Spring fortune cookies

To make these cutesy fortune cookies visit Kind over matter to download the pdf and see directions on how to craft these.

You Rock - Valentine candy bags

 

These are perfect valentines for your children to give out - especially boys.  No complaints from my boys, since there aren't little hearts with "love ya"  and "marry me?" on them.  Thankfully, I've found a better alternative.  You rock!  Visit The Crafts Dept. for instructions on making this valentine treat bags.

Glittered Hearts

 

photo courtesy of Skip to My Lou

I plan on making a few of these for a Valentines Day tea we are having at our house with a group of little girls.  These are just adorable.  I can imagine them hanging in my dining room with little light up heart lights all around.  You can see the instructions at Skip to My Lou.  These are made out of cereal boxes, glue and glitter.

Origami Hearts

photo credit Wild Olive

This video origami tutorial shows how to fold a strip piece of paper into a heart. Follow along with the demonstration to see the necessary fold to recreate this three-dimensional paper heart.

Cupcake Doilie Skirts

Seriously, how cute are these? Want these right now don't you?  Head on over to No Fuss Fabulous.

Felt play food

Inspired by, my friend, Angie's felted cookies at Many Little Blessings, I tried my hand at felted ravioli's for my darling two year old's play kitchen.  I decoupaged a brie cheese box to house the little tasties with some scrapbooking paper.  I'm so proud of these little things.  I can't explain it.  I keep peeking on them just to make sure they are still there. Angie, can you explain the madness?

 

Frugal Christmas Gifts - snow globes

 

We made these "snow globes" this week.  The children liked this fun craft and are trying to decide whether to keep their globe or give them as gifts.  We have several.  And, as cute as they are, I don't want a globe village.

The material for this are:

1. an unused or unwanted glass (we went to a thrift store to get some)
2. miniature ornaments from the craft store (snow men, trees, baby Jesus, etc...)
3. cotton balls
4. little round mirrors for the lake
5. hot glue gun and glue
6. cardboard

Directions for making these:

1. Turn your glass upside down and trace it onto cardboard.  This will be the bottom.
2.  Unroll the cotton ball and spread it out on the cardboard circle.  Then glue it down.
3. Cut the hanging threads from the mini-ornaments and glue these into place.  Give it a little shake to make sure they are secure.  If they are not, add more glue.
   
4. Glue the little mirrors down.
5. Place the glass on top of the whole scene and glue this in place.  Be careful to not leave "spider webs" inside the glass caused by the hot glue gun.
   

Make a Mini Tinsel Tree

photo courtesy of Crafty Crow

Oh my.  Aren't these darling?  Go here, for the tutorial in pictures.  I want one in every room.  If you want to get really fancy, make some miniature garlands:

miniature tree garland

seed bead garland

Frugal Christmas Gifts - body scrub

This body scrub is too die for!  It is a brown sugar and spice concoction that you rub into your skin, let sit for a few minutes and rinse.  Your skin will be left feeling so smooth and smelling so good.  To see how to make this perfect gift for your mother or a dear friend visit Bake at 350 by clicking here.

Frugal Christmas Gifts - mini wool wreaths

Grab some wool sweaters that your children have outgrown, or head over to your local thrift store and pick a few colorful ones up.  Remember, they must be wool.  Next, you need to wash them in hot water and dry them so that you "ruin" them or felt them. 

After that you cut 1" squares or use a rotary cutter and mat to cut 1" squares out of the sweaters.  I used jewelry wire that I had laying around, but you could use floral wire to bend into the shape of a circle.  The easy part is stringing the squares on the wire.  You do NOT need to get these straight.  They look better when they are crooked.  I simply twisted the wire together at the end and strung the wreath up by a pretty ribbon.   I found this craft at Bella Dia, here, and she gives you a couple of finishing options and a list of the items that you need.

Easy Icicle Decorating

First of all, I had to spell check the word icicle.  It just doesn't look right to me.  That's probably because I live in Florida and I just don't see that word a lot.

Secondly, since we don't get that chilly outside or inside, and my little cowgirl wanted a winter wonderland in her bedroom, we had to find something to make this happen.

The craft stores carry sheets of white felt with glitter during the holidays.  I simply made a template of a row of icicles and we cut them out.  Lotsa' them.  I then hot glued them to construction paper and affixed the paper to the underside of the shelf.  I used double sided tape to do this part.

Just in case you are curious, we added snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and icicle lights too. 

Frugal Christmas Gifts - bookplates

I just love bookplates.  Something about pasting my name in a book makes me smile.  That's why today's frugal hand-made idea had to be about making these pretty bookplates.  You are not going to believe how simple this will be for you.  All you need is nice cardstock, double sided tape, and a color printer.  Download this pdf from Dahlia and print away.  Put these in a cute little hand made envelope like this one and voila!

