Pops: These lollipops may be similar to Muggle lollipops, but like most Honeydukes sweets, they have an unconventional, practical joke with wizarding magic, these powerful sweets will burn a hole right through your tongue…Ouch!
• Bat’s Blood Soup: It was a dark red syrup, that Honeydukes kept in a large bowl, bubbling near the front of the shop, into which patrons could dip various sweets and treats.
• Bertie Bots Every Flavour Beans: Are one of the most popular sweets in the wizarding world. They’re great fun, so long as you don’t get a bogey flavoured one (I’m just going to stick to eating jelly beans I think). This sweet looks a lot like jelly beans, however the flavours can be very tasty or extremely digusting, hopefully you’ll be lucky and get tasty ones!
• Blood flavoured lollipops: Lollipops that taste just like blood, don’t know who would want to eat these apart from vampires, they are sold in the “Unusual Tastes” section of Honeydukes…they got that right, very unusual!
• Canary Cream: Developed by the Weasley twins and they tested the first sweet on Neville Longbottom and found that they turn people into large canaries for a short while or a few months in some cases!
• Cauldron Cakes: A type of cake that is sold to Hogwarts students on the Hogwarts Express and in Honeydukes. It is a cauldron shaped cake with chocolate on the outside and a golden or violet filling, sounds tasty.
• Charm Choc: A brand of charmed chocolates, not quite sure what they do or taste like.
• Chocoballs: Full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream….sound quite normal compared to other Harry Potter Sweets.
• Chocolate: Used as an antidote for contact with the Dark Arts, such as dementors.
• Chocolate Cauldrons: Are boxed chocolates that are filled with Firewhiskey and shaped like cauldrons. Romilda Vane gave Harry Potter one that she had spiked with Love Potion, however Ron Weasley mistook them for birthday candy and ate the lot!
• Chocolate Frogs: (My favourite) All chocolate frogs come with a collectable card of a famous witch or wizard in each pack, however the frogs jump so you’ve got to catch them fast, don’t want to loose ours like Harry Potter did on the train on his way to Hogwarts in his 1st year!
• Cockroach Clusters: Apparently they are made from real cockroaches, that are covered in chocolate (don’t think I’ll be trying those anytime soon, as much as I love chocolate I refuse to eat a Cockroach).
• Crystallised Pineapple: It is sold as small pieces of pineapple cooked in sugar syrup and encrusted with sugar crystals at Honeydukes. It is a known favourite of Horace Slughorn.
• Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum: This magical gum fills the room with bluebell-like bubbles that won’t pop for days.
• Exploding bon-bons: They contained pure cocoa and coconut dynamite…Ouch! I’m guessing you end up looking a bit like Seamus once you’ve chewed on one of these bon bons!
• Fizzing Whizbees: These sweets are massive sherbet balls that once eaten, make you levitate for a short period of time ( you could go hang around with Ghosts at Hogwarts and fit right in with these sweets, solong as you don’t try to walk through walls!).
• Fudge Flies: Apparently, Scabbers enjoyed them, during the party celebrating Gryffindor’s victory over Ravenclaw, Ron Weasley announced that if his pet rat, Scabbers (actually Wormtail), had still been alive, he could have enjoyed some Fudge Flies, which were one of his favourite sweets.
• Honey-Flavoured Toffees: Toffees that taste like honey, a Honeydukes speciality.
• Ice Mice: These mice are so cold, that they make your teeth chatter, as it says on the packaging “hear your teeth chatter and squeak!”
• Jelly Slugs: These slugs are made from all different flavours of jelly, and im guessing feel exactly like a real slug all slimey and squishey… don’t think I will be purchasing any of these on my trips to Honeydukes.
• Liquorice Wands: These wands look just like a normal wand, but when you take a bite, they are 100% edible liquorice, lets just hope you wouldn’t accidentlly cast a spell with your Liquorice Wand instead of the real one!
• Pepper Imps: Are a tiny black candy that makes you “Breathe fire for your friends!” (that’s sound pretty cool, you’re practically a dragon, without wings and huge teeth and overall less scary ofcourse).
• Peppermint CreamToads: Peppermint creams shaped like toads that”hop realistically in the stomach!”, once consumed these Peppermint Cream Toads hop around your stomach.
• Pink Coconut Ice: These shimmering pink squares are a tasty coconut-based sweet, sounds delightful.
• Pixie Puffs: A wizarding breakfast cereal made by Honeydukes, it came packaged in a blue box featuring yellow cartoon pixies with spoons running around the edge of a bowl…Aww, how cute.
• Pumpkin Fizz: Is a magical sweet that Fred and George Weasley bring from Honeydukes to celebrate Gryffindor’s victory over Ravenclaw. It seems to be a little like a pumpkin flavoured sherbert.
• Shock-o-Choc: Is one of the sweets sold by Honeydukes, they are made of chocolate. Colin Creevey, with the aid of Harry Potter, sent boxes of these chocolates filled with Howlers saying “really rude things” to the Inquisitorial Squad.
• Squeaking sugar mice: Professor Flitwick offered a selection of these to Harry Potter after the interview was published in The Quibbler newspaper
• Sugared Butterfly Wings: Are a wizarding sweet manufactured in England by Madam Borboleta Candies Ltd. They have a shelf life of nearly 800 years!!! Thet’re made with organic butterflies, organic dark chocolate, milk, sugar, and coconut.
• Sugar Spun quills: These quills look like the real thing, but when sucked taste like sugar. If you suck on them in class and you look like you’re thinking really deeply (great for all you daydreamers).
• Toothflossing Stringmints: This sweet is very similar to dental floss, with a minty flavour, Hermione gave some to her parents as she saw it an ideal presant as they are Dentists.
• Treacle fudge: Rubeus Hagrid is known for making this fudge as all the ingredients can be found in his garden.

