Tween Boy Pressies - Mini Shoe Cleaning Kits

Good morning Bloglanders

Still cold and rainy in Sunny SA and I'm stuck with making fitted sheets.  Pieter needed a new bed urgently and yesterday we went bed shopping. In the end we decided to take an extra length queen size because he is rather big and tall. Problem is - all our winter fitted sheets are for standard queen size!! Once again I made it my problem.  A lot of work but in the end I bought winter king flat sheets and converted them to fitted queens - well worth my effort.

But that is not what I came to share today.  I wanted to ask if you have ideas for presents for tween boys?  I'm always struggling with that. Shop bought stuff like Lego is so expensive and I don't always want to go the edible route.  This is what I did for my nephews:

A mini shoe cleaning kit.  I made one of these for my husband many, many moons ago and it still travels the world with him.  He likes his shoes clean and believes if you put Dubbin on your leather shoes regularly, they keep dry in winter.  This is how I did it:

I bought thick book covering plastic from my stationary shop. Cut a rectangle big enough to fit my kit.

1. Sewed velcro onto the sides that will be able to open.

2. Sealed the other two sides with one of those machines which seals opened food packets. You can sew this as well if you don't have one of those machines.

3.Bought a huge pot of Dubbin, melted it and poured it into plastic containers. Cooled, added a lid and label and it was done.

4. A small shoe brush. This one came from my local pharmacy (sold in packs of 6) but if you can't get one, I've asked my husband to saw a normal one in half and it works just as well.

5. A piece of cloth to add that final shine to your shoes.

I didn't gift wrap these, just added ordinary string and a star die cut.  The whole things goes into a glassine bag.  I try not to wrap too girly for tween boys - they are REALLY fussy about things like that. 

Now, if you have some ideas on your blog, leave me a link PLEASE - I need some inspiration! I'm off to finish those sheets. Thanks for visiting my blog today and please come back to play.