20+ Home Made Hamper Ideas

Last Christmas I made my 87 year old step-dad cry when I handed him his present. I'd made him a hamper of all his favourite food and drink. There was a bottle of wine, dark chocolates, shortbread, jams, chutneys, crackers and even cheese (kept in the fridge until the last minute). I wouldn't have been able to afford to buy a ready made hamper like this, but making my own was fun to do and super easy and affordable.

If you're making up a food hamper you won't notice the cost if you add one item a week to your shopping list. Look out for special offers, BOGOF's and sales too to reduce the cost even further.

If you like to make your own presents, as do a lot of my clever blogger friends (ANA Mum Diary, Being Mrs C, Bug Bird Bee, Cat's Yellow Days, The Crazy Kitchen and Me and My Shadow), how about a home made hamper? Start now and make syrups, flavoured oils, damson gin, sweet jams, spicy jams, jellies, chutneys, festive chutneys and preserves. Nearer the time you can add crackers, biscuits, fudge or mince pies to your hamper.

Helen at the Crazy Kitchen has made loads of flavoured alcoholic drinks. You may want to make batches of Malteser Vodka, Toffee Vodka, Cherry Vodka and Cranberry Vodka, and put them all in a hamper. I know a lot of my friends would LOVE this.

All you need to make up a hamper is a cardboard box or basket, some wrapping paper to cover it, and cellophane and ribbon to wrap it. For a Christmassy touch, add bells or baubles to the bow, or even Pinkoddy's salt dough stars. You can also line the box with scrunched or shredded tissue paper or bubble wrap - this stops the contents rattling around. Collect boxes of all shapes and sizes throughout the year. Here's a great tutorial on how to wrap a basket in cellophane.

Image credit

Another option is to buy a cake board (79p in Asda) and stick your goodies to the board with double sided tape, then wrap with cellophane and ribbon.

PTA's: a cake board and cellophane are a brilliant option for displaying raffle prizes. Put together hampers for men, women, children and babies from items donated for your Christmas or summer fayre. This year we noticed several people had donated Gruffalo items, so we made a Gruffalo hamper.

I make mini hampers for my children's teachers at the end of each school year. I fill a new mug with fancy tea bags, hot chocolate sachets, marshmallows, mini muffins, cookies and sweets, wrap it in tissue paper and cellophane, all finished off with a bright ribbon. These went down very well, one TA still mentions hers every time I bump into her.

You could go to an old fashioned sweet shop and fill a (sterilised) jar with sweets of all colours. If you're making similar gifts for several people you could split giant packs of pick and mix sweets. This way you also get to sample the sweets at the same time...

Make a lolly bouquet by sticking lollies on a polystyrene block, with tissue paper in between. Wrap the block with more tissue paper and cellophane and finish with a large bow.

To counter the Christmas excess, I know I'd appreciate a good old fruit hamper. Go nuts and add nuts and dates too - after all it is Christmas.

If, like Kids Chaos, you know someone who likes stationery, then make them a hamper. You could even fill a large pencil case with gorgeous bits and pieces and wrap it up with a pretty notebook. Likewise, if you know someone who is crafty you could fill a box with ribbons, buttons and other embellishments.

Pamper hampers are a great gift. You could easily and cheaply put together soap and talc with some slippers for an older relative, or a shower gel, shower puff, body scrub and body lotion kit for someone younger. Pick the items to suit the person. You can also buy a pashmina for pennies on Ebay, use this instead of tissue paper to add colour to your hamper - or make it part of the wrapping.

You could easily get a relaxation hamper together, including a lavender eye pillow, Rescue Remedy and camomile tea.

Nail varnish, remover, cotton wool and emery boards would make a great hamper for a friend. Include hand lotion and cotton gloves for the full manicure experience.

A lot of girls would love a make up bag full of hair accessories. My boys would be over the moon with a party bag style hamper, full of little bits and bobs (balloons, cars, balls, etc.).

Bakers would adore a pudding bowl full of muffin cases, cookie cutters, wooden spoons and sprinkles.

You could make someone a car cleaning kit, wrapping up a sponge, chamois leather and car shampoo in a brightly coloured bucket. If someone gave me this I would cry, but some people may appreciate it.

Gardeners would love a hamper full of seeds, twine, seed markers and some new gloves, perhaps wrapped on a kneeling pad.

Sports fanatics can be easily catered for. What about a football supporters pack, including a scarf, hand warmers and a travel mug?

Bloggers, I should add that hampers are an excellent way to recycle your goody bag stash. The recipient will not know where you got their gifts from (unless they're marked as a sample - do check) and you can appear super generous.

If you know someone who likes owls you can find a whole section devoted to them at one of my favourite online shops, the Dot Com Gift Shop. This is my entry to their blogger competition. I have not been compensated for this blog post, I'm doing it for the love... and the chance to win an iPad Mini...

