Brandy:

timzagain:

I asked my sis and a few others to indicate how much they'd expect to pay for my "creation" - they said $10!

I have seen such things before and they can run from just a few dollars to the $10 that was suggested or even higher. Great gift!

I decided to test these out at a Christmas craft fair this weekend!  I sold them at US $5.  Didn't sell all but that's ok because I might need another 2 small gifts that I hadn't planned for!  I probably would have sold more if I'd used something like a kids body wash, bubble bath or something similar.

Another under $5 idea in the "semi-homemade" category - candy cane bath salts.  I bought small mason jars from the dollar store, as well as some really cute small wooden spoons form the Asian "dollar" store.   The ingredients are Epsom salts, red food colouring and peppermint oil.  Add a few drops of peppermint oil to the Epsom salts, divide salts in half and add a few drops of food coloring to one half.  Alternate layers of red and white salts for a candy cane effect.  Tie a bit of ribbon around the jar to attach spoon.  You can knock of several of these in a few minutes - price per gift about $4.  Could be less if you omitted the spoon, though it did add a nice touch to the packaging.

I got some large Christmas mugs for $1 at the dollar tree to make little cake in a mug kits.  You put the mix together, they add a couple of ingredients, and then microwave their own personal size cake in the mug.  The recipe can be found here: http://www.budget101.com/recipes/id195.htm  I will add a sample size bag of coffee to enjoy with the cake, and the gifts will be done for about $3 each. 

So far this year I have purchased a nice Kitchenaid blender for our son and his wife, for $68 on OverStock.com. And a magnetic Disney Paper Doll set  and two card games for our newly acquired granddaughter. I also went shopping in my spare room closet and found a cute necklace for daughter in law, a nice ceramic Christmas what not container, with kittens on it. The girl LOVES cats, and a Zen Garden kit purchased at The Dollar Tree. For the Granddaughter I found 6 small containers of recently purchased PlayDoh, a NEW super cute Holiday Beanie Baby from 1999 purchased at Goodwill, 2 months ago. AND a HUGH fake diamond necklace that will go perfectly with her dressup clothes. I figure the spare room shopping spree probably saved me about $50. Now just to purchase a few small items for son, husband, and parents. YAY.

Another under-five gift - handpainted wine glasses.  Bought four glasses from the dollar store, and painted a Christmas design using glass paints leftover from a wedding favour project from last year (bride paid for paints and allowed me to keep the leftovers!).  Gave the glasses to the recipient yesterday, so that she'd have them early enough to actually enjoy them during the holiday season.  She loved them, even moreso because she truly appreciates handcrafted stuff.  She's got a useful, one-of-a-kind gift and I'm only out of pocket $4!

I'm using the leftover glass paints to create several other gifts, each of which will cost under $5:-

• DH requested a Christmas themed coffee mug
• Set of wine glasses to coordinate with my sister's Christmas china pattern
• Personalized spoon rests for the cooking lovers on my list (spoon rest from dollar store)
• Painted glass ornaments
• Mosaic tiles (rescued from discard pile at a construction site where DH worked) were painted and turned into fridge magnets

The paints allow me to create last minute gifts (especially hostess gifts) very quickly and easily.  It helps that my favourite dollar store is less than 10 minutes away from my house!

Color crayons from a box

pens

penciles

cosmetics

sewing kit

shoe shine kit

small first aid kit

ciggerettes

lol scrap the cigs thought you get a chuckle out of that at the smoke shop here at the thunderbird tradding its 7.45

Bought TWO of the HUGE stockings for a grandniece and grandnephew at The Dollar Tree. Took them home and personalized one for each child. I used leftover sparkle fabric paint, and Christmas ribbon that I had left in my craft box. Pulled out the hot glue gun and added embellishments using items on hand. Both turned out REALLY cute, and will go in the mail monday. For the two I would say I spent about $4, counting the supplies.

we been selling soup mix in a jar 

cookies in a jar

and  simple mixes  I make up cake mixes or cookie mix  even corn bread and plain baking mixes in small paper bags 

they have been  selling like hot cakes ..  

( All the money goes to the food bank . )

 

one broach

cosmetics

lip gloss

earrings

home made neckless

hankie

candy

chocolet candy bar

diet coke

kettle pop corn

a toy

note pad

pens

pencil

beer

cake mix in a jar

home made socks

hat

scarf

gloves

nuts

dried fruit

tums

rolaids

telephone book

coloring book

cranons

beer an another beer

wow very creative everyone!