Christmas gifts made w/ lots of love and not so much money! ;)

Please post your ideas & pics of them if possible of your ideas for Christamas gifts! Could be made from scratch, or not. :)

I've got a few that we're going to try this year:

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11565

http://www.toys4minds.com/knotquilt.html

You could do the Brownie in a Jar or the Cookie Mix in a Jar type of thing. You can buy all the ingredients in bulk then put it in the jars. It ends up being easy on the pocketbook.

since we have the only grand daughter/great grand child so we are framing the little doodles she does with her color wonder markers/paper and framing them for her grand and great grand parents :)

last year I made hot chocolate mix for all of DH's coworkers (about 20). Here's the recipe I used. I mixed it all up in a huge pot!

sift 1 box powered milk (1lb 10oz)

add and mix
4 cups powdered sugar
2 8 oz powered flavored coffee mate (I use 1 vanilla and 1 hazel nut)
1 box Quick (1lb 14 oz)
11 oz regular coffee mate
1/2 teaspoon salt

I put the mix in a plastic baggie tied with a pretty ribbon and then put that inside of a tin from Hobby Lobby. (I think this year I'll skip the tins, they were expensive!) Attach these directions:

stir 2 heaping Tablespoons into 1 cup of hot water


Oh, and I also love FamilyFun magazine or familyfun.com for fun crafts!

Family Fun magazine has ideas (I have not read them yet :lol)

You could make photo frames. Let your child draw/doodle on the frame, get magnetic sticky paper (stick on one side and magnetic on the other) and include a recent photo. Then they have a frame for the fridge for the most recent photo or drawing.

I love homemade ornaments.

Real Simple mag also had nice ideas, but I didn't purchase that one

You could do a tote bag and scan and iron on your childs artwork - similar to how Landsend is doing a tote this year. Landsend tote is 19.00....you will probably spend near that in supplies.

My MIL always makes a basket full of baked goods for each of us "families" and we look forward to it every year! Different kinds of breads and cookies.

I like those stepping stones with the handprints or footprints of your child - if the receiver is into gardening. The kit runs 9.00

I bet a hobby Lobby or Michaels has some kits to make Christmas type themed things.Love those weekly 40 percent off coupons.

If you want to make the knot quilt, you can check the selvage buns at walmart for extra fleece bits. I have been picking up those throughout the year to make little blankets and such. Now i have seen fleece braided for dog doys and I might do some of those for my canine loving friends :)

It might be corny, but I still make gift certificates for my family, babysitting, clean the oven, movie night. Personally I would rather have a loved one do a load of dishes for me than to have a present. Is that pathetic or what, lol.

It might be corny, but I still make gift certificates for my family, babysitting, clean the oven, movie night. Personally I would rather have a loved one do a load of dishes for me than to have a present. Is that pathetic or what, lol.

That is SOOOO not corny. I just love practicality and who doesn't like being pampered :)

I've given babysitting certificates and certificate for a dinner party on the date of their choosing (that's easy cause dh does the cooking :lol)

But I remember reading in Family fun a mom came up with the idea of having her child make a certificate for her friends bday showing what they would do for a playdate (like take them bowling, take them to a movie etc...) I thought how BRILLIANT! As they get older they have less time and less interest in toys :)

Ooh Great ideas! Keep 'em coming! There are a bunch that hadn't crossed my mind but would be PERFECT!

Too bad we can't do something with all our boudoir pics. Haha.

I take one of my son's xmas pictures and glue it to a nice piece of xmas scrap book paper. Then I make a handprint of his hand in green or red paint. I cut the handprint out and glue it onto a coordinating piece of xmas scrap book paper. I glue the two papers together and laminate them, punch a hole, add pretty ribbon and volia a beautiful keepsake ornament for everyone to enjoy. I always add the year and his age. I do them in bulk, like 6 to a page so laminating is not expensive.

Hello! I just discovered Family Fun magazine at the dr. office today and want a subscription!

I love this month's hot cocoa cones and lots of other cute things.

