In making homemade gifts, always try to make use of what you've already had at home since this can decrease cost even further. And don't try to replicate any store-bought toys because you may not be able to compete in that area. Instead, go for uniqueness and personal touches.

Here are some ideas to make your creative juices flowing:

• Personalized scrap book.
• Personalized apron for girls.
• Personalized draw-string bag for girls with some jewellery and home-made hair accessories.
• A couple of 'coupon' for: one day outing, staying up late, one chore-free day and so on.
• Customs for pretend play.
• Doll accessories: clothing, blanket, towel, diaper.
• Homemade wooden blocks, felt puzzle or personalized wooden puzzle.
• Homemade bedroom decoration accessories or a bedroom makeover.
• Homemade car mats for boys. To make one, get 1 yard of canvas fabric, seam edges. Paint roads, stores, stadium, and so on.
• Homemade sock puppets.
• Old toy make over. This includes: repainting an old bike and adding 'bells-and-whistles' to it.
• Personalized treasure box.
• Audio casette of your own voice reading aloud your children's favourite book. The other variation of this item is to tell a story using your child as main character.
• Homemade dolls and stuffed animals.

One of best idea for a homemade toy gift is: gathered items for pretend play. To do this cheaply, you need to plan in advance.

For instance, you can make a doctor office set by putting an eye dropper, syringe (with no needle), popsicle sticks (as tongue depressors), store-bought toy stethoscope, office supply, bandage, X-ray film imitation (use black construction paper with cardboard backing. Draw skull on it), flashlight, cotton wool, and many more.

You can also make a store set, detective set or other set which you know your children are interested in. The nice thing about homemade pretend play set is that you can use real items and is often more complete than store-bought one.

Finally, I would like to encourage you to think that expensive does not mean better. In fact homemade gifts can be as satisfying as store-bought one. And more importantly, they are much less expensive.