moneysavingmumofone

Also for your first friends hamper in Poundland they have a gorgeous set of a birdcage keyring and compact mirror with birdcage print on it! It doesnt look like it £1 at all! Im sure they have a make up bag with birdcages on too. Wilkinsons has lots of lovely pens and Sainsburys has gorgeous vintage print floral notebooks. x

TeaCake

What about re-wrapping some bath bombs in nice tissue paper and writing labels on as if they were made by Mrs Weasley or a golden snitch watch like this: http://www.etsy.com/listing/109515934/golden-snitch-harry-potter-pocket-watch?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_search_query=golden+snitch&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=GB&ga_ref=auto1&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=golden+snitch

Theres lots of ideas on this website that you could make yourself: http://store.orderofmerlin.info/servlet/StoreFront like the Apparator's License.

vikki_louise

They do wands which you can operate the tv with! They were really expensive a few years back but might be on eBay now.

What about a house themed bookmark, can you knit her a striped scarf n her favourite houses colours? I would go with lots of different sweets put into little bags with wizardy names on. Could you also get a pen that looks like a quill?

themull1

you can get jelly bean drinks in different coloured bottles, maybe re label a yellow one 'butter beer'? There are HP collectable coins - not sure how much they are tho! a watch?

midnightraven3

i made my student daughter a harry potter cushion
sorry if these are massive, stoopid new photobucket



close up of each of the panels

you can pick her fave parts



i used lots of bits i had, and the cushion bit was about £4 but its 20" square

chirpychick

For the girlie hamper what about making kitsch necklace and bracelets using buttons or scrabble letters if she likes that kind of thing, hair scarf, fake pearls if she is into 50's type vintage, what about a poster of the kind of vintage theme? when you say vintage it depends what era but you could buy a book off ebay from that era or with information about that era, you could take some photos of the 2 of you in black and white and frame them in a vintage frame, nice pens and notepads always go down well

midnightraven3

you could make one of these

http://ellemenoh.tumblr.com/post/7626896892/pensieve-de-veritas-chatterboxrose-how-a