need some cheap but cool ideas for my sons 18 birthday and graduation

**serenity72** · 03-04-2011, 02:05 PM

Looking for ideas for cool things to give/do for my sons 18 bday and graduation. Thank you.

**pollypurebred39** · 03-04-2011, 02:38 PM

here's some ideas I found.

My sons would also love the pajama pants! They would also love custom-made boxer shorts, in novelty print fabrics, if you can sew. Another easy-sew idea for boys: big body pillows (the long rectangular shaped ones) covered in a fun novelty print fabric. Back to the food idea: a big bucket of home-made snack mix would also please the young men at my house.

Frugal gift idea - Create a Tie dye shirt

A great gift for birthdays, Christmas, graduation that doesn’t cost much is tie dye. You can create tie dye shirts yourself using just a couple of tools such as white cotton t-shirt, fabric dye, rubber bands, and a bucket.

1. Its best do this outside the house. Put some plastic or garbage bags over your work area.

2. Pre-shrink the t-shirt using warm water

3. Prepare your color dyes. Make sure you follow the direction on dye usage. Use the pail or any container that will hold the colored water. This is where you will dumb your shirt later.

4. Fold, twist, or tie a know and hold them with rubber bands. On the parts where you bind, the fabric dye won’t be able to penetrate.

5. Put the shirt in the pail where you mixed your dye. One good technique is to use multiple colors using miltiple containers and just immerse a portion of the shirt in each color. The longer you soak the shirt, the darker the color.

6. Remove the shirt and allow it to dry for about two days. Don’t remove yet the rubber bands.

7. Once it is dry, remove the rubber bands and genly wash it, then lay it flat and allow it to dry once again.

You now have a unique one of a kind gift.

You can also do pillow cases, aprons, or even socks if you like. I suggest you do several shirts at one batch to maximize the use of the already mixed dye solution.

Obsessively Stitching: Customized Rubiks Cube

Paper Toys - Paper Cut-Outs - PaperToys.com

Block Posters - Create large wall posters from any image for free!

Or a few $5 gift cards, like McDonalds, I tunes, etc. and some homemade gift card wallets.

Crafty Cash Holder - Martha Stewart Crafts

Or you could give him $20 made into a book of money.

Book of Money - Martha Stewart Crafts

For the party,you could do a backyard or indoor barb-b-que. Let him invite his friends. Keep it simple, hot dogs & rolls from aldis, homemade pasta salad, some chips, homemade iced tea, a cupcake tower done in school colors, paper plates & cups from the dollar store in school colors.

**saver** · 03-04-2011, 08:45 PM

A nice idea for a decoration is to make a banner out of poster board. Take the poster board, cut into triangles and tape onto a long string to spell out happy graduation or happy birthday or whatever you want. Spell out your message by putting a letter of your message on each triangle, and put a picture of him growing up on the bottom of each picture.

**sunshine** · 03-04-2011, 09:03 PM

For my dd's 18th birthday - we did our own version of "Burma Shave" signs, and placed them by the road, on her way to work. We put various pictures of her growing up, and silly sayings with each one, and at the end we had her senior picture with a huge "Happy 18th Birthday" sign.

**serenity72** · 03-05-2011, 04:31 PM

Ty I guess I just feel alot of pressure feel like I should be giving him a ton of money and I cant afford it. I am sure his dad will be giving him alot of cash and look down at me about this.

**McD** · 03-05-2011, 09:08 PM

Our church youth group once did a 'mystery dinner'. They preselected a style of food--such as Italian or Chinese. They printed out a menu entirely in the correlating language. Each person could select one thing out of each category on the menu, not knowing what it was. Some people ended up with a fork, soup, and rice. Others had chopsticks, tea, and a plate. It was fun and interesting and the kids all had to swap items to get full meals. It was a neat thing to see them interact.

Something like that could be done for a few close friends as a fun little get together to celebrate without an awful lot of money tied up in it.

**Surilda** · 03-06-2011, 02:41 PM

Does your Son have a favorite sports team?

For Easter last year I gave my Grandson a sports themed "basket"
of the Denver Broncos. I found an orange pail at a craft shop,
and bought dark blue shredded paper to put in it. I bought a
sticker of the team logo and put it on the bucket. I filled the
bucket with Bronco items; a license tag, keyring, and all kinds of
things. You can find many sports themed items.

He LOVED it and all the rest of the day he kept looking through the
bucket and smiling.

**nodmicks** · 03-06-2011, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by serenity72

Ty I guess I just feel alot of pressure feel like I should be giving him a ton of money and I cant afford it. I am sure his dad will be giving him alot of cash and look down at me about this.

Hugs! I dont know why anyone would expect a huge amount of cash to be given for b days or graduation. My son turns 18 soon. I will be spending the same amount on him I do every year. His graduation is the party we are throwing. I honestly didnt think anything else was expected.

**pollypurebred39** · 03-06-2011, 07:42 PM

An Oregon Cottage: The Fun (And Frugal) Graduation Party

Graduation Party Ideas, Graduation Ideas and Graduation Themes | Celebrations.com

**nodmicks** · 03-06-2011, 07:54 PM

Polly you are awesome btw! Always so resourceful!

Serenity our son said a new car would be a nice grad gift and I just asked if he thought we won the lottery.

Serenity i started a thread asking about a graduation party. There are lots of good ideas from the villagers on there if you are interested.

**pollypurebred39** · 03-06-2011, 08:07 PM

Aww Thanks. I thought they had useful information. I really liked the decorating ideas, and the free download.

A new car *giggles* Can't blame the kid for trying.