My brother and new SIL were married last weekend and they received several books of stamps. They are both still in college, so it is a great benefit for them not to have to buy stamps for all those thank you cards they will be sending out!

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DS - 6/01, DD - 7/03, DS - 5/06

for friends I do alot of food gifts. I make:tortillas, tacos, tamales, enchiladas, jam/jelly, salsa, pickles.

my friend makes homemade bread, caramel rolls

I also give two money tickets(for Parents) along with free babysitter coupon(we will babysit). I also include popcorn/pop/and blockbuster card(kids). the parents end up with two movie nights. one with kids one without.

for newer parents I give a couple of two hour babysitting coupons along with food. they can have meal and free babysitting. these make great babyshower gift's also.

allgirls

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls

I get my grandma (as well as some other items) a gift subscription to the taste of home magazine every year for Christmas.

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The mighty oak started out as a nut that held its ground.

DH and I decided to do consumable gifts for Christmas this year- our parents are getting one of two baskets.
1. breakfast basket (I make homemade jams/jellies, apple butter- they'll also have a few coffee samplers and a muffin mix)
2. bbq basket (it will have a bunch of homemade sauces and grill seasonings and marinades)

His twin sis and family is getting a 'snack' basket- homemade salsa that I make and jerky and snack sticks that DH makes, maybe a cookie mix in a jar or some homemade candies.

My youngest sis and DH's two older sis are getting bath baskets- shower gels, lip gloss and I'm making bath salts, oatmeal soaps/sachets and bath fizzes.

We decided to do the consumable baskets since we can make a lot of the stuff for a lot less than we can buy something and it will probably be more appreciated.

Here is a great one for pretzels lovers... My dh and ds love to get a pretzel from the Pretzel Twister or Aunt Annies whenever we are at the mall or our local shopping center. But they are expensive- up to to over two bucks per pretzel here now. These places sell gift cards- 25 cards for 25 bucks! So each pretzel costs a dollar. I have to buy 25 cards to get the deal, but I can split them up (it's just a rubberbanded stack of 25 little pretzel cards). You could use them as stocking stuffers, teacher gifts, etc... Who doesn't like pretzels?

And if anyone has a great fail proof recipe for making them at home, I'd love to have that

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I don't believe in miracles; I depend on them

One thing I have found is to stock up now on the crayons and markers at back to school prices and as birthdays etc come up I go get whatever coloring book is of interest to the child (usually at the dollar store) and end up w/a great gift for the child, mom is glad to have something the kid will use and not have to sell at the next years' g sale....and it was light on my budget....easy time as well.
I try to collect 'giftables year round and set them aside for whatever need may arise. Last weekend I had 2 birthdays and a baby shower to get gifts for. Well, time was short so I went to the gift closet, and was able to put together 3 nice gifts.....no shopping required! Ok, now my closet is low, but at least it was there for me when I needed it. Now I will go back to collecting for it once again.
Michelle

I admit up front I stole this idea from 2bearsMom and Perfect4ofus; it is for making "crayon cookies" , which sound really cute and could be put in an arts and crafts gift basket:

Layer your broken crayons in a muffin tin- put in the oven for 15 min at 225-250 (or I just read you could go at 325 for 2 min). Then let them cool
and pop them out of the tins.

2bearsmom said they made patriotic ones (red, wh,bl), army ones(brown, gr)... they sound really fun.

The original post is up in the fun and creativity section- thanks, ladies!

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I don't believe in miracles; I depend on them

thanks for all the great ideas ladies!

I adore these ideas. I'm not the most active participant around, but I do read and love how creative everyone is.

car wash tokens - great idea!