I was racking my brain trying to come up with what to get my parents for Christmas this year. 

Gift card? 

Na. 

Pictures of Izzy? 

Too predictable (since I do that for everything for them).

For my mom:

I had made some pillows for myself a while back that my mom had taken a liking to so I thought I’d make something similar for her.  I bought a 4×5 piece of painters drop cloth from Lowes, less than $5.00, and had more than enough for both pillows.  Before sewing them together I used leftover paint from around the house to paint over my penciled in sketches, which I printed off from the computer to use as a guide.  Once everything was dry I sewed them up and stuffed them.  $2.99 for a bag of stuffing at Hobby Lobby.  I made them reversible – one side for everyday use and the other for Christmas.  More bang for your buck that way 😉  So, total for custom pillows – $7.99!

For my dad:

I’ve been eyeing some of the subway art that I’ve been seeing all over design sites lately.  My dad has a favorite quote from his grandmother and I thought that would make a neat piece of art.  So, I bought a precut piece of wood from Lowes on clearance for $12.99.  Used leftover black paint for the base coat.  To create the quote I used Microsoft Publisher and created a page the same dimension as my piece of wood.  I typed in the quote and then messed around with font sizes until I came up with something I liked and printed it off. I used this technique to get an outline of the letters onto my piece of wood and pained it in with a white paint marker from Hobby Lobby for $2.99.  Looked good, but thought it needed a little something extra.  After the quote was dry I took a piece of sandpaper and roughed up the whole thing, even going over the words, and went to town on distressing the edges.  On the edges where the wood was showing I rubbed in some leftover dark stain with a paper towel so the wood didn’t look so new.  Then gave the whole thing a coat of satin poly.  Once again, it was leftover 🙂

Total for custom art – $15.98!   

Even though this was the least amount of money I’ve spent on Christmas gifts for my parents, I think they’re my most favorite gifts for them so far. 

Proof that it’s not in how much you spend, but the thought that counts!