At times like this... when money is tight for whatever reason... I know some bloopers get their creative juices flowing.

So I just wanted some ideas... because whilst I'm creative once I've got an idea, I am HOPELESS at forming ideas!

So PLEASE! Share with us your Christmas gifts that you've hand made, or "done for cheap"... where there is more thought & heart behind it, than monetary value :)

Christmas tree ornaments!

Uh.... the obvious answer, scrapbooks...

Or a little comic strip thingy. I did that once too, lol, though not for Christmas.

That's all I can think of now. I actually came to this thread because I'm interested in the replies myself! lol But figured I'd put in what I've come up with. I guess I'm pretty much like you, not so great at coming up with the ideas, but creative once the idea is there. ;)

Oh, I've done those love dice thingies before too... lol (you know, action on one die and body part in the other) but that's a little more specific, and not great gift or anything, just something amusing.

Uh.... you could always make a picture frame? Just a random idea too.

Oh, a board game is another idea. That is a more complicated one, but still quite cool?

Anyway, come on other Bloopers, help us out here, share your ideas! =D

Scrapbooks are always nice! :D

This year I'm completely broke and am unable to buy any more Christmas gifts, I've decided to become crafty. This year my mom is getting two jigsaw puzzles from me (with an orca theme). I'm in the process of finishing the second puzzle. The first one is finished and glued. After the second one is glued, I'm going to put them in a frame and give them to her (her school mascot is the orca). As for my grandma, she loves my stories I make so I'm giving her my essay (which could count as a short story) that may get published. I'm giving my other grandma a drawing-going to frame it as well.

Hope these will help you get an idea on Christmas gifts. :)

if there are young children on your list here is a slight twist to the photo albumn. A family friend did this for both my girls. Using the old type of photo album thats not exactly photo safe these days (with the sticky pages) she collected and cut out pictures of animals, from various sources (magazines, cards etc) and made an ABC book using the animals. They also have a christmas version of the ABC book. And each have a 1-2-3 book.
My now 11 yr old will still pull out the ABC's of Christmas to leaf through from time to time.

Anything involving photos always goes down well. I recently became a Godmum and bought my Goddaughter a pretty photo album and filled it with photos I'd taken, put them in chronological order, and wrapped it up. It was their favourite gift! Inexpensive but took time and thought :)
xxx

This year I am making a couple of notebooks, one that will be properly bound and fabric covered and one which is simpler to make and some of the pages have been printed off the net with things relevant to the person it's going to (I have the websites the tutorials are from if you want them).
I'm also Mic a deck of cards things which are well on their way to being scrapbooked.
I was planning to crochet a flower necklace/scarf thing but might make it for my friends birthday present instead.
I'm also going to have a go at making my friend an owl banner thing (again I have the guide somewhere).
Whatever you do, don't go on craftster, it's full of too many brilliant ideas but doesn't supply extra hours in the day to complete it all.

can u give us those websites! I wanted to do something like that for my best mate, but didnt want to screw it up! a tutorial would be awesome!

This is one of the notebook that is just glued:
http://photojojo.com/content/diy/make-your-own-photo-notebook-journal/

A basic tutorial of notebook binding is:
http://curiouslycrafty.wordpress.com/tutorials/
but there are a million other websites on it.

This is for the owl banner:
http://moonstitches.typepad.com/moonstitches/2007/11/zakka-style-owl.html

The crochet necklace:
http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com/2008/08/white-flower-necklace.html

I think it depends on if you can knit, crochet, sew, embroider, etc. ;D My sister and I are making gifts this year. She's knitting everyone sweaters and embroidering hand towels. I'm sewing gifts and crafting up some gifts. Sewing can be inexpensive if you get your fabric cheap (like Wal-Mart or garage sales), but knitting always seems to be rather expensive unless you knit small things or with cheap yarn. Of course, these things also require the know-how.

I personally think scarves that you've knitted yourself are a wonderful, cheap present. It has something special because you knitted it, but there are so many ways to make a skein of yarn stretch with a scarf. ;D But for those who don't know how or can't be bothered, I think baking is another wonderful idea. Bake cookies and put them in a holiday tin. Or put together your own cocoa mix and put it in a decorated jar (perhaps something with holiday glass etching on it that you can do yourself) with directions attached with string. What's fun about this kind of thing is that you can find them online. :)

Craftster (www.craftster.org) is a fantastic place to find all sorts of goodies and tutorials, but (like amy said) prepare to spend HOURS on that site and bookmarking every single thing you look at.

I am going to make a scrapbook for my mom, once she gets the photos out of the loft!
I managed to get a cheap album and I am going to fill it full of her fave pics from her youth up to now. I haven't started yet so really need to crack on!

one year my sister made my son and me fleece blankets with the frilly edges on them for christmas. i love mine so much that i used it every single night.... even in the summer in florida! you just take 2 pieces of fleece fabric and along the edges you cut strips probably 2 inches long and 1 inch wide (i would look up specific directions though) and then tie the 2 pieces together with each strip.

also the photo hosting websites (snapfish, photobucket, walmart and walgreens) all have gift ideas like mousepads for $10 or a puzzle with a tin for $16 that you can make from pictures you upload. and walmart you can choose to pick it up at the store so you don't have to pay for shipping.

I have 8 ppl I have to buy for and w/ the exception of my father, I crocheted everyone's gifts. Scarves, iPod covers, and a wallet. xD I only started crocheting a few months ago so I can only make simple things. ^_^ But I've made a lot of scarves and if I had to buy them I'd probably have to pay like a 100 bucks total; instead I just paid 2 bucks per skein of yarn I've bought. :D

taggy blankets for babies, ... boxes of homemade cookies,
sewing ideas are endless..
look at the sew mama sew blog for sewing ideas they did a handmade holidays with 30 days of sewing ideas.
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=600 see the list at the bottom of the page but theres a blog full of ideas there!

the dolls bed i made for maica..(if you're on my facebook you've probably seen these already)
[IMG]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Amelie1477/babybed2.jpg[/IMG]
ad the outfit
[IMG]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Amelie1477/babyoutfit.jpg[/IMG]

the photo album i made her.. this took me a week lol
[IMG]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Amelie1477/front.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Amelie1477/frontcover.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Amelie1477/mummy.jpg[/IMG]
theres more pages to it but you get the idea

the taggy for xiana really easy let me know if you want instructions
[IMG]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Amelie1477/xianablanket3.jpg[/IMG]

a-z of maica for my mum you can see there:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Amelie1477/AZ?authkey=Y8TmSmYiQj8#


calenders are really easy to make in various forms, i did mine as a scrapbook type, but online you can print photo ones or you could just make simple ones with a notebook etc
[IMG]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Amelie1477/calender/january.jpg[/IMG] its got changeable title pages for each month.

bum LOL.

let me try again..
calendar...


dolls stufff



photo album




tag blanket



link to a-z album
From A-z

hope they work this time :S

I sort of know how to needle felt...so since I am broke I am needle felting everybody Christmas ornaments this year. I'm not very good at it so I'm just going to make little easy things, like Christmas trees or Santa hats, stuff like that. And since I already have all the materials, it will be free!