? 10 DIY Christmas Gift Ideas on a student budget ?
Merry Christmas!
We all know the drill, you have absolutely no idea what to get your loved ones this Christmas, you also have no money on your student loan for presents in general. So what to do?
Well, ever heard of D.I.Y? Yes, you can make presents at home for pennies! Don’t worry, the one’s I’ve included are pretty easy to make and should hopefully look like the picture- also, all of these are under a fiver!
Mini Christmas Cookies and decorated cookie tins
Food can be a really great present, because let’s be honest, everyone likes their sweet treats at Christmas. these little Christmas cookies are a great recipe, easy and quick to do, you can cook up a large batch before packaging them all up in these decorated cookie jars, which are made from old pringle tins and are super easy to create!
Mug Mixers
We’ve all seen these in the shops, they are basically a block of flavoured, milky chocolate on the end of a spoon or lolly pop stick. Just stir it around in hot milk and you have creamy hot chocolate! These ones are complete with mini marshmallows but you can cover them in a variety of different toppings, from caramel sauce to freeze dried raspberries. All you will need utensil wise is a pack of lolly pop sticks, a small cupcake mould, ribbon- to tie around the sticks and a piping bag. When they are completely chilled, take them out and wrap up the end of the stick with plastic gift wrap, before tying off with a bow!
Flavoured vodka (may go wrong so give to student pals- they won’t care)
Right, for this you will need some cheap vodka, the little £5.00 supermarkets one that you can get. This flavour is a little crazy but why not try a spicy citrus vodka, flavoured with grapefruit and jalapeno! This may have the potential to go wrong so maybe give it to a student friend. Take one grapefruit and remove the peel, place it in with the vodka, along with one slice of jalapeno and leave for 24 hours, strain and pour back into the bottle, although remove the cheap vodka label first! Tie a bow round it along with a little warning about the whole spice thing!
Keeping to the alcoholic theme- mulled cider in a bottle
Let’s keep to the alcoholic theme, shall we, and take a lot at making mulled cider. All you will need for this is
You will need; 3 large egg whites, 13 leaves of gelatine , 700g white caster sugar, 1 ½ tbsp liquid glucose, 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped, sunflower oil. For the dusting; 100g icing sugar and 4 tbsp cornflour. These make brilliant presents as you can sprinkle and decorate them with whatever you want, you can also flavour them too however you like! When they are finished, give them a good dusting with icing sugar to stop them from sticking to each other, then put them in these cute little craft bags , ten of them for only 99 p!
Cup Cake Bath bombs
These don’t really look completely like bath bombs, they are just moulded and chilled in a cupcake tray, you can also put them into cupcake cases, just make sure you tell the person you’re giving it to take it off before they chuck it in the bath! You will need citric acid, you can get this for a pound from wilko, you will also need Epsom salts, these are great for drawing impurities from the body, baking soda, essential oil, food colouring and water! Follow the instructions here to make your bath bombs, you can follow the method of moulding them into bowls, but in my personal experience, pressing them into cake cases works best as the bath bombs press together better.
These are pennies to make! PENNIES! And they are probably the most needed item on the list and something that will most likely be used the most often. You will need a scrap of your favourite fabric, a needle and thread and some white rice. These hand warmers will give off heat for around 20-30 minutes, lovely.
Coffee Body Scrub
This is a brilliant present for the beauty and pampering lover in your family, this scrub is bound to make them feel one million dollars, and also smell great too! You will need coffee, sugar, coconut oil, cinnamon and vanilla extract, as well as a mason jar to store it it, and a little tag in which to write some instructions on, from storage to how to use. The only expensive ingredient is the coconut oil but of course this can be used for future
Tea cup candles
A great way to do this one is to go charity shopping around where you and pick up some little ornate tea cups, they are usually all under one pound. Next, you will need some wax, now I had a look online and for a pack of soy wax, you are looking at around £20, don’t worry though, you can get a set of wax melts which are scented and coloured, costing around £3! Melt these gently in a bowl over hot water. While they melt, take one of the candle wicks, and superglue the metal base of it inside the tea cup with superglue, the wick should be taunt enough to stand straight. Next, gently pour in the wax, remembering to leave a bit of the wick to light, and there you go, all done! If the tea cup came with a saucer from the charity shop, even cuter! You can also tie a label around the handle with a message on.
Right, for this you will need the basic ingredients for brownies, so;
1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 95 g plain flour, 35 g cocoa, 75 g plain flour, 135 g brown sugar, 150 g sugar, 100 g chocolate chips and 100 g white chocolate chips.
You will also need a mason jar, a label and a ribbon.
Start to layer the ingredients, in the order cite above, so starting with the salt, press down each layer before putting the other one on top. The ingredients should fill the jar perfectly, when you have put everything in, close the lid and write your message on the label, before also writing the instructions for the brownies, instructing the recipient to add 150 g of melted butter and 3 beaten eggs to the mix, to be baked at 180 for half an hour. Tie a ribbon round everything too for a more christmassy feel!
