Are you looking for a fast and frugal gift to give this  year? These are inexpensive to make and come together quickly. They make a  great gift for a hostess, teacher or someone who has everything. I also love making these and placing them around my house for some holiday cheer!

Supplies needed:

• Tissue box (the tall kind, not wide)
• Christmas Fabric of Choice, for box and a contrasting strip for ribbon
• Sewing Machine
• Scissors
• Thread
• Safety Pin

*All seam allowances are ¼” unless otherwise noted

Time to make: 1 hour or less

Difficulty: Easy

Cut a piece of fabric 17 ½ x 17 for the tissue box. Sew along the length, right sides together.

Turning the piece so the seam is along the back, sew across the bottom.

This will now look like a bag. At this point I usually double check the fit by slipping the tissue
box inside the bag. It should fit snugly but not too tight.

Now you will box stitch the bottom. Turn bottom over and pull so that you have two points on
the bottom of bag.

Using your points, measure in 2” and stitch across on both sides…

Trim off excess.

Turn top of bag down 4”. Stitch along where the fabric meets. Now measure up 2” and stitch
around twice, about 1″ apart,  making a the pocket for your ribbon.

Turn right side out. Place tissue box inside bag. The fit should be snug.
Using scissors, cut 2 small slits where you stitched for the ribbon.

Cut your ribbon 1 ¾ x atleast 32”. You can trim it back after so if its longer that is ok.
Pin the safety pin on one end, and guide the ribbon through one end of the hole around to the
other.

Make sure the fabric is even. Tie into a bow and trim the bottom edges. Leave a little room for
the tissues to come through. Pull some of the tissue up through the top. You can attach a bell if
you would like.

Trim off any loose threads and you are done!

And now for the really fun part!

I have one tissue box to giveaway to one of you!

The winner will receive the poinsettia fabric tissue box (pictured above) ready for gift giving (or to keep). To enter, leave a comment for one entry,  tweet about this giveaway for another, and share about it on  your blog for another (total of 3 entries per person). Please leave me a seperate comment if you post on Twitter or on your blog as I will count each as a separate entry.  I will be drawing a winner on Monday December 14, 2009.

Visit here for more frugal gift ideas.

Photo from firstindy This post is linked to Frugal Friday

My Twitter friend Jesse Leigh from Parenting the Tiniest of Miracles and I got into a neat discussion the other day on what the average American spends on  Christmas. I couldn’t find any real solid figure, but most of what I did find was in the range of $750-1000. Yikes!

We keep Christmas pretty simple now, but it’s only because we have learned the hard way. We used to go all out, even though we couldn’t afford it because we thought that was how it was supposed to be done. After a year or two of going broke, we realized that it didn’t have to be that way. Thank goodness!

I have never fought in a store over the “toy of the season” and I very rarely hit any black Friday sales. Usually our children have “the one gift” they really want, we do one or two fillers and that’s it. As my children are getting older, they are wanting more electronics which are a bit more expensive but we can still keep the gift giving reasonable and affordable!  For extended family we do a Yankee Swap. All totaled, our Christmas comes way below the national average figures I found the other day. And you know, my kids are just as happy as can be on Christmas morning!

I believe Christmas can be meaningful without spending lots of money, but I also feel there is a balance in getting our children a really special gift if we can afford it.  (Key word: if we can afford it!)

How about you? Do you find you fall way below the $750-$1000 average for Christmas? Or do you go all out?

Photo from Allposters

Christmas

Well not like snow and ice. But some stores are pulling out their Christmas displays. Yes, already.

Christmas is only 12 weeks away folks. Yep, the most expensive time of the year. But as Dave Ramsey says:

Christmas is  always in December; therefore it is not an emergency.

It isn’t too early to start planning your budget and gift giving plans for Christmas. My husband and I discussed ours this weekend, made up a tentative gift list and we feel good knowing we have a plan. A cash plan, I’ll add! And we are now seeking ways to “find” extra money outside of our normal budget to stash away.

Christmas doesn’t have to be expensive to be fun and memorable, and planning ahead goes a long way to keeping costs down.

Have  you begun planning for Christmas yet? What are some creative ways  you fund  Christmas gifts?

Be sure to visit Frugal Friday for lots of money saving ideas!

One of my favorite fall recipes is Pumpkin Bread! Yum! There are so many different kinds of recipes and it took me a while to finally find one that we all love! Spread this with a little cream cheese for some extra yumminess!

Pumpkin Bread

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

3 cups white sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

In a  bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger). Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Don’t over mix or your bread will be tough. Pour into the bread pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray or coated with oil/flour and cook on 350 degrees for about 45-55 minutes or until done. Let cool.

I love to make up quick breads to share as little hostess gifts or just something to cheer up a friend. I like to try to dress it up a little by making a fabric gift bag to hold the bread. It is quick and easy and adds a nice touch!

To make a bread gift bag:

Cut two pieces of fabric to size, adding 4-6 inches to the length. Stitch up the sides and bottom. Take your corners and stitch a diagonal in each corner and trim. Turn right side out. Wrap your bread in plastic wrap and place in bag. Tie up with a ribbon or fabric scrap and your bread is ready for giving! Creating a gift tag or recipe card to go with it would add a nice touch also!

For some more great fall recipes, be sure to visit Life As Mom!