A Thrifty Christmas Gift Swap

I took part in two Secret Santa swaps this year - a Bloggers Secret Santa organised by Hannah from Hannah Bee (pictures and presents here!) and a Thrifty Christmas Gift Swap organised by Janet from Words That Can Only Be Your Own.

I've followed Janet's blog since May when she took part in Rosalilium's 'blog every day in May' challenge and when I spotted she was organising a thifty Secret Santa, I though that would be a great thing to be involved with as well. Plus Janet being the fab lady that she is, was letting non-bloggers take part as well so I excitedly told my friend M all about it who signed up there and then as well.

 

 

The idea behind the Thrifty Christmas Gift Swap is that presents should be either handmade, secondhand or thrifted with a suggested spend of around £12. I was emailed a few lines about the lady I was sending to, Leanne who liked Christmas, wine, the theatre and reading and had recently started crafting.

 

I started thinking and eventually this is what I came up with...
Mini perfume
Christmas tree bubble bath
Crafty card making kit
A set of rubber stamps
Homemade bunting
Homemade Christmas tunes mix CD
Some assorted chocolately bits and bobs 

 

 

The 'make your own cards' kit and rubber stamps I discovered in my craft stash when I gave it a good sort out the other week - neither of which I'm ever going to use (I think I had ideas about making cards years ago and then realised I was much more interested in sewing than papercrafts).

In amongst all my Avon lady bits and bobs I also remembered I had a Christmas tree bubble bath and mini perfume which I thought Leanne might like.

 

I also made some Christmas bunting and a Christmas tunes mix CD with an explanation as to why I'd picked those songs (including weird things like The Tweenies 'I Believe in Christmas' and The Accelerators 'Christmas is a Pain in the Arse').

 

 

 

 

I collected my Thrifty Christmas Gift Swap parcel from the delivery office on Monday and placed it under the tree naively thinking I'd keep it til Christmas...

 

So it was opened on Wednesday instead (that's only a week in advance, not that bad surely...)

and I think, quite possibly it might just be one of the best Christmas presents I've ever received.

My Secret Santa lady, Charlotte had really gone to town with the presents, they were all so thoughtful and perfect!

 

My box contained...

 Circus/fairground style fabric

Lovely little Christmas gift tags 

 Chocolate reindeer noses

 Mini nail files
The most gorgeous little duck buttons
Duck stickers
A design your own bunting set
Chocolate chip cookie mix
The Holiday DVD
A book of fab Christmas things to make and do

 

 

I absolutely love it all!
The little duck buttons are so sweet and the book of Christmas recipes and how-to's is brilliant - such a good idea (and with plenty of things I'm going to have to try out). The Holiday is also a film I've never actually seen but my friend M always goes on about how good it is so I'm looking forward to watching that over the Christmas break. The bunting kit is fab as well; it's wooden bunting for me to use whatever paint I want and design them myself - I've never seen a kit like that before and luckily after redecorating one of the bedrooms recently, we've got quite a few tester pots lying around.



Thank you very much Charlotte for my wonderful presents!
And huge thanks to Janet for doing all the hard work of organising it all.