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Name of present: Sweet mornings
Whether it's bought or homemade: Homemade
Total cost: £1-£5
For whom: for anyone who likes sugar in their coffee/tea in the morning
You need:
- Sugar cubes (£1)
- A glass jar: either free from a jam jar or you can find them in places like TK Max (pretty ones) or Wilkinson's (£3) and even Tesco
- Access to a printer (or very good handwriting - that's not me!) with some paper and colour ink.
- Plain or one-sided coloured paper (again, Poundland do some of these for crafts £1 - or 'free' if plain)
- Inspirational quotes (I steal these from webpages)
- Optional : if you have, little rubber stamps to add decoration to plain paper.
- Optional: if you have, some nice ribbon (or from new clothes' hanging ribbon!) to decorate the jar.
How to:
1) You need to make 2x2.5 inch rectangles and write your inspirational quotes on these. I recommend drawing a grid (or creating one with the word processor), writing/printing, and then cutting.
2) Examples of quotes:
“If you think you can do it, or you think you can’t do it, you are right.” Henry Ford
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” Francis Bacon
“Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.”
Wayne Dyer
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."
“ The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart” Helen Keller.
3) If you print your quotes, you can always get more creative and insert delicate images. Also, if printing and being careful with the alignments, you can print images or touches of colour on the other side.
Note: the quotes go inside, but if you are truly worried about the contact with the ink and the sugar, then leave the inside blank and use the outside.
[FONT="]WARNING: as you can guess, this is a present for someone with decent eyesight!
4) Wrap two sugar cubes on each wrapper (you can make them smaller and wrap only one, but you start needing VERY good eyesight!). I was going to explain how to do it, but apparently someone else has already done it on Youtube!
5) Chuck them in the jar and close
In this way, every morning, that person will have a deep/happy/motivational thought right at the start of their day!
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Name of present:
Reindeer droppings...Mmmmmm!
Bought or homemade: Homemade / Bought
Total cost: £4 for 10 bags
Details (where it's from, how to make it etc):
this is a really simple, cheap and fun recipe.
First, you start by making fudge. you can use any recipe, but a condensed milk one makes it easier still. the internet is awash with fudge recipes.
once the fudge is made you can store it in an airtight container for up to two weeks ( check with your recipe) so you can make in advance and then bag up when you know you will be seeing the gift recipients.
once the fudge is made and almost cool, you start rolling up balls of fudge. you then bag these up in little cellophane sweetie bags, that you can buy on ebay ( they work out at around 6p a bag)
before you seal the bags sprinkle with a little icing sugar so they look like they have just been scooped up out of the snow and then tie a label to the bag, 'Fresh Reindeer Droppings''. I get the kids to make labels out of old cards etc and tie on with string.
tastes great and loved by kids and big kids equally. enjoy and merry christmas.
Sx0 -
- Name of present: For the Pet Lover
- Whether it's bought or homemade: Homemade/Bought
- Total cost: £3.94
- Details: I love my Cat/Dog frame from ebay £3.94 and put in a photo of the person and their pet
0 - Name of present: For the Pet Lover
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Weekly reusable calendar (bought with some making):
Cost: 3-4 pounds or less.
Buy a cheap A4 photo frame and a dry erase pen (many markers also wipe off glass and are cheaper than buying the specific dry erase ones).
Print out an A4 page with a table: two columns, seven rows, with Monday to Sunday in the left side and lots of room to write on the right side. Include whatever clip art your recipient might like and make it cute. Frame the page and fasten the bit that lets it hang on the back. Take a ribbon, piece of string or something similar and tie one end to the hanging part, then fasten the pen to the other end - make sure there's enough ribbon that the pen reaches everywhere on the board with a comfortable amount to spare.
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60167742/#/30185733Organised Birthdays and Christmas: Spend So Far: £193.75; Saved from RRP £963.76
Three gifts left to buy0 -
Excellent thread, as a very skint student who loves homemade gifts these are perfect for me!
