I am all about making cheap gifts, I just got my second little and I'm a little cash strapped so I've been making a lot of cute little things for her.
Since I'm in a local, I can't really buy many ready made products, but I can definitely steal ideas from overpriced greek shops.
I figured out how to make some nifty magnets, like the ones here:
http://www.greekgear.com/soma6.html
You can buy everything you need at Wal-Mart.
Materials:
Clear, flat backed marbles (found in the floral section, $1)
Magnets w/ adhesive backing (found with in crafts, $1-2)
Craft Glue ($1)
Color Print out of letters/flower/mascot
Directions:
1) Create a sheet of letters/flower/mascot to print out.
You can go to microsoft.com and find clip art for this.
I've also found that buddy icons are just about the right size for this, so you could also check out:
http://www.geocities.com/sororitybuddyicons/ for pictures to use.
2) Cut out the paper to fit the back of the marble.
3) Spread glue on the back of the marble, affix the picture, let dry.
4) Affix the magnet
It's pretty simple all in all.
Here is a picture of the first batch that I made up, the picture quality is poor, but you'll get the idea:
http://www.geocities.com/wanderer511/magnet3.jpg