Best gifts you can make that look impressive?

[hereidrawtheline]

Seeing as how so many of us are on a very tight budget this year I thought we could pool some ideas of gifts to make that cost very little but have big impact - i.e. I need ideas!

Last year we did a really fab thing that went down well, we got loads of bottles, clear and green, and lots of super cheap, short fairy lights (lesson learnt, led will work best!) we got them from woolies for £2 each... anyway towards the bottom of the bottle you use a glass appropriate drill bit and drill a small hole, then thread the fairy lights in to it, leaving the bit hanging out for the plug. Wire the plug back on (must admit I got DH to do that bit) and use chop sticks or something to spread the lights out nicely inside the bottle, so they can be used year round really. Different coloured bottles and lights are nice too!

Does that mean good Lio

I'm liking the venus fly traps idea. Not sure who I could give those too.

I'm definately doing the sweets thing and I think I'll use glasses as they'll show off the sweets better than a cup.

more ideas on this thread

Yes Eddas, and another star for the glass idea, love it!

oh I love the fly trap one!

harrisonnnn have you given a link to the bird pattern? Hoping I haven't missed it

great thread hereidrawtheline, some lovely ideas on here. hoping to make a few things with DD who is 4.

does anyone have any fab ideas for different things to with photos of the kids for family?

In the past we have made little fruit cakes about the size of a large baked bean tin (this is what we used) but only half full and then top with some icing and a ribbon around it. Looks good.

Some great ideas here, thanks everyone.

I started a thread yesterday about making cooking oils infused with things like chili and garlic - here if anyone's interested

I'm thinking of doing candles as well as cinder fudge, cookies, boiled sweets in jars might do bath bombs too and maybe mugs with things in, they all sound like fab ideas

LFC - please could you email me too about how to make candles? kelli @kellischild care. co .uk

Also for those needing jars there is another thread that says they have them in asda for £1 but I've also seen some on ikea's website too for as little as 89p

for those of you that do bath bombs / salts how far in advance do you make them and how long will they last?

just come across a bath salts recipe for chocolate lovers. so Im thinking of doing a chocolate/sweet theme of bath products etc for those that are choc lovers but on a diet instead of making them sweets & biscuits does that sound mad?!

JP - would you be able to post your recipe for choc bombs here please?

I think using them for people on diets is a good idea.

Also JP

Photos - last year I brought some snow globes from home bargains for 99p and put a picture of the dc's inside.

You could also make a photo book at asda or tesco it was about £15 last time I did it I think.

Does anyone know the best way to dry out flower petals for the bath bombs?

Dh brought me some roses yesterday and I'd like to use those.

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chocolate bath salts here

I like the photo snow globe idea but dont have a home bargins locally

have been looking around for storage pots for all these fab ideas. ikea had a set of four spice jars for £1.99 that looked good and primark had a travel kit with lots of bottles for £1 but the bottle top would'nt have worked with salts so still looking

have dried rosepetals between 2 pieces of blotting paper under an encyclopaedia (leave for a few days)they retain a reasonable amount of colour

a friend ties hers into bunches and dries them hanging from her kitchen ceiling (but she has loads of lavender etc and her kitchen isn't like ice station zebra!)

oooh - ~watches thread~

I like the idea in the OP.

Last year I made mini (4") Christmas cakes for random aunties / teachers/ nursery helpers - I bought some lovely baskets and wrapped each one in cellophane in a basket.

All the children we know got books (from Red House) in pretty fabric bags which I made.