alas, the holidays have arrived and i find myself, yet again, broke. if this has been addressed in another post i apologize, but i couldn't find it. what are some of the best christmas presents you've made? what are some of the prettiest/funnest/most exciting, you get the idea, presents that have come from your creative efforts. thanks.

IKEA baby, all the way. $1.99 for three unfinished photograph frames, which can be used to frame a lovely photo... or a nifty collage.
>http://www.craftychica.homestead.com/

So many gift ideas, and lots of them using recycled materials, and inexpensive. (Our own Crafty Chica's site)

The dollar store. Tons of inspiration for cheap but nifty gifts, and there are tons and tons of threads floating about here.

Hope that helps,

Cheers, Meg

wow. thanks so much. that is such a beautiful site with so many good ideas. i especially liked the glitter ball, and the wax paper cards. thanks a bunch.

i totally agree that ikea is by far the best place to go holiday shopping! unfortunately, there aren't many of them. but if you are near one, go, go, go! by all means, go! i just went on thursday and spent like $35.00 on gifts for about 10 people! and i'm talking NICE GIFTS! they also have really great prices on containers (ie: glass airtight kitchen jars, metal organizational tins, etc). i LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE ikea!

I came up with this idea that maybe someone else has already posted and/or done, but I thought I'd share anyway:
You could take an altoids tin (or something similar) and paint a tic-tac-toe board on the top, then make 10 marble magnets as the playing pieces, and put them inside. You could do the traditional X's and O's, or you could do something individualized for the person, like pictures of macs and PCs, or something like that. Then you would have a little travel game, which would be great for kids, or older people who like that sort of thing. I've never done this, since I just thought of it last night, but it seems like it would be cute. You could even, if you were really ambitious, take a much larger tin and make a checkers board, or other game board, on the outside or inside of the top, and make marble magnet pieces for that. Does this whole explanation make sense?

i thought i'd tell you about something cool my brother did for me when i was a kid (he's way older and very cool and creative). like i said, it was years ago, but the gift still stands out in my mind and its the kind of thing i'd like to get today, even:

for christmas i got a small, round fishbowl filled with m&ms. it was covered with a cardboard circle and a piece of fabric, secured by a rubber band (i'm sure y'all can think of prettier ways to do this), and on the fabric, he had written that there was a surprise at the bottom. well, it took me a couple of days to eat to the bottom, and when i did, there was a piece of paper, cut to fit the bottom, that said he would take me shopping for a fish to put in the bowl. so we went to the pet shop together and picked out a really cool chinese fighting fish, and i just remember having a really good time that day, and thinking (for probably the first and only time in my life) that fish could be pretty cool. it cost maybe $6-$7 and was absolutely the best thing i got that year - i dont even remember what else i got, so that must be true.

it had everything i like: chocolate, animals, thoughtfulness and suspense.

on a more disappointing note, now that my big bro is older and married, his wife does the shopping. she's very nice but very mall-oriented so i get a lot of questionable sweaters. <sigh> i miss the fishies. but if this story can help others, even, in a small way, then my work here is done...

-- kristen

links to gifty stuff: [scroll down]
>http://www.angelfire.com/zine/blasphemy/faq.html

cookies or food are always good

at the dollar store, they have plastic wall clocks, take the cover off, take the hands off, and you can put whatever you want on the clock face (which is about 8" wide)

photos, collages, pals fave cereal box?

hubby has 10 siblings. I've taken i zone shots of all of them, will scan and make into clock face, ma & pa at 12, then the 11 kids in order, and is just big enough to fit on my ink jet printer.

should be a hit, I hope so I am broke too

wow. that is a fabulous idea witch baby. i would love to do it for my sister, but she is super health concious. what is something fun that i could fill a fish bowl up with that would be 1.low cal 2.relatively quickly eaten up? these ideas are wonderful. thanks a million.

Although this isn't Lo Cal...I just saw a great easy recipe on my local news for rum balls today that will work well in a holiday emergency - so easy to make and they're pretty!

1 package (11 ounces) chocolate wafer cookies, finely crushed (like Nilla wafers, but chocolate)
1-1/2 cups finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup light or dark rum (you can try other things. Due to a bad college drinking experience, the mere scent of rum makes me ill. So I'm gonna try Amaretto)
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, combine the crushed cookies and pecans; mix well. Stir in the corn syrup and rum until thoroughly combined.
Place the confectioners' sugar in a shallow dish. Roll the cookie mixture into 1-inch balls then roll the balls in confectioners' sugar until completely coated.
Serve, or store in an airtight container at room temperature until ready to use.
NOTE: When serving these cookies, be sure to offer an alternative for children and anyone else avoiding alcohol.

SERVING TIP: These tend to absorb much of the confectioners' sugar right after coating, so be sure to coat them heavily. You might even want to coat them again just before serving.

Arnie,
My personal favorite health food is dried papaya chunks or spears. They're sorta pretty, too, so maybe a mix of the two might look nice in the bowl?

Edited to say, they go quickly too, since they're better than candy.

One year my really broke cousin decided to give everybody a representation of what he would give us if he were rich. He gave his mom, who only buys clothes at Salvation Army a set of paper dolls with lots of glamorous outfits, he gave his golf-loving dad a calendar of the most beautiful golf courses in the world and a miniature toy cruise-ship, he gave bus-riding me a bunch of monopoly money and a Hot Wheels BMW. The marvelous gifts that I had spent months shopping for were totally downplayed by his fun and imaginitive ones.