Friday, September 23, 2011

Last Minute Birthday Gift

You know how some people always have great gift ideas?  Yeah, that's not me.  I've had my moments of brilliance (like the year I made dress up clothes for every party she went to), but coming up with something for a party is more often painful.

Madeline is going to a birthday party tomorrow.  Tonight I asked her if she had any idea for a gift, since right after supper she was going to youth group, then to sleep over & spend the day at Grandpa's while I am at the ladies thing at church, which of course ends in just enough time for me to pick her up to go to the party, leaving no time for shopping...  And of course neither of us thought of it before the last minute...  But she had a good idea just off the top of her head, so that saved the day.

"What about a origami $10?" she said.  Nice.  I can do that.  $10 has always been our limit for what we spend on gifts - cheap, but if you get creative, you can still come up with something.  Last year we were going to give money as a gift (less personal, and zero creative, but practical - I love getting money!) and I had a brilliant moment when I decided that I could origami it into something so it was still a cool gift, even though it was just cash.

And I, with no cash ever in my wallet, just happens to have a $10 bill today.

So here is my masterpiece:


I think folded this way it looks like a bad Hawaiian shirt.  I'll have to try 'face in' for the next one.  If you'd like to give it a try, this is where I found the tutorial.

And since we needed a card to give the gift in, and I don't know if she'll find stuff to make one at Grandpa's tomorrow, I raided my stash for a few that she can pick from.  These were in my 'copy before I give them away' pile, so I did the smart thing and took photos.  Now I can actually use them, and still make more, and I can share them with you, too.  The cards are plain ol' white cardstock - I bought a ream of the stuff - and the patterned papers were in a pack of Japanese papers I got for Christmas last year.




Do you have any good standbys when it comes to birthday parties?  I'd love for you to share them with the rest of us.

3 comments:

Jamie Sauder said...

Well since I started as an Usborne Books rep I always have a tonne of books to pick from. I actually do most of my shopping from my show stock. That way I am always shopping at a discount. :)

Anonymous said...

Love this idea!!! Works good for boys or girls....brilliant!!! What I loved the most was that someone else had a limit on how much they spend also!! Hope the ladies thing was awesome. You should do a post for all of us who have moved away from Regina at the one time they might have attended the ladies retreat...ha ha Nicole

Anonymous said...

Our current go-to gift is a light-saber. 12.00$ at Superstore. And among the friends of a four year old, a light-saber wins again and again and again.