Other fabulous hamper ideas:
12 Movie Night Gift Hamper Ideas by Me and My Shadow
Christmas Eve Surprise Box by Imagination Tree
Alternatives to the Traditional Christmas Hamper by Domestic Goddesque
10 Hamper Gift Ideas by Red Ted Art
Themed Hampers and Gift Ideas by Kids Chaos

I could go on all day, the possibilities are endless. Personalised hampers show the recipient that you have put a lot of thought and care into their gift. You never know, they may cry with happiness on Christmas Day.

Edited to link up with the fabulous Thinly Spread Festive Friday



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20+ Home Made Hamper Ideas

Gifts for Teacher

It's always difficult at this time of year. Should you get your child's teacher an end of year gift? You want to show your appreciation and, more importantly, your child wants to show their teacher how much they've enjoyed being with them since September.

On the other hand, I know teachers don't want or need thirty gifts. They do treasure a handwritten card from the child more than any number of boxes of chocolates. Having said that, I know they all enjoyed the bottles of wine we gave them for Christmas. Some of them sent thank you cards to the children saying thank you for the wine you gave me for Christmas, I liked it very much.

This year I was looking for a compromise. Between them my boys have four part time Class Teachers and four full time Teaching Assistants. That's eight gifts, plus Lunchtime Supervisors, and not forgetting the office staff.  So I decided on token gifts, costing less than £2 each, and a handwritten card. We had already made the cards using leaf rubbings.

I managed to find some china mugs in the John Lewis Clearance, £1.50 for four. We then went to the supermarket and looked for small items to put in the mugs. We decided on a sachet of hot chocolate, a packet of marshmallows, a mini-muffin, a wrapped cake and some sweets.

We filled each mug, then wrapped it in cellophane (bought from Ebay). I tied the cellophane with an elastic band (supplied free of charge by Royal Mail).

The final decoration was the handwritten left-rubbing card. After a year in Reception, both boys were happy to demonstrate their handwriting.

I hope the staff will be happy with a mug full of goodies. I would be.

What do you give your children's teachers?







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Gifts for Teacher

Farm Animal Cake Toppers

If you're looking for a brilliant hand-made gift for your child's teacher, then farm animal cupcakes may be for you. You get to unleash your creative side and your child can also take pride in their handiwork.

You will need:

Renshaw Cool Coloured Sugardough
Renshaw Funky Flavoured Sugardough
Black sugardough
White sugardough
Cakes, iced with buttercream or white sugardough
Baby wipes or damp kitchen roll to clean your hands before changing colours

You may need:

Water and a clean paintbrush (to stick the different parts together)

Icing sugar (if the sugardough gets too sticky)
Plastic rolling pins (I borrowed the ones we use for playdough. Of course I washed them first)
Plastic modelling tools (I have a set of double-ended modelling tools, but you can use anything that will make a shape in the sugardough)
Black cake decorating pen (not essential, you can make pupils with black sugardough)
Cupcake boxes

Top tip:

To make a work surface, cover a table mat with greaseproof paper. Use tape to attach the paper at the back. Now you have a smooth surface to work on. If you cover a few mats before you start you will always have a clean area to work on.

Method:

Each animal is mostly made from simple rounded or flat shapes. Show you child one step at a time what to do. You can either make the whole animal and then help them. Or you can work together.
To make lighter colours you can mix sugardoughs together. For example, brown and white to make light brown.
Choose the best farm animals to use as cake toppers. One cupcake in a box and a hand made thank you card should be enough to let your child's teacher(s) know they are appreciated. All without breaking the bank.

I'm going to make these farm animal cake toppers for the boys' birthday party, to give the children on their cupcakes when they go home. The party is at a local open farm, so this will continue the theme perfectly. It also means the cupcakes can be made in advance and boxed up - no need for cake cutting and soggy cake-filled napkins on the day.

Our verdict on the Renshaw Sugardough:

It handles much better than I expected. I didn't need to use icing sugar at all. It's a quality product. The pink in particular smells amazing. The lemon tastes very good, but I wasn't keen on the chocolate - this was also the most dry of the sugardoughs (this is not uncommon, it just took a little extra moulding).



Disclosure:
We were given two packets of Renshaw Sugardough to review. Available at Lakeland, Cool Coloured Sugardough (red, yellow, green and blue) is £3.29 and Funky Flavoured Sugardough (chunky chocolate, orange pip, lemon sherbert and strawberry tart) is £2.49. 




Gallery:

My farm:

Sheep by me:

Sheep by Cash, aged 3:

Sheep by Presley, aged 4:

Cash's farm:

Presley's farm:

Cash's rabbit:

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Farm Animal Cake Toppers