MomsBudget

We thought we’d post this one early, since some of them are crafted by hand (such as knitting) that you need lead time on! 12 different holiday gift bags you can make yourself.

Knit your own Knotted Felted Gift Bag
This pattern is a MomsBudget exclusive, and super simple to knit and felt, and you can make it in a wide variety of colors to suit the person you are giving it too. Can easily be knit in an evening, then felted. Ravelry link.

Christmas Gift Bags (along with cards, keyrings, magnets and more)
Done by Sarah, a Stampin Up demonstrator, the gift bag is really cute with a cut out to see the present inside. Scroll down to the gift bag. I didn’t see instructions on this one (I looked, but if anyone finds the link, please tell me!), but you can get inspired by it.

Purse in a Box Bag
A spin on the Box in a Bag (original tutorial can be found here) but I quite like the way Andrea (another Stampin’ Up demonstrator) did hers.

Tri Fold Cookie Gift Bag/Boxes
Another style of gift “bag” with a cutout. And a great ineexpensive gift idea too, giving someone homemade cookies, along with the recipe so they can make their own too.

Gorgeous Gift Boxes using Old Cereal Boxes!
This one is absolutely ingenious from Under the Inkfluence, and will be using it as a craft for my daughter to make gift boxes. Also includes specific info on paper, stamps and scrapping accessories used for each one they show on the site. More pictures here.

Christmas gift bags with Matching Gift Tags
This one is super easy for kids to do, they are stamped onto plain

Cloth Gift Bags
If you sew, here is how to make cloth gift bags, with ideas on embellishments too.

Bonkers for bags & boxes
Not specifically for Christmas (although you could easily make them Christmas themed), these boxes include cake slices, purses and Chinese food takeout containers as gift boxes. Includes information on the Accucut die cuts used.

Christmas ornament stamped gift bag
Another cute bag from aother Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, a really cute gift bag you’d pay crazy money for in a place like Hallmark.

Placemat Gift Bags (or purse!)
The detailed instructions are here (but the pictures woefully small, and you must register to get the pattern)

Gift bags from envelopes
Straight from “why didn’t I think of this”, here are instructions for making cute gift bags from envelopes.

Make your own Gift Tags
Kristen has put up some images of some gorgeous gift tags she has made, you can definitely use them for inspiration to make your own! A great one for scrapbookers who have lots of leftover little bits and pieces from scrapping.

If your son or daughter loves making Easy Bake Oven recipes, it can be hard to see that money go to waste, particularly when you are paying $2 per package – you can buy an adult sized cake mix for less than that!  The Easy Bake super value pack has 3 Sugar Cookie Mixes, 3 Chocolate Cookie Mixes, 3 Yellow Cake Mixes, and 3 Chocolate Frosting Mixes, all for $25!  No, thank you!

If you still want your kids to be able to make Easy Bake recipes without breaking the bank, we have recipes for you to make up little Easy Bake cake and cookie packages – and even icing packages – without the expense, and most with ingredients already in your pantry.

We are biggest fans of the Easy Bake Oven Pizza Recipe, as well as the lemon cake with lemon icing.

You can find all our free Easy Bake Oven Recipes here on MomsBudget!

Is your daughter begging you for a pair of jeans with a funky design embroidered on them because “all the girls are wearing them?”  Well, it is actually pretty simple to dress up a pair of inexpensive jeans with embroidery, and it can be a great mother-daughter activity you can do together.

Embroidery thread is pretty cheap, especially if you find it on sale at a place like Michaels.  Sit down with your daughter before hand to decide the kind of design you want to embroider, and what colors you want to use.

Note, while cross stitch and needlepoint crafters are pretty loyal to their own brand of embroidery floss, such as DMC, with a project like this, it isn’t that important to use DMC, unless you plan to use it for cross stitching projects later.  There are often packages of multiple thread colors in a lesser-known brand that will be much cheaper than using DMC or Anchor.

Here is the whole nitty gritty on how to do embroidered jeans.