Graduation Gifts

Money is tight for everyone nowadays.  As a missionary, I am at the mercy of God's provision through people giving monetary gifts.  I have been a missionary for nine months now and God has provided for my every need.  Budgeting for me is nearly nonexistent.  One day I will share my budget or as I like to call it, my financial faith.  Due to financial strain, I am forced to get creative.  This is rather exciting especially with a website like Pintrest available.  

The end of the school year is fast approaching.  There are two graduating girls in our youth group that I have grown close to.  Graduation calls for a gift to commemorate the end of ones high school career.  For many, this means shopping.  For me, it is time to get creative.  

I am not sure where this idea came from, but I am sure it was somewhere on Pintrest.  I rummaged through  my acquired picture frames and chose two smaller wooden ones.  I emptied the pictures and started the quick process of turning it into a scripture board.

 

1.) Begin with a frame with no picture, scrapbook paper or paper of your choosing, scissors, and markers.  I used the permanent marker to outline the back and the Expo markers to write on the glass.

2.) Use the back of the frame to outline the paper.  Then use scissors to cut the rectangle out.

3.) Insert the paper in the place of a picture.

4.) Here is a picture of the two that I did.  The Expo marker was used to write a verse onto the glass.  A couple of Expo markers will be included in the bag as part of the gift.

5.) Here they are all wrapped up!

The total cost of the gift was probably around $1.  When I bought the frames, I'm sure they cost about a quarter.  The paper was a whole pack for $4 and only a small rectangle piece was used.  The left overs were saved for another day.  The Expo markers were accumulated over my teaching years.  The wrapping came from Goodwill which includes the bag and paper.

Super excited!  Two gifts for two dollars! Wow!  It was fun being a little creative.  What are some ways that you save money by being creative with gift giving?  I would love to hear from you.