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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

what are your handmade gift ideas that dont look cheap and tacky?

27 replies

juicychops · 05/11/2008 14:39

i need some inspiration

OP posts:
pigleto · 05/11/2008 14:40

chutney, biscuits, generally anything that can be used up or thrown away tactfully. But then I am not very good at handicrafts.

brokenrecord · 05/11/2008 14:44

Read this as 'anything that can be thrown up tactfully'... Mmm chutney...

cherryliquormonster · 05/11/2008 16:11

how about putting the ingredients for something in layers in a nice jar with recipe printed and tied to lid? someone suggested it already- you layer the dry ingredients in the jar, just omitting anything wet, put the recipe onto card so they know what needs to be added, maybe a couple of festive cookie cutters or somethings and put a pretty label on it.

Luxmum · 06/11/2008 09:12

I made cookies and put them in a nice Villeroy cookie jar. I would have loved to receive that. (am sooo modest..!) Even the wooden storage jars from Ikea are nice. Or a fruit cake. My friend made me a cucumber pickle which took her ten minutes to make. And about the same time for me to eat straight out of the jar...

Litchick · 06/11/2008 09:14

A Christmas cake in a lovely tin.
If you make it now and feed it 'twill be yummy for the 25th.

TheGoat · 06/11/2008 09:19

i like to crochet large grinning clowns in bold acrylic colours. people seem to like them.

janmoomoo · 06/11/2008 22:56

Chilli jam - blummin gorgous (if you like hot stuff).

Also sloe gin (if you can find sloes).

Ronaldinhio · 07/11/2008 08:27

grinning clowns.......arggghhhh!!!

janmoomoo · 07/11/2008 22:42

Yes, a large grinning clown in bold colours - would give small children nightmares surely?

sleepycatonabroomstick · 07/11/2008 22:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FeelingLucky · 07/11/2008 22:46

I'm going to make FUDGE this year - inspired by India Knight in last week's Sunday Times

anyone have a recipe?

TurkeyLurkey · 07/11/2008 22:48

We made papier mache baubles to give the oldies last year.Went down a storm even if I say so myself

ja9 · 09/11/2008 09:04

turkeylurkey - you there? how did you make those... intrigued... would like to make with my class.

Mung · 09/11/2008 15:50

baubles sound good...do you use a small balloon and papier mache it?

AlistairSim · 09/11/2008 15:59

I collect old teacups from charity shops and make my own candles in them.

nobody has snorted in disgust yet.

DoNotAsfinishedXmasshopping · 09/11/2008 16:04

There was a thread earier in teh week about making new crayons from way crayons and they looked really good for younger people.

thread here

christiana · 09/11/2008 16:09

Message withdrawn

pigleto · 10/11/2008 20:58

I have just been making outdoor planters for the rels. With a few primulas and a sparkly twig stuck in them to look festive. They are to go outside so people will not have to look at them or dust them and they look OK, not too hand made. And the dcs actually got to help make them.

TurkeyLurkey · 14/11/2008 12:18

I am here! The baubles are very simple to do. We just got some small balloons and blew them up to large bauble size.

Tie the neck of the balloon. We then cut out little squares of Xmas wrapping paper out and papier mached them in layers over the balloon - doing it so the layers were smooth and had no air under them (think we slathered them in wallpaper paste).

When they were dry kids stuck big gold stars and glitter to them.

Oh yes we tied some nice ribbon around the neck of the balloon for hanging off Xmas tree and ta daaa! job done.
(oldies loved 'em I have to say - we gave them away as presents and earned massive brownie points from the in-laws [smug DIL emotion] ).

WilfSell · 14/11/2008 12:30

cheap white plates and mugs from Woolies or factory shops

Pebeo (sp) ceramic paints from Hobbycraft

Get your kids to draw a picture on said crockery with a soft pencil. Pictures of Granny etc work very well.

Then you get a gold/silver 'liner' pen from the pottery painting kit and go over their drawing

Then you get them to fill in the gaps with suitable coloured pottery paints

Bake in over to set

Bingo!

MUCH MUCH blubbing by doting grandparents ensues.

ja9 · 14/11/2008 18:45

Thank you! Think my class will LOVE this!

Elk · 14/11/2008 19:05

How about Honeycomb? India Knight does a recipe and it takes about 5 mins.

WilfSell · 14/11/2008 19:54

I'd like some more ideas too as I've overused my pottery one for too many years now, so am bumping this excellent thread...

Horton · 14/11/2008 20:54

Chutney, jam, truffles. All these can be tarted up with beautiful labels or packaging to look easily as nice as anything that was bought.

With truffles, you can make your own box out of plain black/dark card, make a sort of grid out of cardboard to sit them in and wrap each one individually in pretty coloured tissue paper. Cut a snowflake out of another colour of tissue in the right size to sit on top and do dots of silver glitter and a very smart ribbon tie on the outside. IKEA always has cheap and smart-looking ribbon. Go for something that looks like real ribbon rather than gift tie and it will look much smarter. I got 4m of smart duck egg blue silky ribbon for about a quid in IKEA last year.

With jam/chutney, do handwritten labels with the date you made it. If it's your own fruit/veg, also include the season you harvested it (eg Summer 2008). Get a proper smart italic pen to write with and get stickers to stick on or draw a suitable fruit/veg, scan it in and print labels with that on. Also do a circle of pretty fabric held on with a rubber band or ribbon for the top.

Fudge and stuff are lovely in cellophane bags tied with pretty ribbon, too.

I think with homemade presents, it's all about the presentation if you don't want it to look cheap.

Horton · 14/11/2008 20:56

eBay is your friend for unusual and pretty fabric, btw.