Homemade Xmas gifts where materials/ingredients are cheap

[yellowflowers]

Cheap as in very cheap. I can do fudge - butter, milk and sugar. But flavoured vodka necessitates buying vodka, chocolates need expensive 70% chocolate. What can I make that is v cheap?

Something like this could be very cheap if you have old mismatched teacups, or can get to a bootsale www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1kg-Eco-Soya-Wax-Make-Teacup-Candles-Inc-Dye-Wick-Pin-/130425957267?pt=UK_Carfts_Candle_SoapMaking_EH&hash=item1e5dfe2b93

I keep meaning to do these myself so might have a trundle to the carboot myself this weekend

If you're looking for kid friendly stuff my kiddos have made salt dough stars with a tea light stuck in. Painted with glittery gold paint they actually look lovely.

My 3 year old has also made a FAB lolly pop stick star which was cheap as chips and again is lovely enough for Childminder, granny, sunday school teachers, nursery ladies etc.

I was going to make salt dough decorations with ds - do you have to use a certain type of paint?

yellowflowers Papier maches boxes: cut cardboard into rectangles, one base, one lid - very slightly larger than the base - then 4 box sides. Selloptape them together carefully.
For the papier mache I use sloppy wallpaper paste, can also use that white runny glue. Tear newspaper into thin strips, about an inch or so wide, along the grain of the paper, then tear these long strips into smaller rectangles. Using a small paintbrush, paste your newspaper bits, and paste them onto the cardboard box and the lid that you've made. All the bits of paper need to overlap each other. Completely cover the box with 2 layers of papier mache, and leave for 48 hours, in warmish place if poss, to completely dry. Repeat with another 2 layers, and another complete dry out.

To get a reasonably neat and strong rim along the top of your box, carefully put overlapping rows of little paper strips over the top of the edge.

For the lid I soak very small bits of newspaper in some of the glue to make a mush. Then draw a rectangle on the bottom of the lid the exact size of the size of your papier-mached box. And make a kind of rim just inside this line. Leave to dry completely. The lid will sit on the box now, with your 'rim' just inside it to stop it falling off. Hope this makes sense! I find this much easier, and neater, than trying to give the lid sides, IYSWIM.

Now you've got a papier mache box, and you can decorate it however you like: paint, decoupage (wrapping paper motifs are great for this), glitter, fabric, whatever you like.

I usually paint the whole box first, then paper the inside. Leave to dry, then varnish the whole thing. Then add diamantes, sequins, bling it up!

This really isn't as expensive as it sounds because I had leftover paint and varnish from various house decorating bits and pieces. And almost everything else - the glue, wallpaper paste, glittery bits, paintbrushes - came from my wonderful local poundland!

Please take note though, wallpaper paste usually has fungicides in it, so you - and your kids - need to wash hands afterwards, or even wear rubber gloves or similar while you use the paste.

And you need a week to get through all the stages :)

Oh yes, straight edges. The key is to put neat layers of the paper along the rim of the box, and over the edges of the lid.

The box looks a mess before you paint it, but it's surprising how nice it looks when it's all painted/papered/varnished.

And another idea: if you have a shredder, or can get shredded paper, mix this with the paste/glue to make a kind of mush. Then you can mould the mush into all sorts of shapes, a little bit like modelling clay, and make shapes to stick on the lid, or sides, of your box to give it a 3D effect. Also very effective.

Am on a roll now: another time I made papier mache bowls. Chose a bowl you'd like to copy. Cover said upturned bowl with vaseline, then cling film. Several layers of papier mache over the cling film, and dry. You can then prise the papier mache bowl off your original bowl and hey presto, a papier mache bowl! Decorate as for the box. Fill with cheap pot pourri. (Can you tell I used to do this in the 80's for presents when pot pourri was all the rage?!) Or home made fudge. Make a lid if you like.

Used to do this stuff a lot when kids were younger, they loved it, and super cheap to do.

Thank you for that how to :)

I just saw these www.notonthehighstreet.com/identitypapers/product/tintin-and-superhero-origami-boxes and thought they could easily be done yourself with pages of the Beano/Viz etc to hold goodies in, sure that youtube will have videos of how to fold into boxes

I was given some homemade candles once by some dc I coached and I really appreciated them, they came in useful and they looked good too.

LMMATD - normal paint works on salt dough. Stir some glitter through paint for a Christmassy look!

Thanks tass