1HappyCorner.com - Gift Blog

You want to give your family and friends the best, but the best can often come with a hefty price tag. There are ways to save money while being your thoughtful, sweet, creative self. Here are a few ideas.

Plan Ahead

One of my best friends is getting married in a couple of months. I knew she would be having a bridal shower so back in February ago I got to work. I bought a Sharebook like this one on sale at Hobby Lobby. It’s a great product because it takes a lot of work out of putting the scrapbook together. It comes with envelopes and pre-made pages so you just have to send them out to friends and family members and wait for them to return to you. I included about ten of her closest family members and friends, assembled the book and shipped it to her so she could open it at her shower. The entire thing probably cost me under $30, but she told everyone it was her second favorite gift. (Her favorite was a handmade cookbook complete with family recipes that her aunt had compiled.)

Shop Smart

There are several sites that will pay you to shop with them. One to check out is Ebates.com. Just for signing up for an account they’ll give you a $10 gift card to a store like Target or Sephora. Then, you just shop online like normal. You’ll get cash back (usually 1-4%) from the sites you already probably shop at. It’s a cool way to get a little something back when you’re buying gifts for others.

Buy in Bulk

Come across the perfect gift that just about everyone will love? Why not buy it in bulk? Maybe a case of wine? Or a box of jam made by a local farmer? That way it’s ready to go when the need for a gift comes up. Plus you’ll save money by purchasing a large quantity.

Photo courtesy of scrapbookexpress.com

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“This is your life, mother”

 A great idea for this mother’s day is a scrapbook depicting your mother’s life up until this point. It’s like a chronological tour of her life ’til now. The hardest part of this book will be finding all the pictures and keepsakes you will need, but you still have about 2 weeks to gather everything you need from aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and close friends.

Here is a list of basic items to get you started (these can be personalized according to your mom’s taste):

• a scrapbooking kit (any craft/hobby store should have one)
• Mother’s day embellishments, stickers, rub-ons
• Memory and Date embellishments, stickers, embossing
• Personal pictures (from her childhood to current) school photos, high school prom, graduation, wedding, following baby’s birth, vacation pictures
• Mom’s favorite and best recipes
• Mom’s accomplishments
• Poem for first page that describes what your mother means to you
• Her ambitions from when she was young (”I want to grow up to be”) and then what she became
• Past cards from husband and kids (mother’s day, birthday cards, valentine’s, etc.)
• Personal notes to mom from family members, friends and you
• What your mom means to you page

The book should start from the earliest information you can gather to today. The setup of the pages will be left up to you, I use a similar setup as pictured above. The page arrangement in the book will depend greatly on how much and what information you have on each item in her life. This is a great site to get ideas on different layouts for your pages. This will be such a special from-the-heart gift, it is sure to be treasured and showed off over the years. Another cool thing to do, is every mother’s day from this point on, you could incorporate more parts of the book; displaying such items from the previous as vacations, special moments (births), valentine’s and Christmas. Once your book is complete, wrap it in your favorite Mother’s day paper and wait for the tears .

—-image belongs to www.cluttercontrolfreak.com

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