Home made Xmas gifts (merged threads)

r.mac_2

Katgoddess wrote:

You can also use a mixture of sugar and babyoil instead of salt and olive oil.

What a great idea - I have a load of unrefined sugar, which I can't stand the taste of. I couldn't think of what to use it for, but didn't want to throw it away. Thanks.

Now, must buy a couple of nice jars while at IKEA - alternatively, have some pretty jam jars that might work, when I've finished the contents!

culpepper

Just been reading the family thread where someone was asking about streetmap carpets for kids and it reminded me of a rug I made for my 2 when they were little.
Might make a nice pressy for littlies...
Start with a large plain piece of material in a base colour (grey or green,brown or blue) then add roads,grass,fields etc using textured offcuts eg cordouroy for ploughed fields,flowery patterns for fields of flowers..Make roads or paths or water or whatever. You could do a mat for a farm to stand on or water scene for boats,aerport scene ,racing track,paddock or even a dolls house garden.
My 2 had playmobile people and vehicles .They used to spend hours sprawled on the floor playing with it.You could run a thread around the edge to pull up drawstring fashion so it is a bag for the cars when finished with and hang it from a hook in the toycupboard.

Trollydolly_2

Last christmas my aunt printed personalised writing paper for everyone.

Sooooo simple but a lovely idea.

She bought a load of nice but cheap A4 paper and some envelopes then printed each persons name and address, twice on the paper so then she cut it down to A5.

Bought some cheap boxes and put about 50 pieces of paper in each one.

To make it cheaper u could scrap buying the boxes and just tie with pretty ribbon.

U could also bulk buy some pens and put them in the box.

They went down really well with family and me!

Just wish she hant done it coz if i do it this year everyone will know i copied!

TD xxx

Trollydolly_2

Oooh just had another idea, get everyone to send u there favourite photo in the whole world, by email. then buy cheap diarys, phonebooks, notebooks, address books etc and stick the piccie on the front with spraymount. Or get the piccies together and do a collage (spelling) of the piccies and frame or again stick them all on the diary types thing. that way they get piccies of all the family to look at everyday on there diary.

MIRRY_2

Today I was looking into making some extra nice xmas cards for my close family and came across a really cheap yet effective way.

I purchased a pack of plain white card stock from asda and went to my local supplier of RIBBONS and they had lovely ones with xmas trees all the way down them.
I purchased half a meter for 50p and got 8 silver tree paterns that are so lovely, i have cut out each tree and stuck it on a small square of card then stuck that onto the card.
I get fed up with card making be almost as expensive as the nice shop cards and feel pleased ive found a very cheap way of doing it. EACH CARD COST 15P EACH AND THEY LOOK LIKE EXPENSIVE CARDS!

Pooky

I save everything that could come in handy for card making - you'd be surprised how much you can collect if you think about it.

I had 2 tops with ribbons sewn in, the sort of ribbon you're supposed to wrap round the hanger to make it hang better.....nice colours -- cut them out and added them to the box.

Queenie

:T MIRRY


I keep an eye out in our local Haberdashery Store all year round for "themed" type ribbons and lace. Always worth a mooch after the season.

Don't forget to check out the buttons too! Themed buttons look cute when you're making your own cards.

HannahD_2

I keep old christmas cards and cut out the pretty pictures using crimping scissors (I think that's what they're called), then use the cut out for tags on presents. I'm not very crafty, so for me that's great!

Tondella

HannahD wrote:

I keep old christmas cards and cut out the pretty pictures using crimping scissors (I think that's what they're called), then use the cut out for tags on presents. I'm not very crafty, so for me that's great!

aah Hannah! That's what my mum used to do, in fact she had us cutting out the pictures for her. Boy does that take me back to my childhood Christmasses!

BTW you and i seem to be in similar debt situations with similar debt free dates, feels like a long way away at the moment doesn't it! good luck to you!

Gingham_Ribbon

We used to cut up cards with (pinking) shears too. Is pinking the Scottish word or have I got it wrong?

Anyway, we got a card through last year with just a single tiny edible snowman on the front. Apparently it had gone out of date! Perfect for making a pretty seasonal card!