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Home made Xmas gifts (merged threads)

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Glad
Glad Posts: 18,865 Senior Ambassador
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in Old style MoneySaving
nothing too naff ;) but gifts that people can make and send to save some money

I'll start with

decorated candles

buy some cheap fat candles (pound shops etc)

coat with 'candle-and-soap' medium (available from craft shops)

while still wet press on pressed flowers or leaves

coat again with medium to fix
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  • vanoonoo
    vanoonoo Posts: 1,897 Forumite
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    ooooh what a good idea!!! jsut to be the eternal sensible onecan i jsut remind people to use decorations that are not overtly flammable.

    I am thinking of making coasters for everyone out of old cds :D
    Blah
  • Edinburghlass_2
    Edinburghlass_2 Posts: 32,680 Forumite
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    You can buy a packet of skeleton leaves in all sorts of colours for about £2 in a craft shop.

    We bought Ikea lights, square frosted glass, for less than £4.
    Take some of the leaves in a colour to suit furnishings, coat one side with pva glue and glue to the side of the square glass shade and leave to dry. Also bought some Christmas string type decorations with pink circular thingys (?) and glued them on with the pva glue. Some of those were perhaps a bit heavy for the pva glue so when they came off I redid them with super glue.

    Will try the skeleton leaves with the candles now, what a good idea!
  • lswwong
    lswwong Posts: 407 Forumite
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    Hi folks!

    Have not been around. BUT!! Have an interview for a BIG job on Monday so am keeping everything crossed ;)

    I have a copy of the Martha Stewart magazine Christmas edition from a few years ago. Full of ideas for homemade Christmas gifts. In particular, they have recipes for all sorts of cookies, brownies, biscuits etc that you can make an assortment of and present in boxes that you can either make or buy a plain one of and embellish (instructions and pics all given). Really lovely stuff.

    I came across a microwave flower press in the Lakelands catelogue 2 weeks ago. Apparently, say if you were to clip off some flowers from your garden and wanna press them, put them inside this gadget, stick it in the microwave and a couple of minutes later, the flowers would be dried and pressed. Anyone tried this gadget before? Any feedback? If it works it would be fantastic - as Glad suggested, the dried flowers can be used to decorate candles. I quite fancy putting them inside a good picture frame or something like that.

    Here's to wish everyone a good Christmas this year :)
  • paulcdb
    paulcdb Posts: 160 Forumite
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    coat with 'candle-and-soap' medium (available from craft shops)
    ??? Is that like chicken soap, or is it more waxy :P
  • franky
    franky Posts: 641 Forumite
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    ooooh what a good idea!!!  jsut to be the eternal sensible onecan i jsut remind people to use decorations that are not overtly flammable.

    I am thinking of making coasters for everyone out of old cds :D
    my aunty makes coasters from old cd's and covers them with embroidery,
    I'll ask her if she's got the pattern
  • vanoonoo
    vanoonoo Posts: 1,897 Forumite
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    I'm not gonna go to any effort! ;)

    thanks for the offer though franky - i was thinking more along the lines of packaging six up and giving them to people with a wry smile. If I were feeling really generous I might stick two together to make a pan trivet.
    Blah
  • Spendless
    Spendless Posts: 24,150 Forumite
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    you can always use the free cd's they give away with sunday papers
  • vanoonoo
    vanoonoo Posts: 1,897 Forumite
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    I've got loads of aol ones and other isp freebies. the newspaper freebie type ones are all in my car :D
    Blah
  • 16011996
    16011996 Posts: 8,313 Forumite
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    there are some good ideas here. homemade biscuits are great, we do shortbread quite often for friends, its cheap, easy to make and they love, you can always do xmas shapes with it.

    the recipe is

    6oz plain flour
    4 oz butter
    2 oz cater sugar, plus some to sprinkle.

    put all in owl, mix well by hand till goes like crumble, keep going and it'll stick together. roll out, cut out shapes, bake in med oven fo 15-20 mins, voila. ;D ;D ;D

    also good dipped in melted chocolate for a more luxuorious type.
  • KammyJ_2
    KammyJ_2 Posts: 2 Newbie
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    Taking a wire hanger and shaping it into a circle, you can attach hard candies with string and make candy wreaths.
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