I think you should go to garage sales and by a lot of .50 cent items and regift them. Just be sure and don't buy them at the gift receiver's garage sale. They look down on that.

Come on Dejasmom, working for me builds character. It also teaches them the value of a Billy Buck, which is what I pay them. They get three Billy Bucks a week. After a couple of weeks, they'll have enough to cash them in at the Billy Store for a comb or a sock. Kids generally go for the sock. They're a collector's item. After a month or so, they can collect a pair and have warm feet while they work.

Note to self: keep daughter, nieces and nephews away from Billy.

A couple of more that just popped into my head:
bookmarks -- you would just need scissors, paper and whatever you want to use to decorate them like markers, stickers, felt-tip pens, ribbons and so on. Each one could be unique according to what the person likes to read [hint: Dejasmom likes murder mysteries. Ha!], but all have one element in common, such as your logo, signature or picture. If you're doing this for people close to you, you can put the bookmark in a copy of a favorite book. The book, of course, would be returned to you but the bookmark is the receipients to keep. Every time they are reading a book, they'd think of you.
Personalized calendar: this one might take a little time, but is a really cool idea. First, print a blank calendar. You can find one online. Second, take photographs of you and whoever you're giving the calendar too and make them into a collage and paste onto construction paper, which you can laminate [or if your photos are digital, you can arrange them on the computer and then print them out on photo paper]. You can then take the collage, staple to the top half of a piece of thin carboard and staple your calendar to the bottom half [I'd recommend only one or two staples in the top of the calendar so you can tear the pages off easily]. Or, you can really go all out and choose a different picture for each month, so that when the calendar is flipped, a new memory is there. If you want to decorate the background where the picture is with clip art relating to the photo or season, that would be even better.  Like I said, this one is time-consuming, but kinda cool, especially if you use pictures from different time periods. Who wouldn't laugh when they saw a picture of themselves in their New Kids on the Block t-shirt or Batgirl footy pajamas complete with kick a$$ mask? I'm sure there are programs online to help you make personal calendars, but I think it would more fun and more personal if you did it yourself. But again, that would prolly be very time-consuming, unless you were a person who regularly scrapbooks or makes collages, which I daresay you are not, Aprill. :)

You're going at this the wrong way. Nobody thinks it's cute when a grown-up makes gifts themselves. That only flies for kids. If a kid makes you a gift, it's sweet and adorable. If an adult does it, it's tacky and cheap. (At least that's what my mom said when I gave her macaroni art this year for Mother's Day) The solution is hire kids to make the gifts for you. Ask any business owner in the Philippians, kids work cheap and can get a lot done in a day.

Thanks Dejasmom. That sounds easy enough even I can do it. Maybe throw a bunch of those in a decorated basket and voila, the perfect gift.

I've got one for you that was shown to me by a friend. It's homemade bath salts. Basically, you take epsom salt, baking soda, glycerin, food coloring and whatever scent you want, mix them together and put them in jars, which you can decorate. I think it's something like 1 cup each of epsom salt and baking soda, 2 or 3 tablespoons of glycerin and just a couple of drops of food coloring and scent [scent is optional].  You mix the salt and baking soda together really good [no clumps] in a big bowl. Then you mix in the glycerin, food coloring and scent  and stir till the color is uniform [again make sure there are no clumps]. Let the mixture dry before putting into glass jars, which have to be sealed tight or moisture will get in and make the mixture clumpy and yucky. While it's drying you can decorate your jars.
I would only put a few drops of food coloring so it doesn't stain the tub. I did this with the kiddo a couple of years ago. We made lavendar and peppermint scented bath salts adn it only took us about 30-40 mins and most of that was cause I can't work a hot glue gun successfully and had trouble decorating my jars. You'll have to go Walgreens or someplace for the glycerin. Cannot remember for the life of me where I got the scents from, but I do remember they were in oil form and I added roughly 8 drops. Don't want the scent to be too overwhelming. You can get the jars from pretty much anywhere: HEB, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, think maybe even the dollar stores carry them. I just used the kind that make for canning fruit cause they have a really good seal. The salt will dissolve in bathwater and the glycerin helps keep the skin soft so it's a health aide, too. Lavender is relaxing and peppermint can open up your sinuses, so it's a win-win all the way around. :)

Bighorn,
I love that idea, especially since all my family and friends are landlocked Yankees. And if you wouldn't mind, please do post or send me a photo so I can get a better idea how they look (like I said, I'm craft-impaired and need all the help I can get).  :)

I once bought some of some cheap plastic pots (not the smoking kind) from a discount store, some "hot colored  paints" from the same place, and sprayed, dripped, and generally made a mess on the exteriors. Everybody thought they were GREAT, and looked SO COASTAL, that they loved them.
I had one left over and it's still on my patio. Let me know if you want a photo.
Total cost $6 per pot. Paint $12 (enough for about 6 pots). Bottle of Rum (for the artist) $12. Viola! six gifts for $10 a piece!