Frugal Christmas Gifts - felted soap bars

I just discovered felting this year.  I was looking for something that I could do with my daughter and picked up a bag of wool fibers.  We've made balls and bowls, but now I'm ready to try my hand at these for pretty little Christmas gifts.  Little Birdie Secrets has the BEST tutorial on how to make these.  (Believe me, I've scoured.)  Complete with pictures for every step, it's dummy free.  And, I think it's fine for children that want to help make them too.

Here's the link, for those of you having a hard time finding my links ; )
http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-make-wool-felted-soap.html

Frugal Finds {vintage ornaments}

photo courtesy of Meg Rooks

Crafty moms come hither. This sparkling wreath is made from scratched, unwanted or vintage ornaments. The best place to hunt down a box of these would be a local thrift store. You need A LOT. You also need a styrofoam wreath form, a glue gun and floral wire or ribbon to hang the wreath. Begin gluing the ornaments to the wreath carefully fitting them together to hide the styrofoam. It will be a little tricky to get the ornaments to line up on the wreath form, so if you do not like puzzles then this frugal find is not for you. If you do take the plunge, whatever you do, make sure this is secure on the wall or you will have a mess of shards to clean up.

Isn't she pretty?

Hand-made gifts for Christmas

I have come across some wonderful hand-made gifting ideas for this Christmas.  I'm going to try to make these this month, at least they are marked on the calendar to do!  I love hand-made gift giving.  It's nice to weave a little love into a gift right before you give it.

Felt Cookies with Sprinkles
First of all, a woman that never ceases to amaze me with the thoughtful ideas that she comes up with is Angie at Many Little Blessings. I absolutely fell in love with these hand made felt cookies, and I think they should be a staple in every little girl's play kitchen.

Modge Podge Jars

A great craft for kids to make are these tissue paper and modge podge jars.  When they dry, they are so colorful.  I think grandmas everywhere should have one.  Let's Explore gives easy step-by-step instructions on how to make these little treasures.

 

Apple Juice Jar Terrariums

Thanks to a friend of mine that made gorgeous terrariums with her daughters, we've been looking out for just the right glass jars.  I can handle these mini apple juice jar terrariums.  They are cute and un-intimidating.  Go here for step-by-step video instructions on building your own terrarium.

Salt Dough Ornaments

These are so Martha Stuartesque that I have to try these.  Aren't they delightful?  Almost pretty enough to eat.  Please visit Stephanie's step-by-step instructions on how to make these.  All you need is salt, flour, water, rolling pin, a red pen and cookie cutters.  How cheap, yet satisfying.

Wagon Wheel Snowflake Ornament

These snowflakes might remind you of something you made as a child.  You know throw the macaroni in a bag with food coloring?  Well, adapted for a little older age group would be these sparkling ornaments.  If you're afraid of glitter, just skip on past this one at Even Cleveland.

Child-art Placemats

If you are a little handy with a sewing machine, these are darling little canvas' to grace the table of relatives or friends that adore your children.  To see how easy these are visit this blog.

A few extras:

A home-made memory game for kids

Flower holiday hairpins for girls

Nature prints in Sculpey for nature lovers

This post was written for Works for Me Wednesday and I'm also participating in the 2009 Virtual Advent Tour.  If you'd like to follow the tour visit:  http://adventblogtour.blogspot.com/

thanksgiving links

Look what I found while looking for some new family traditions to add to Thanksgiving.

At 400 Things, you will find a way to preserve Thanksgiving memories. What are you thankful for? This idea gives you a way to hold onto the thankfulness.

Do you need some tried and true recipes for your Thanksgiving table? How about you look at Homesteaders Heart's e-book. I know I want to try the cranberry salsa and mom's sweet potatoes.

This is a sweet little treasure, a hand-made give thanks countdown chart. I love this. I want to use this every month.

For you awesome crafty moms, here is some last minute Autumn decor to grace your thanksgiving day front door and table. I'm going to start making the paper loop wreath today.

Stop by my family blog to get some ideas to do with the little 'uns, like learning to talk like a pilgrim and reading the mayflower compact.

And, if you just can't wait until Christmas, then go ahead and make your countdown chain like His Mercy is New made for her kids that are just giddy about Christmas!

Thanksgiving fortune cookies

Don't you just want to make these? Well, you can. Thanks to Amanda at Kind Over Matter. She's created a free pdf file for you to download and instructions on how to make these adorable fortune cookies.

Print the fortune cookie pdf and follow the tutorial to make these fun, whimsical decorations for your Thanksgiving table.