Thrifty Christmas treat/gift idea

We posted this Thrifty Craft idea back in our first year of blogging. It had mixed reviews, but I wanted to post it again. You can do this with any thing like wine if you drink, but since we don’t, and most of our friends don’t, this is a great idea for the Christmas party at your friends house, or the get together with family. I kept the entire post so you can see Sarah’s explanation. Everything below is from 2009:

If  you read my blog you know that I was able to get 2 liter bottles of Sierra Mist at Albertson for only .37 cents.  I bought a bunch of them to use  for Christmas gifts for friends and neighbors.  Being that I need to make 40 of these I needed to keep them simple, but I think they turned out cute!  If you wanted to jazz it up a bit you could add a gift card, put in a gift basket…. but this gives you an idea of what you can do.

Start out with any 2 liter bottle of soda

I used wrapping paper to use as the bottle wrap, cut to 14 X 6 1/2 inches.

I used a Stampin Up rubber stamp to put the wording on…but you could just print it off your computer too.

I then cut out the wording and backed it on red paper, then cut it out.

I then used another StampIn Up stamp, to stamp out the word Enjoy

I then used the Stampin Up Scallop punch to cut it out

I then used a die cut from the Big Shot ( sold by Stampin up, thanks Leslie for letting me barrow yours to cut these out)

I then glued the stamped images to the die cut

Glue the Die Cut to the center of the Pre-cut wrapping paper, glue it good since it is going on a bottle it tends to want to lift off the curved bottle.

Then I wrapped the bottle and used a tape runner to tack down the wrapping paper, for a nice clean edge.

I then used some curling ribbon on the top.

Soda cost me .37 cents, supplies were about .10 cents ( most the stuff I already had on hand)….a cute Christmas gift for under .50 cents!Here is one done in a rustic look, used a brown paper bag as the back ground.

Same idea, just different colors.

Both my girls were helping me make these….My little Maleeya who is two, kept putting her feet on the desk… she was not much of a help.  Silly little girl…all part of being a Mom!

Update*** I was lucky enough to have one bloggy friends who writes a wonderful blog, share this post with her readers.  I was so excited till I started to read the comments….People said things like this

• “I would be pretty insulted. It’s a tacky gift.”
• ” I know we can do cheap but this is way to cheap”
• “I would be embarassed to give one as an actual gift (soda, and sorta generic soda at that??? come on! this is just plain CHEAP!) and horrified to receive one!”

I felt awful, How is this so different from a plate of cookies?  I have to admit I was very hurt….but this was my response to her readers.

I just wanted to say that I know this may not be the best gift on earth, yes it is Thrifty. But this is a gift that will be given to church friends and neighbors…..people who I want to extend a warm Christmas greeting too. We will hand deliver these, with a Christmas card and a cute song from my little ones.

It may not be a lot… but my friends know we do not have a lot to give…I guess it goes back to the saying it is the thought that counts.

That is one of the reasons I started my blog to show others that is is ok to be thrifty and live with what little you have. If we had more we would give more…

I want to teach my Children to look for ways to give to others, even if it is small, it is the fact that we care enough to try.

As the little drummer boy said” I have no gift to give” But playing his drums he gave all he had…..and in the spirit of Christmas that was enough.