Name of present: Sweetheart
Whether it's bought or homemade: Half bought,half homemade
Total cost: Between £2-£5
Details (where it's from, how to make it etc): Go to your nearest wholesalers and buy a large box/jar of your partner's favourite pic 'n' mix/sweet shop style goodies then tart up the box with decorations, pictures, photos, maybe even sellotape a little love note to the lid?
My boyfriend actually did this for me last month, he bought me a huge tub of Hairbo cherries because he knows I like 'em and on the lid he drew me a picture referring to a sweet in-joke between us. It was unexpected and really made me smile, the fact that a. he'd remembered what I liked and b. he went to the effort of decorating the tub to glam it up. Plus cheap and cheery!0 -
Name of present: Scrapbook of ideas and fun things
Bought or homemade? Homemade
Total Cost: around £3/4, inc printing
Details:
Buy a scrapbook, and some A4 envolopes all from the £1 shop. This year for my neice and nephew I have scoured the internet and downloaded, from pinterest and other places, all sorts of ideas, craft, to do, science etc the kids can make or do at home or on trips.
Nephew: I have a load of science experiments that can be done at home inc. diet coke mento, volcano, do eggs have holes? How to see colour in milk etc. I have included monster rock painting, with examples and ideas to start him off. A treasure trip jar - Where they take a jar on a trip with them and fill it with all sorts of things they find interesting, ticket stubbs or anything they class as treasure. When they come home they design a basic white printing label saying the date, where they went. (This is also great for girls and I will include this in hers too.) How to make some non toxic paint for painting outdoors. Some great paper cut outs, to name a few.
Neice: I have included some jewellery making craft sheets, including making salt dough at home and making it into jewellery incorporating fingerprints etc. Again I have included rock painting with examples of animals, flowers, butterflies, funny faces etc. Sheets on how to make pretty origami dresses. How to make coloured sugar crystals for cup cakes, sock bunnies, uses for buttons - pictures, jewellery and loads more
Now that I gathered all the info I put a picture of the craft/project on an A4 page with a pretty background and stick this onto the front of an envelope, the work sheets I will print and put these in the same envelope. If I have scraps of things that would be useful in the making of a specific project at home, ex: buttons, pretty odd sock (sock bunny) blank labels, buttons etc I will inclde these in the envelope too. I will also leave some blank pages for the kids to add their own projects.
There you go 0 -
Name of present: Craft kits
Bought or homemade: Both
Total cost: 0-£2.00
Details:
1. Get a children's craft book from the library (or use one you have at home or just something you have done before).
2. Choose a craft activity appropriate for the child and one that you have a lot of the items at home - e.g sock puppets, old sock (clean!), buttons for eyes (or use something else if no buttons, such as stickers, material or eyes drawn on paper), scaps of material or card to stick on for ears/tongue etc.
3. Type up and print the instructions on how to make the item.
4. Put the items and instuctions in a clear bag (ie freezer bag) or appropriately sized box. If using a box, decorate or cover with wrapping paper. To make it more special you could put the child's name on the front.
5. If you don't want to make your own, Wilkinsons sell lots of different kits for £1. Two of these would make a great present and looks like it would have cost more.0 -
Name of present: Fabric wall-hanging
Bought or homemade: Bought + Homemade
Total cost: from £3 upwards
Details:
This is a present that's easy to customize to different people's tastes and your wallet.. and you don't have to have artistic skills to make something that looks professional!
You can get cheap blank canvases (from the artist/craft section) from The Works or Homebargains for example. The Works usually have a big selection, both instore and online. The price of the canvas may vary from 99p for the smallest (5x7 inches) to £14.99 for the biggest one (40x50 inches). There are also multipacks of canvases for further moneysaving. The smaller canvases are probably more suitable for hanging in a specific smaller area, for example a narrow wall or above a chest of drawers etc, while a bigger canvas (or several bigger canvases in a row) can be really beautiful on a normal (big) wall. You could make a small fabric-covered canvas for as little as £3.
You can get fabric to cover the canvas with from a local fabric store, but you could also check online fabric stores or eBay since there will be a large selection there. It's easy to make this wall-hanging suit your gift-recipients taste and your wallet.
