Last second home-made gift ideas: HELP!!!

[wreckedcarzz]

Ahh! I've done it again (this makes 4 years in a row, now) - I don't have ANY money for Christmas presents (paying back loans) and I need some suggestions for home made gifts. Last year I made a picture DVD, the year before I made cards and gave out what little money I had... I'm not creative. Anyone got ideas?

Anything simple will do, me and my sister need to make something up for 5 people each (mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and me/her respectively)... I just need ideas. My dad uses his computer a lot so I thought maybe programming him something, but the rest of the family isn't "techy" enough to use anything I might make for a computer.

Any ideas? I can't be the only one out there that is going "oh ****" and panicking... right? Right? RIGHT?!?!?!?!

EDIT: A friend of mine on Xfire brought up food - that's out, I've been sick for almost two weeks now.

[mouser]

great question -- can't wait to see what people come up with.

what about a flipbook
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/FlipbookPrinter/index.html

[cmpm]

Can you be with them for the day?
Just being together is a gift.
Will the 4 you said be together?
Can it happen?

Being there makes a difference.

Just a thought...
thinkin of my family as well

[mouser]

Can you be with them for the day? Just being together is a gift.

if they are over the age of 30 this might work.

under the age of 18 and you are likely to get a giant "WTF!?# "

[cmpm]

lol...very true...

lot's of them young ones can be a chore
there's no off switch on kids...

[SKesselman]

EDIT: A friend of mine on Xfire brought up food - that's out, I've been sick for almost two weeks now.

I think we should all donate so you & your sister can go buy something.
I have been in your shoes and it's no fun.
I will start.

This is not much. Many others may want to chip in.
Buy -do not make- something tomorrow.

[SKesselman]

OK, people, we've all been there!

Let's show wreckcarzz some Christmas spirit!!!

[mouser]

he doesn't want money, he wants ideas for making homemade gifts. so let's give him the gift of knowledge!

[SKesselman]

Sorry!

I just know that feeling and, it's the worst.

Edit: I also know how hard it is to make anything when you're panicked, it never seems to come out right...

Edited again: I stand by my reasonable donation. Everything, even the stapler & busininess cards needed for the Flipbook costs something, as do most of the supplies needed to make, or even gift wrap, anything.

Home made or store bought, it's truly the thought that counts, and I think wreckedcarzz's original post shows a great deal of thoughtfulness.

Happy Holidays to All!

[Perry Mowbray]

For our family Kris Kringle, which is limited to less than $5, I make general suggestions like:

• A Poem
• A drawing/painting
• A personal recipe book
• A special photo
• Grow a plant (you're probably a bit late for that now  )
• Write a short story (it may need to be very short now  )
• Cook a special cake
• Perform a song

In the past I've done things like a personal journal (they certainly wont be blogging if they're not techie), this year a grew a persimmon from seed and have put some recipes together.

[cmpm]

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/

'how to' from what you may already have

from googling 'quick homemade gifts'
most involved some money
but that one may have something for you

or if you have a gift from someone else
and you think they would like it
called 'regifting' in my inlaws family..haha!
maybe it sounds bad, but it may work
depending on what you have they don't know about
being into giving is what matters anyway

[wreckedcarzz]

Thanks for the link cmpm, checking it out now

For our family Kris Kringle, which is limited to less than $5, I make general suggestions like:

• A Poem
• A drawing/painting
• A personal recipe book
• A special photo
• Grow a plant (you're probably a bit late for that now  )
• Write a short story (it may need to be very short now  )
• Cook a special cake
• Perform a song

In the past I've done things like a personal journal (they certainly wont be blogging if they're not techie), this year a grew a persimmon from seed and have put some recipes together.

Good list, I'll probably draw a (complex but bad) family portrait or something

[wreckedcarzz]

Can you be with them for the day? Just being together is a gift.

if they are over the age of 30 this might work.

under the age of 18 and you are likely to get a giant "WTF!?# "

Yea... my thoughts exactly. And its hard to keep a 9 year old girl under control/paying attention for any longer than - hey, was that a butterfly?

[Perry Mowbray]

Good list, I'll probably draw a (complex but bad) family portrait or something

A cartoon can be a funny and enduring item 

[nosh]

cmpm beat me to the papercraft suggestion.


There's some pretty cool (but somewhat complex stuff) at
PaperKraft.net
[attachimg=#]

If you're drawing something you might as well do it alongside a 12 month calendar template and mark out family birthdays, etc.

I think mouser's suggestion is pretty cool too.

[Davidtheo]

Good list, I'll probably draw a (complex but bad) family portrait or something

Wreckedcarzz

I was thinking along the same lines, a family photo would always go down well with grandparents and  the family, its cheap and can be done on the computer.

