Guest Blog: Lemon Sugar Scrub Your Way Into A Creative Christmas Gift!

My Sister lives in New York and recently made her own homemade Christmas gifts for friends. Here's how she did it!

About a month ago I was home visiting my family on the West Coast and we all decided to spend a bit less this Christmas and limit our gift spending to $10 per present. As a result, this Christmas season has been less stressful and more fun because I have a new mission, to be as creative as possible with limited spending. The other day when my sister posted the "12 Simple Christmas Gifts" entry, I decided to pick one DIY project from the list and create it for my friends and colleagues here in the Northeast. My favorite one was the "Lemon Sugar Scrub" and so I wrote down the necessary ingredients I needed to buy and a few days later I headed to the various places I needed to go to get them. Here is a breakdown of what I got, the cost of each one, and where I got the item:

Containers and Decorations

• 8 oz. mason jelly jars with lids ($8 found at the local hardware store)
• 1 spool of ribbon to tie around the jelly jar lid ($1.99 found at Michael's)
• Candy canes and Hershey's Kisses ($7 found at Michael's)
• Decorative bags ($2.99 found at Michael's)
• 10 lb. Sugar ($6.50)
• 8 Lemons ($6.30)
• 1.5 L of Olive Oil ($12.50)

In all, I paid about $45 dollars for all of the supplies and since I only used about half of the sugar and half of the olive oil, I am subtracting about $9 to make my total spending on this DIY project about $36 dollars! I made up 7 jars of Lemon Sugar Scrub, each one being worth about $5. Now that's what I call a budget friendly sum!

When my colleagues received the decorative bags with the Lemon Sugar Scrub and goodies, they were immediately impressed with the fact that I was creative and thoughtful and they really appreciated the gift. They asked me how I made it and I told them that it was just sugar, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and olive oil and that it could be used to exfoliate their hands, feet, or face, you name it! They also appreciated the little candy canes and chocolates that added a nice colorful, holiday spirit touch to the finished product.

During this entire journey, I approached it as a fun challenge to be as creative as possible and stay within a budget. I'll be traveling home again to the West Coast for the holidays and I plan to extend this approach to other fun, DIY projects that are set up to impress for the holidays. If you're still stuck on what to buy for that special someone, do a little research and find something fun and creative without spending a lot. The recipient of your craft will be delighted.

Happy Holidays!