Sorry I haven't blogged the past week, just been crazy busy with Thanksgiving and family and Black Friday and Cyber Monday and you know............ It's 23 days till Christmas!!! How is your holiday shopping going? Are you finished? Have you even started yet? Well now that we're "officially" in a recession (yeah it took those idiots a year to realize it), we'll just have to scrimp a bit harder and save a bit better.... So over the next couple of weeks I'm going to some ideas your way on how to buy just a couple of inexpensive items and create an entire gift bag out of them... for under $20! That's right, gift ideas for under $20!!!!

Today we'll start with a great gift box for any tweenage girl (10-13). You will need some basic supplies and also my short shopping list and you'll be good to go.

Supplies: 1 medium sized shoe box pink tissue paper glue white ribbon

Shopping list:

Instructions: Glue tissue paper all over the outside of the shoe box to cover it, and you can make little tissue paper pom poms or flowers to stick all over... Put more tissue paper inside the bottom of the box, place items inside and cover. Tie box shut with ribbon. Give gift and watch as she smiles!

If you kinda like this idea but want to get a bit more sophisticated, maybe for a girl a bit older (13-17), you may have to spend just a bit more money, but you can still create an excellent gift they'll really enjoy.

Supplies: Pretty gift bag (you can get them at the dollar store) tissue paper

Shopping List:

Put tissue paper in bottom of gift bag, place items inside. Give to your teenage niece or cousin and you'll be her favorite relative of all time!

Stay tuned for more cheap gift ideas...