Homemade Little/Big Gifts

[futuregreek]

I got this from my big:

Potpourri Jar

Use a small bowl (they look like lil fishbowls, sometimes with a wavy top..about 1 dollar from Michaels) and put potpourri inside. then take a circle of semi-tranparent fabric and use a ribbon to tie it around the top. Then you can write your group's name in paint pen on the bowl.

I should take a pic, it's hard to explain

[summer_gphib]

This is a cute gift for ANYONE:

Homeade Hot Cocoa
Take Mason Jars (you can buy them cheap!)
and fill them with the following Homeade Hot Cocoa Mix:

1 cup non dairy creamer
1 cup non fat dry milk
1 cup sugar (or splenda )
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

this makes a big batch- enough to fill several mason jars.

Then print up cute labels with your letters, name, symbols and directions that say: Add 3/4 cup of boiling water to 1 Tbs (or more!) of mix.

These are really cute and make GREAT (read: cheap) Christmas gifts.

Another great crafty thing are these great marshallow-carmel-crispies, and they are super-easy

Just take a pack of Kraft Carmels, remove the wrappers and heat up over a double broiler with 1 can of condensed sweetened milk.
Once they are all liquidy (for lack of a better term *lol*) remove from heat. Then take big marshmallows and sick toothpicks in them. Dip into the carmel and then into rice krispies cereal. Put on wax paper to dry. They are FANTABULOUS and kind of unique. I leave the toothpicks in to give them a neat look and make them easier to eat, but you could take them out too.

[wanderersarah]

*bump*

It's that time of year again. I'm sure there are great ideas out there....

[AChiOhSnap]

I've been posting a lot today...my name is all over the GC sidebars, LOL. Last year I helped a friend from another sorority make some gifts for her little. She bought some things (sweatpants, canvas tote bags, etc on greek101.com) but the rest of it was pretty much homemade.

The dollar store is your best friend through this process. She spent less than $50 on materials and supplies and was able to fill up FOUR laundry baskets with goodies -- yes, the laundry baskets were from the dollar store too. Just buy up everything you can see to personalize, like frames, vases, glasses, plates, bulletin boards, etc. and go nuts with the puffy paint and glitter pens

Oh, one other really cute thing (and I'm sure many of you are already familiar with this technique) my friend bought two big pieces of fleece from Jo-Ann Fabrics in her sorority colors and made a blanket. You just make an equal number of cuts (about 1.25 in apart and about a finger's length deep) into the fleece on all sides of both pieces. Then you lay one piece on top of the other and square-knot the corresponding pieces of "fringe" together. So you come out with a really cute blanket for pretty cheap. As an added touch, my friend bought letter patches and glued on her little's initials into a corner of the blanket. It was super cute.

[tld221]

Originally Posted by AChiOhSnap

Oh, one other really cute thing (and I'm sure many of you are already familiar with this technique) my friend bought two big pieces of fleece from Jo-Ann Fabrics in her sorority colors and made a blanket. You just make an equal number of cuts (about 1.25 in apart and about a finger's length deep) into the fleece on all sides of both pieces. Then you lay one piece on top of the other and square-knot the corresponding pieces of "fringe" together. So you come out with a really cute blanket for pretty cheap. As an added touch, my friend bought letter patches and glued on her little's initials into a corner of the blanket. It was super cute.

I know this post is old, but maybe you (or someone else) can explain this to me? if im visualizing this right, would it be a reversible blanket that is held together by knots on the edges? i cant see how this would look, but id like to try it!

[tld221]

the first handmade gift i made (which was awesome at the time but looking back... )

good ol' paint pens (in org colors of course!)
tea light candle holders (i guess they could be anyshape, but visualize little sake cups - that's the size i used)
marbles (sized proportional to the candle holders)
candles (the short stubby ones that will fit inside the candle holders)

this is becoming harder to explain...

ok, so i sat the candle inside the candle holder (theyre glass, btw)
then surrounded the space between the glass and the candle with marbles

decorated one side of each candle holder with each letter (in my case, 3). feel free to decorate as such - polka dots, stripes, outlining, etc...

then turn them suckas around 180 degrees, and write the corresponding greek letter out (ie. "sigma" on the opposite side of S)

this way, when you put them on display, you have a choice which side you want to show off. i guess you'd have to do some reshuffling (ie. when it says SGR on one side, the other side says "rho gamma sigma") but it works out great if your org is palindromic (ie AKA, SSS, DTD).