Some examples:
- Vintage curtain fabric for the retro lover
- Pretty floral fabric for those with more romantic style
- Cute cartoon fabric for a kid
- Perhaps a geometric pattern in a limited colour palette for the teenager/young adult
- Laura Ashley, Marimekko, Sanderson or Orla Kiely for the design-interested friend (not so moneysaving..
).
- Interest-specific prints (space, cars, cats, dinosaurs, star wars etc) for those who are not that interested in specific interior styles
If you've recently been to the home of the person you're making the gift to, you might remember what colour scheme they have in their home. Hopefully you already know what style/taste they have.
It's probably easier to find your fabric online (ebay) if you have a very specific pattern/theme in mind. You can also find small cheap pieces there.
Once you've gotten hold of the canvas(es) and the fabric of your choice it's very easy to make the wall hanging. You need a heavy duty staple gun for this:
1) Iron the fabric to make sure it's crease-free
2) Put the fabric flat on the floor and the canvas on top. You might want to grab hold of the whole thing and turn it around to adjust the fabric so it aligns the way you want it, and put it back flat on the floor afterwards.
3) Fold fabric over the edges of the wall hanging, starting with one side (longer side if rectangular) at a time. Start stapling in the middle and then outwards towards the ends. Once the first side is done you move on to the opposite side, and do the same. Make sure you pull the fabric tight before you staple. Once these two sides are done you do the same with the remaining two.
4) At the end you're left with extra fabric flaps in each corner, fold them neatly and tight to the sides (a bit like when wrapping a present) and staple.
5) Finally, just trim off excess fabric at the back and you're done!
These have made very successful presents in the past.
Hope this helps someone!0 -
Name of present: A box of delights
Bought but really free
Cost: £1, a pretty box from poundshop.
Description Collection of freebies from magazines
Throughout the year, with the help of Martins money tips I keep an eye out for magazines offering freebies. I buy the magazine have a read then I stash the goodies in readiness for my teenage neice. I also store free gifts from make up brands I buy for myself, this has included Molten Brown travel kits etc. Then when I am ready I put them all in a pretty box as a pressie for a girl who can never have enough make, bags etc 0 -
Another one
Name of present: Personalised selection box
Whether it's bought or homemade: Homemade with a few bought details
Total cost: £3-4
Details (where it's from, how to make it etc):
I made this for my boyfriend last Christmas and I'll be doing it again this year because he loved it and it's such a good gift, doesn't get old!
Okay so for your personalised selection box;
- A3 sheet of card
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Felt-tip pens
- Glue stick or double-sided tape
- Five or six of your partner's favourite chocolates (as you can tell sweet gifts are ALWAYS a safe bet between me and my other half!)
- Miscellaneous bits for whatever you decide to draw on it/decorate it with e.g. felt, coloured card etc.
Last year I printed off a photo of my boyfriend and made him into santa using a shredded cotton wool ball for the beard and hat trim and everything else was drawn on but you could make felt hollie, snowmen with beaded button eyes, be as creative or as lazy as you want! I'll be stepping up my game this year because I want it to be really hands on 3D, I just loved making this box!
As a newbie I can't link a box template but look for a rectangle one and leave an extra long flap to make an enclosed lid.
Or you could always recycle a similar style box by covering it in card.
Once you've gotten the box together, it's time to unleash your inner child and go for it! I decorated the front with Christmas themed things and plonked a photo of my boyfriend with the additional cotton wool features to make him Santa and on the back I wrote a little list of what was in the box (completely optional, you might want to keep it a surprise). Last year I think I bought in small bags/bars of Terry's Chocolate Orange, Aero Mint, Double Decker, Wispa and giant Dairy Milk buttons.
At the end of the day, it's such a simple idea and can be executed in many ways so do what you can with your time restraints as it could be a time-consuming project depending on how much detail you wanted to go into with this but I think this makes an excellent gift as it's fun to make, it means they're guaranteed to like everything in it and it's chocolate!0
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