Christmas 2014...Savings & Handmade gifts

Footpather

You can get those silicone trays in Ikea for £1 each. I've got star shape, penguins and fishes. They are sold as ice cube trays but are perfect for chocolates.

Pooky

Have a read up about how to temper the chocolate properly otherwise you'll end up with dull looking chocolate that melts/goes slimy as soon as it's been out of the fridge for more than half an hour.

sofiar

I spent too much on 2013 Xmas pressies. Learned my lesson! This year it's tins of Roses for couples & families and just getting pressies for the very close family x

moosetastic

minimacka wrote: »

I made 4 of these using the kits from ebay, I think I got 5 boards and all of the hearts I needed for less than £20, I painted the hearts and boards the colour I wanted. For the names and birthdays I used avery clear stickers and printed the names and dates on the stickers peeled them off and cut round them and put them on the hearts I then varnished the hearts so that you couldn't see the sticker. I used silver rings to attach the hearts to each other again on ebay they are £1's for 100's. They looked really good and the people who I game them to loved them. I don't have a picture of them but they did turn out really good. When I painted the hearts I used a box and pinned the hearts so that they hung just off the box to dry. Have a google of the kits and have a go they do look really good.

Can I just say a massive thank you for this post!! I looked up the kits on ebay from the Polish seller, ended up getting wooden shapes to make christmas bunting very cheap, the seller is great, I ordered the shapes on Thursday and they arrived yesterday! The stuff for my craft fair is gonna be great!! thank you very much xxx :T

minimacka

moosetastic wrote: »

Can I just say a massive thank you for this post!! I looked up the kits on ebay from the Polish seller, ended up getting wooden shapes to make christmas bunting very cheap, the seller is great, I ordered the shapes on Thursday and they arrived yesterday! The stuff for my craft fair is gonna be great!! thank you very much xxx :T

Your very welcome, you could spend a fortune couldn't you lol, if you can, post some pictures when you have made them up. I don't know if you know about pinterest but if you don't, have a look it and be prepared to loose a couple of weeks of your life on the gorgeous pictures and posts on there, you will get lots of lovely ideas for your craft fair.





x

otterspasm

I made some body butter tins for a craft fayre, sold them at £2.50 each and gave the left-overs away as christmas presents - buy new empty lipgloss tins on ebay, about £4 for 50, buy those little wedding favour sheer drawstring bags on ebay, about £1.50 for 20, buy a big lump of shea butter and a big jar of cocoa butter on ebay, about £6 for both, then fill the little tins and pop inside a bag, and you've got a quick and easy present which looks good, is cheap to make and much better than the fragranced products sold by BodyShop etc, plus, everybody likes a handbag / travel size.
Simple and effective, much easier than making jam or chutney!

These sound great! Clever you, gloriouslyhappy! I just want to ask a really stupid question please. Do you just mix the shea butter and cocoa butter together? You don't heat it or anything?

Am thinking I might make a little for me and my friends for crimbo.

Thank you :):)

moosetastic

minimacka wrote: »

Your very welcome, you could spend a fortune couldn't you lol, if you can, post some pictures when you have made them up. I don't know if you know about pinterest but if you don't, have a look it and be prepared to loose a couple of weeks of your life on the gorgeous pictures and posts on there, you will get lots of lovely ideas for your craft fair.





x

I have been Minimacka, there are some gorgeous ideas! its years since I did a craft fair, the last one I did I made over £100 on snowman soup and reindeer food and peg magnets!!

I mainly make cakes now, so I dont have a lot of time for crafting, but with a lot of my orders for Xmas not being paid for till just before, I wanted to do something with my time and make some extra money. got the wooden bunting shapes, gonna decopage them with chistmassy paper, ive got some bottle neck tags to do the same thing with as well. Gonna make some plain white tree decorations from Fimo and thought I would latch on to the "Frozen" craze and Im gonna make some little frozen wishes (edible glitter in a tiny glass jar with a snowflake charm, something like that, havent worked out the logistics yet!!) lol

My sister knits as well, and shes got lots of xmas items made already so we are doing the fair together. Once I have made some things, Ill post them up for all to see xxx

karren

moosetastic wrote: »

Can I just say a massive thank you for this post!! I looked up the kits on ebay from the Polish seller, ended up getting wooden shapes to make christmas bunting very cheap, the seller is great, I ordered the shapes on Thursday and they arrived yesterday! The stuff for my craft fair is gonna be great!! thank you very much xxx :T

Hi does anyone have link please for seller xxx

IrishRose12

Have sold quite a bit on ebay this week :T so delighted with that.

On the Christmas front I've just sat tonight and printed off a load of colouring pages for work and my own LO's to keep them settled. WIll photocopy those bit by bit over the next few weeks if and when I get some free time.

As if next week I'm going to sit down and start making my reindeer candy canes for the class I'm in, and I've just came across a site Thanks to Martin's latest email regarding christmas.......... kept clicking links and it took me to a gift site for charities where you could donate (buy) 50 bowls of rice etc for children in Africa.
I'm going to buy a few of those gifts for gifts for family, and also as a class gift.

I'm now off to read up on what this snowman soup is all about. I'm sure it is a lot less confusing as to what it sounds to me lol.

VfM4meplse

FieryAngel wrote: »

One thing that's easy to make and definitely cheaper than buying are those posh looking chocolate slabs that Hotel Choc do. They cost about £15 for a slab of milk, white or dark chocolate usually with something added to it like nuts. My best friend enjoys the version I make for her which is just to melt a couple of bars of dairy milk and pour it onto baking parchment on a baking tray in a vague rectangular shape, making it as thick or thin as you like, and for her I add mini marshmallows and lumps of marzipan and usually a bit of edible glitter before it sets. I've not found any large bags to accommodate it as a slab but I'm sure they'll be out there somewhere so I usually roughly break it up to look like shards of chocolate.
The possibilities are endless as to what you can add to the chocolate - nuts, dried fruit, sprinkles, glitters, chocolate chips even and perhaps you could flavour the chocolate also?

Great post, Fiery Angel!

The only thing I would add to this is that its is well worth stocking up on Lidl white and dark chocolate bars when it is on 1/2 price offer, for just this purpose. It's not the best BUT when you melt it down and add other nice things to it no-one seems to realise just how cheap it is. Candied peel and nuts are especially good! Buying both white and dark allows for a little alchemy, you can adjust to taste. I love chocolate but I cannot stand the milk chocolate in the same range.