For the OP:
Fleece blankets are easy to make
Fabric boards are cute (cover a piece of wood with fabric and ribbon to hold pictures)
You could learn to crochet and make scarves :)
Hairbows with matching socks for little girls
Get towels embroidered

For my cousin, I am getting a fleece blanket (only like $3 some places) and having it embroidered for her dog as a couch or car blanket. And then a journal and a nice bookmark and/or pen. Gifts she'll love and not a big price tag. (also light for shipping to Colorado!)

HTH!!

We will be making some of these for teacher gifts!

http://verygoodthings.blogspot.com/2005/11/very-good-gift-homemade-cookie-bouquet.html

I asked the grandmothers to go through their pictures and to make each of my boys a book. Something like "Grandma and Grandpa and Me". It can have pictures of other family members and ancestors, pictures of the boys with the grandparents, pictures of their house, etc. With captions. The boys will cherish them. They'll never outgrow them. They won't end up in the trash. And if they do it with a 3 ring binder, they can add pages every year. And it will cost very little. Both grandmas were totally jazzed by the idea!!!

we made handprints and footprints out of the foam clay from crayola last year and then made them into ornaments

ooh, gabdommom you reminded me of another one!

Addie has 2 cousins her age (year and half) and one cousin that is 3. A few months ago I sent out an email asking everyone for a photo of themselves. I'm making each child a photo book with their family members. It will have mom, dad, siblings, grandparents, cousins, etc photo with their name printed big-one photo/name on each page. I'm laminating them with heavy lamination and binding them. I know Addie will love it! My mom is doing something similar for Addie and my nephew but her book is just about her and my dad. It has pages like, "papa works at the hospital", "cookie (my mom) teaches children", "papa drives a truck", etc with a corresponding photo of them doing that activity. I know she's going to laminate and bind too.

We also give family members a recent picture of us. This year we're getting them done at the Arboretum. We always have a talented (and free) friend do them and just frame them with an inexpensive frame.

I bought unfinished wood picture frames at Michael's for $1 & am going to paint them for our family. I'll post pics when I'm done.

One year dh & I said $10 limit (the xmas before we got married & bought a home): I bought one of those tear off each page calendars & went through it & wrote sweet things & coupons & such on random days. He made me a compilation video of me skydiving & set it to "I can't get enough of you baby".

One year everyone got our engagement pic in a frame. Framed pics are always nice & if you use Kellys suggestion of painting your own - thats sounds great - we will have to do that one year!

This year we are doing a budget again so for all of our family dh is doing a FIRST YEAR of dd compilation DVD with a video & stills. For her dh is making a book about her adventures (in photoshop). Im going to make her a book with just faces of our family.

This year we are doing a budget again so for all of our family dh is doing a FIRST YEAR of dd compilation DVD with a video & stills. For her dh is making a book about her adventures (in photoshop). Im going to make her a book with just faces of our family.

How is he doing this? would love to do it!

I just found these sites....Lots of ideas!!!!

http://www.craftbits.com/

www.familycorner.com (http://www.familycorner.com)

http://www.kaboose.com/

How is he doing this? would love to do it!

He uses Aftereffects - its a program on his computer. He downloads all the video into it as well as the songs he uses. And then he edits it all together. And in Aftereffects you can actually "see" the music (the up & down & beats & stuff so it makes it very easy to edit the video to the beats & make it all fit" So, really I dont know, but if you have any specific ?s I can ask dh & get back to you.

Here is a link to two *very* early videos he made - so his more recent ones are much better - but these are his first two if you want to see some examples. His current ones are much better but I dont have links to them anywhere.

http://www.may24wedding.com/HowWeMet/

ETA: And then he uses a DVD burner at work to burn the video & still to a dvd - he even makes a menu on the DVD, but I dont know how he does it since he doesnt do it at home.

You can buy plain bath tiles at Lowes for about .14 each. Then you can stamp, paint, decoupage pictures, etc. Whatever you want and give them out as coasters. We're trying this one out this year. I think I'm going to try to find a cute stamp to use!