Holiday Neighbor Gifts: Fast & Easy

Welcome to week #11 of my Thrifty Gift Fridays! This is where I feature ideas for holiday gift giving that will not cost you a fortune! Today's post will help you finish off your gift giving without stress or busting your budget! These simple gifts are great for neighbors, coworkers, teachers, etc.


You may have seen them around before, but they are so fun and easy that they are worth repeating!


Jan's Update: I made this post a while ago BEFORE Hostess announced it was closing! So sad! BUT, I am keeping it on here, with faith in my heart that another bakery will buy them out & save our Twinkies! Let's all cross our fingers!

Last Minute Gift #1:
HO, HO, HO & Merry Christmas
From: the Ding Dongs next door! (you could insert; In the next cubicle, down the street, Upstairs, etc)

Click here for a link to a cute free printable tag

Last minute Gift #2:
May your Holidays be Merry and Sprite!

It is easy but let me share a few tips for making it even easier:
Supplies:
Black ribbon (I used 2 1/2 inch wide. I bought a yard but only needed about 14 inches or so for one).
1 sheet sparkly red scrap book paper
exacto knife
hot glue gun
cute tag
embelishments (I'll share mine at the end)

Jan's Tips:  I used a 2 liter bottle of sprite but any size bottle will work (including the 20 oz size), just down size the width of your ribbon and "belt buckle"!

 Do your self a favor and just go buy some black ribbon in your desired width, mine is abut 2 1/2 inches wide. Don't try to use black paper, its a pain in the behind. 


1) On a work surface cut out your desired size of belt buckle I believe mine was about 3 inch square.











2) Turn belt buckle over to work on the back side, and with a pencil mark the locations of the two slits you will cut to feed the ribbon through.  Make sure the cutting lines are at least the width of your ribbon.  and cut the slits along the lines you marked.

See my boo boo? I used the dotted lines!

3) Flip the red square over and feed the end of your ribbon through the first slit and then back through the second slit.

 4) It should now look like this!

5) take the end of the ribbon and wrap it around the middle of the sprite bottle, moving the belt buckle into place. Measure the length you need  I think mine was about 14 inches but I can't remember for sure, and cut the remaining ribbon off, but leave enough room so the two ends overlap slightly, and hot glue them into place on the bottle.

6) Tack some of the ribbon down onto the bottle in other spots if you need, to secure it to the bottle.

7) Embelish.  I printed this cute tag, but wanted to dress it up a bit more, so I used a cute pair of fuzzy slipper socks (new of course!) slipped one into the other and then folded the opening over like a winter hat and slipped it onto the bottle.

After securing the tag with a piece of string around /near the neck of the bottle, I disguised the string, by cutting a little scarf out of a white cable knit sweater that had been shrunk in the dryer. I think it turned out pretty cute and I love the added fuzzy socks for the hat!