Contest Details Here

This thread is for CREATIVE AND HOMEMADE GIFT IDEAS entries. Please submit them below!

Be sure to include:

1) Budget
2) Prep time and total time needed
3) Materials and ingredients used
4) Photo (optional)


Good luck!

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Come Black Friday and Cyber Monday Shopping With Me In ONLINE BARGAINS

Some of the best gifts I've received are the gifts of time. . .

Especially as a new mom I loved getting coupons for some me time and now do similar gifts for my family.

Budget: $0- ???, depending on what you want to spend
Prep Time: varies
Materials: cardstock, printer or even paper/crayons

Depending on the recipient deide on one or more gift ideas and come up with a cute coupon design or poem to present your gift. You can find many templates online. Package in envelope or small box. I received one that had set dates on the coupon as the giver knew I probably wouldn;t redeem it otherwise.

Examples I have gotten include:

You've spent the last month of the year
With busy days and holiday cheer
Its time for you to take a break
So let me bring you a coffee cake!

On Jan 12 I will be bringing you dinner for the family

This entitles you to 6 hours of free babysitting (Can combine with a dinner gift card, mani/pedi gift card, movie tix, etc if you want a more expensive gift

For grandparent: A coupon for a picnic, trip to the zoo with grandkids, family portraits, cleaning out garage, mowing grass, coming over to bake cookies, have lunch,etc

For dad: sleeping in, Daddy- child movie day, day without chores, etc

For mom: A night with no cooking or dishes, A morning to sleep in, massage, extra chores, etc

For kids: A day out of their choosing within budget guidelines (picnic, library, zoo, park, museum, etc), extra stories, 2 hours of chosen activity with parent (crafts, playing ball, tv, bike riding, etc), extra tv show,

Possibilities are endless and can fit into any budget!

1. Movie lover basket: In a basket put microwave popcorn, the latest dvd, coupons to rent movies, and/or a gift certificate to a movie theater or a movie rental place.

Dress up box for kids: Now is the time to hit the stores and consignment shops/thrift stores for great deals on costumes that the kids can wear to play dress up. Dollar Tree has hats and boas. Go to a thrift store and look for purses or shoes they can play in.

Basket for a person who loves to cook: In a basket include an apron, new utensils that may be needed, a new cookbook, and/or copies of your favorite recipes.

I love this idea! I always look for princess dresses and such but nver think that fun Halloween customes can find a perfect home in a dress up trunk

This is what I did last year. Since I scrapbook, I end up with a TON of scraps...and you can make nice cards with scraps. So I made, I think it ended up being 14 Card Sets, for neices, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, ect... And I made a gift bag to put them all in! Each set had 2 B-Day cards, a Halloween card, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Just a Note, and a few others.

I know this tends to be specific for "crafters" but it is the personal time that you put into it all that counts. And you save money on gifts to boot!

PS ~ this year I might try to do personalized stationary sets! A lot of the neices & nephews are going off to college. Wishful thinking on my part that they would actually take the time to write letters I suppose. But a nice handmade gift none the less.

Sorry for so many posts, you can't edit, LOL, and I just realized that I forgot to add, cost & prep time. Cost was minimal because I used up what I had in my "stash". But I did add envelopes so $5 for a box of those. And I will say Under $10 for each set, including gift bag and envelopes.

Time, I would say 4-5 hours on each set of 14 cards and gift bag. I had an assembly line sorta of, so I made 14 of the same card knowing how many sets I need when I started. So it is hard to tell how much time I actually spent on each set.

And lastly, pics:

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe

Wow- those cards are awesome! Anyone should be thrilled to get those. I also saw somewhere (maybe here?) someone had taken digital pics of her kids artwork and then printed that out onto blank notecards.

Diaper Cake

I know this is generally made for baby showers, but I don't see any reason why it couldn't be decorated for the holidays for a mom who's expecting around then.

1. Budget- around $30
2. prep time- 1 hour to roll diapers
total time- about 3 hours to assemble and decorate
3. materials-
2 packs of diapers (I used size 2 on the bottom tier and size 1 on the top 2)
tiny rubber bands, the kind for little girls' hair to roll the diapers
large rubber bands
rolled washcloths for the "roses"
tiny rattles and pacifiers from the $1 store
cardboard cake board
ribbon

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Very nice.

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Tina Dalasinski