[cranioscopical]

You know, if you choose to print a relevant photo as a gift, that can be greatly enhanced by framing it nicely.
Assuming that you don't have picture frame on hand, or the tools and the time and the material to create some, a trip to your local Dollar Store can be quite rewarding.
The dollar store that's local to me carries a range of frames that would improve any photo from 4" x 6" to 8" x 10".
They're priced at -- you guessed it -- $1.
So, for a buck, some printer ink and a sheet of decent photo paper you wind up with a nicely-presented photo that's tuned to the recipient. Personalized and polished. I bet your sister could help you fit the pics into the frames so that you'd have a nice joint-venture gift for each lucky recipient.

Another idea would be to print up a fancy voucher that the recipient can 'cash in' for an hour of your time, to be applied to a chore of the recipient's choosing.

I, too, think the flip-book idea is great.

[Nod5]

1. Bake some cookies that you can easily customize the shape of (like thin gingerbread cookies). Make a custom cookie for each person in the shape of some object that reminds you of that person. So if one of them is a pro bowler, make a round cookie and add three dots of icing (to depict the holes). And so on for the other persons.

2. Write a fun quiz to play when you all get together. There are many ready-to-use quiz questions to be found on the web already. Mix in some questions that relates to the people that will be present or other persons you all know. This can be very entertaining if you can think of some funny (but not awkward) details that perhaps not everyone will right away know or remember ("what animal was uncle Edward bitten by in the summer of 1978? A: snake, B: donkey, C: shark"). This can generate many laughs and stories. After you've run through the quiz, hand out a small, symbolic price to the winner.

[Fred Nerd]

I find if you can do anything with wood carving, it always goes down well with anyone above the age of really young.
If you take a nice peice of board, then trace something like a horse on it (just use Google images until you find something which works as a line drawing), draw the horse and surrounds in black paint (oil based) then laquer the whole lot. Takes a couple of hours, cost nothing much of you have scrap board and a bit of laquer floating around...... Looks excellent, and it lasts.

[app103]

This is how you make fabric yo-yos: http://sewing.about.com/od/embellishment/ss/basicyoyo.htm

It's so easy a young child can make them. You can use any scrap fabric you have, from worn out jeans, to messed up dress shirts, to stuff you outgrew a few years ago.

Just gather the fabric together, and while one starts cutting the circles, the other can start sewing them.

When you have a bunch made, take a look at what you can make with them:

a bookmark:


placemats & doilies:


dolls:


a Christmas tree:


A quilt:


a keychain:


and there is a bunch more things here: http://www.needlepointers.com/ShowArticles.aspx?NavID=1385

And if you are smart, you will keep making the yo-yo circles long after Christmas is over, storing them for the next time you need to make a gift. And if you run out of cool stuff to make, just search Google for fabric yo-yo projects

[wreckedcarzz]

I like the framed picture idea, there are a few dollar/99 cent stores nearby...

I can't do anything with food but the quiz sounds cool... its unique.

I don't have any scrap wood large enough to work with, unfortunately, and we won't be making a trip to the local hardware store (Lowes) anytime before Christmas now. It would be a really awesome idea if I had the supplies and could keep my parents out of the garage for a couple hours.


Maybe I can Photoshop up a cookie family, then frame it (or have my sister make the frame... somehow? - she's good with that kind of paper/creative works and stuff). Then just make individual copies for each person (their own cookie alone).

Last second edit: My mom doesn't do any sewing (we have VERY minimal supplies, and (trying to keep the project quiet) with me and my sister, about the same amount of experience) and all older clothes get donated/trashed.. my dad and I are the only two packrats

So many awesome ideas... gah. So much stuff but never the right kind!

[app103]

Along the same idea as writing a story, how about this?

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=6725.0

[SKesselman]

So many awesome ideas... gah. So much stuff but never the right kind!

-DUH-

What about recording a song with you & your sister singing???

[steeladept]

Nosh, that is awesome! 

I knew App103 would have some great ideas - she always does.  Reminds me of my mom and sister that way.

One thing we have done in the past when cash was tight was to make gift certificates for services we could do.  For example, 1 night free babysitting for a parent's night out or 1 time clean out the garage.  Something like that.  It could be redeemed at a later date when you have time, and can provide a highly valuable service.  Just be sure it isn't something you would end up doing anyway - unless of course you are making in into a joke gift

[scancode]

Perform a song

Perry, are you INSANE? (ref: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=14621.0)
As for wrecked's gift ideas...
http://www.budget101.com/gaggift/gg36.htm
http://www.budget101.com/gaggift/gg58.htm <--  LOL
http://www.budget101.com/gaggift/gg16.htm <-- <3
Good luck!