Homemade pressies anyone?

[geisha]

Would be great to hear ideas about homemade pressies you have made/received. Would really like to have a go this Christmas/autumn birthdays. Particularly interested in gifts for children.

We'll be doing raspberry vodka this year for most of the adults. Rasberries are free as got loads in the garden and basic vodka. We've been saving up nice bottles to decant it into. Blackberry whisky went down well last year and sloe gin.

Will have a go at the truffles I think, they sound gorgeous.

Does anyone have any ideas for teenage boys? We have seven of them to buy for and I'm always clueless.

Those tutus are fab - I will definitely be making them for my daughter and her cousin. Thanks for the links.

Last year I did cocktail kits which went down quite well - small bottle of Chambord, martini glass, carton pineapple juice instructions to make French martini.

For the difficult men/teenagers I made a selection of fudge, tablet, peanut brittle etc and gave them each a large biscuit tin filled with little cellophane baggies of each sweetie. I think they were appreciated and we had quite a bit left over which was nice to hand out to visitors with tea/coffee over Christmas.

Last Christmas I bought plan canvas type bags from "the clever baggers" and let the DC decorate them, they where fab. Trying to think of this years thing !

I have found cheap retro Marmite tins so going to do fruit cakes for alot of people this year, with a bottle of port chucked in for my brothers.

I have every intention to get some fairly plain picture frames and get ds to decorate them. He has made one of his aunts a necklace (shell heart with leather cord) under 2 pounds but looks amazing.

I have made a pv bag as a present but wouldnt recommend it as it was a nightmare to get it through my sewing machine. (by the way if anyone knows how to do this please let me know )

Does anyone kno wof a cheap place where I could buy a few plain wooden photo frames that DS could decorate?

Grannies like that kind of stuff

Maybe not the cheapest of ideas but when I was younger my Aunt gave me a wooden box (she was a joiner and made it herself but sure you could buy a plain one) which she had decorated with beautiful shells and stones I used it as a jewellery box but could be used for anything really.

Photo calanders are also cheap and cheerful.

Wooden frames are v cheap in places like Home Bargains. Or M&S do really nice ones for just 3.50.

Fivegomad - where did you find the Marmite tins please? DD1 would love one of those!

I get my frames from Ikea, very plain, very basic, very cheap.

Have only read the op, but has anyone commented on how much pleasure children get from boxes? It is well-known that the toys in them are often discarded for games of the imagination. Perhaps visit a packing/storage facility to get some nice fresh ones which you can decorate yourself? Or better still, enclose some crayons and the children can let their imagination run riot!

To sew PVC put tissue paper over the sticky side and sew on that, then tear it off after sewing it. (thanks to my mum after I rang her in tears of frustration)

I also added to DD's tutus some voile fabric (that frays really nicely and makes cute almost raggy tutus), and some metallic ribbon and shiny ribbon so make them sparkle.

One of my favourite presents last christmas was a bracelet the bloke made for me. He used Fimo to make black and white licorice allsorts shaped beads and just linked them up with elastic. It looks great and I like that it's home made.

I knitted him a beanie, wool wasn't that expensive and he liked it a lot as it was self made.

For the chocolate in the chocolate truffles use the really good cheap dark chocolate from Lidl less than £1 for 100g

Going to have a go at choc truffles nearer the time for adults. But this is what I have decided on for kids (mainly girls aged 3-6) - I have bought some inexpensive cotton fabric and ribbon to make a simple drawstring bag which I am going to fill with a childs apron (£1.99 - B&M), a set of 5 kids cutters (99p Wilkos), a childs rolling pin (59p wilkos), a cupcake recipe book (99p Works, BOGOF) and will probably buy some colourful cake cases (99p Tesco). Each bag will cost about £8 per bag. For me this is a saving of £7 on my usual £15 per child budget. I know my DD's would be delighted with this for a present and so am feeling very pleased with myself!!!

Anyone else decided on what to do yet?

If I miss out the cake cases it will cost about £7 per bag which is half of my usual budget, so might do this just for the satisfaction!

gosh Geisha... that is a lovely pressie!! We have that cupcake book - in fact when I bought it for dd, they were buy one get one free? I have since seen a much nicer one in Marks. I think they were £3.50 which would push your budget a little more .

What is B&M?

sorry, just saw you said bogof .

I am feeling very inspired, am going to make a tutu for my niece. and cupcake making bags sound brill for dds friends.

does anyone know where you can buy tulle cheaply online?

Some brilliant ideas here.

I've just decorated a PE kit bag for DS1 who is four and might adapt the idea for Xmas pressies. Bag cost 85p from Cleverbagger and I bought an assortment of 71 different coloured felt squares for £8 which will last me forever. I did DS's name and dinosaurs and he seems pretty pleased with it.

I also bought some plain tea towels from Cleverbagger which I'm going to let DS1 decorate for his god-mother and grandmother.

Last year DS & I made DH some chocolates - there are some fab recipes on the Martha Stewart website.

I have lots of 4 year old boys to provide for as well as not-quite 2 year old girls. Any suggestions?

There was a thread a while ago about home made candles with soy wax and essential oils. I was wondering if I saved baby food jars and glass painted the outside then poured candles into them, would it look really cheap? Or does it have 'green' value?

Love the idea of little homemade jam and fruit cake hampers, or kids craft on ikea photo frames.

Where is the cheapest place for photo calendars? we used vistaprint for the last 2 yrs and everyone is expecting another this year

have just bought tulle from ebay, if it works will be £6 for 2 tutus. have just looked at cleverbagger site as well, thats a great site.

bought some quite nice photo frames in cheapy card shop today!£1.99, going to put photos of dc's in for grandparents pressies.

kiwibella - B&M is a bargin type shop that arrived in our town when woolies vacated.

I'm struggling for inspiration for 2 x 1 year old girls and a 1 year old boy too. Suppose I could do the tutus for the girls, they'll be toddling soon. Wonder about making a bag with something else in it for the 1 year olds - teddy or books? mmm.