AND, this cost me less than $10! (if you already have the paint pens, under $5)

[jadis96]

I forgot how much I used paint pens! We always had problems in our suite with never having enough cups. It became a tradition that everyone had their own cups with their names and such on them so I used paint pens to make one for both my littles. I also went and got some cheap baby bottles and I, along with the other bigs that year, painted our little's names on them and filled them with candy. It was a little nod to them being the "babies" of the family.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by tld221

I know this post is old, but maybe you (or someone else) can explain this to me? if im visualizing this right, would it be a reversible blanket that is held together by knots on the edges? i cant see how this would look, but id like to try it!

You've got it right! My roommate actually got complicated and made a striped one and sewed letters on and stuffed it with another layer of fleece and such so it was big and fluffy, but the basic is just a reversible knotted blanket
Ignoring the fleece scottie dog, that's what it looks like. Though I've also seen really tiny knotts instead of big ones... but that's more work

[tld221]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

You've got it right! My roommate actually got complicated and made a striped one and sewed letters on and stuffed it with another layer of fleece and such so it was big and fluffy, but the basic is just a reversible knotted blanket
Ignoring the fleece scottie dog, that's what it looks like. Though I've also seen really tiny knotts instead of big ones... but that's more work

to quote the movie classic Bring It On, "you're the poo!" that blanket is really cute!

[Phigirl04]

My big made me a fleece blanket that folds into a pillow with out letters sewn onto the front and she cross-stitched the date and my name and her name on it. It is so adorable and great for traveling. Now, I need to call her and have her explain how she did it.

[wanderersarah]

Something that I'm planning on doing for my most recent little (number 3) is giving her some scrapbooking supplies. My idea is to find a cheap photo album (oh how wonderful dollar stores are) and cover it with fabric, and then embellish it. The I want to include some paper and sorority stickers. Scrapbooking supplies cost a bundle, so I plan to make my own sticker using Sticker Paper. I think it would be cool to print off a couple of sheets with letters, flowers, mascot, etc. I think the clear sticker paper will be pretty darn cool.

The stickers could work on a bunch of other things too, now that I think about it . . .

[copacabana]

Paint pens are a GODSEND! I'm making stuff for my big and I pretty much just bought some inexpensive stuff (picture frame, clipboard, mug, etc) and go nuts with paint pens and glitter.

[rocketgirl]

i have a soror who made these cute t-shirts. she took a plain tee and took lace and hand stitched our nickname on the tee with the lace. they look really cool and very inexpensive. didn't take her very long either. you could do it with lace or any other fabric and put anything on them. could be very customized

and i ditto the paint pens. i should buy stock in that company because i have a ton and have gone through a ton and will buy a ton more.

and dollar stores are the BEST place in general. you can alway find little figurines in your colors or your symbol or weird little things in your colors. it's great

[PinkSigma3]

I decorated SO much stuff with paint pens and puffy paint!!!
Photo albums i just glued fabric over them to make them pretty.

So many good ideas keep them coming! I wanna spoil my two littles!!! (that i got last night)

[Senusret I]

Bookmarks:

I stole this idea from my mom, who made them for our family reunion.

Materials:
Paper (any color will work, but the parchment-like kind is really nice)
A color printer
Laminating paper or whatever it's called


So basically I have sponsored someone for membership in my fraternity, and I will be making him a lot of gifts and purchasing several. But I didn't want his line brothers to go without. So I will be giving them token gifts of BOOKMARKS for their history books.

In Microsoft Word, I will create a text box no more than two inches wide, and perhaps 7 or 8 inches high.

I will insert images related to my fraternity on the top and probably bottom.

In the middle I will place the name of the new member, their line number, chapter, and Spring 2007. Maybe I will also put "From Rashid Darden" etc on the back.

Print them on the parchmenty paper..... laminate them.....BAM. The majority of the work will have been in creating the design.

And the nice thing is the whole process is so simple that it could be used for as many new members as you want, as personalized as you want. Your only limit is your laminating paper.

I will post more cheap gift ideas later -- I gotsaplenty.