Christmas Decorations

I came up with some inexpensive Christmas decorations for this year.

I recycled a pail I had around the house, found a burlap bag at the farm store for $3.00, grabbed some cedar branches from the backyard and added some berries from Joann Fabric store for $1.49 and put a tall candle in the middle.  

 Then for our MOPS leadership team, we thought it would be fun to give everyone a little Christmas gift so I bought some white mugs from Rite Aid for $1.00.  I went to Amazon.com and found these chalkboard labels 40 for $3.00 and used a chalkboard pen to write their names.  Finally, I made little tags and filled the cups with hot chocolate packets, a candy cane and a peppermint chocolate candy.

Hot chocolate: $.20   Candy cane: $1.39 for 12   Chocolate candy: $2.50 for a bag.

 I put up our family Christmas Advent Log...love this log.  My husband made this for us when we got married and now our kids blow out the candles each night. 

 I found this grapevine wreath at Walmart for $3.00, tied some red Christmas balls to it, put a red ribbon I had from last Christmas and put some burlap in the frame. 

Merry Christmas and happy decorating!

Fall Wreath

I had some left over burlap laying around and found a fall wreath on Pinterest and thought I would try and make one myself.

 I went to Joann Fabrics and picked up a metal wreath form ($2.99).  Then I took a yard of burlap and cut it into strips.  I tied the burlap strips into a single knot keep them close together.

 I added a brown ribbon and made a flower out of yellow felt & a button and hot glued it to the wreath and voila!  A very pretty, simple, fall wreath.

Volcano Birthday Party

 My son wanted a Volcano Lava themed birthday party for his 7th birthday so...we did our best to give it to him...I made a volcano out of a garden tomato tree and wrapped paper around it to look like a mountain, then spray painted it with dark brown spray paint and added orange paint for lava.

Tomato tree: $.69, painters paper: $2.00, spray paint: $1.20

The coolest part was the dry ice we put in the top of the volcano (in a glass carafe) to look like smoke.
Dry ice: $5.00

I spray painted plastic cups brown and hot glued dixie cups to the inside.  I cut a hole in the bottom of the plastic cup, flipped the cup upside down & put in a tablespoon of baking soda, 4 drops of orange food coloring & 1 teaspoon of dishsoap.  I then gave each child a dixie cup of vinegar to pour on top of the plastic cup.  And voila!  A bubbly volcano!

Plastic cups: free, had them around the house.  Dixie cups: free (I borrowed some from a friend).  Baking soda, vinegar, food coloring: free (had them already)

Dad came up with a few "Lava " games; Lava Tag, Volcano Obstacle Course, Hot! Lava! (just like Marco Polo), and Balance the Lava Rocks (running with spoons with cherry tomatoes on them).  We also had a "Hot Pinata" for the kids.

Finally, the cake (Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake)  My sister helped me figure out how to use the part of the cake I cut away and put it on top like running lava. All in all, it was a fun party.  I still can't believe my sweet boy is 7! 

Thank You Teachers

I thought it would be nice to say thank you to the kids teachers for such a great year.  i had some leftover fabric and decided to make them a bookbag.  20 minutes and a few straight seams and voila!

...folded it and put a little tag on it to the teacher...

...and said goodbye to kindergarten and 2nd grade.  hello summer!

Scrabble Party

I had the privilege of celebrating my sister-in-law's 40th birthday this weekend. A wonderful woman, friend, mother & wife who loves words.  Anything with words.

So we thought we would throw her a Scrabble Party!

 

I found a knife block at the thrift store and thought it looked just like a scrabble tile so I painted a "J" (for my SIL's name) on it and used scrabble tiles to spell out Happy Birthday for the cupcake toppers.  Knife block: $1, scrabble tiles: free (I had them already)

My SIL also LOVES lemons and basil so we used those as accents around the table.

I found vinyl letters at the local drugstore and thought they would look cute on balloons, spelling out her name.  Vinyl letters: $3, Helium balloons: $5.68

I printed Happy Birthday letters using the News Gothic MT font (very similar to the Scrabble font) and put a wood background on each page to make them look like Scrabble tiles.

A sweet friend of ours asked all of us to bring one word that best describes my SIL, and put the words & descriptions in a scrapbook as a present to her.  How lovely to read these and realize what a gift she is to all of us.
 

Teddy Bear Picnic Party

 

My sweet daughter turned 3 in January this year and we decided to throw her a Teddy Bear Picnic birthday party.  I had this large jar hanging around and filled it with a "trail mix" of Teddy Graham crackers, mini marshmallows & cheerios. 

I found these cute teddy bear wood hooks at the dollar store along with little paint sets for a dollar as well, and gummy bears to inspire the little artists.

I made homemade chocolate cupcakes with green frosting to make grass and flowers made from the leftover mini marshmallows and m&m's and little teddy graham bear's.  Each little girl got to take home a basket which I found at Joann Fabrics and I was able to use my 40% off coupon which made them very affordable.  I filled each basket with Teddy Graham crackers, a little notepad (4 for $1), and a pen.

I ended up buying about 3 yards of gingham fabric for the table and hutch and some gingham ribbon to pull everything together. 

It was fun to sing the Teddy Bear Picnic song, do the "live" version of "Going on a Bear Hunt", and paint the teddy bear hooks.

Graduation Gifts

Congratulations Seniors!  My friend and I had so much fun putting these gift pails together for the high school seniors at our church.  
We decided to make the gift more meaningful by writing a diploma describing what was in each gift which included a:

Bucket

remember to be humble & willing to serve

Journal

to help you love God, learn his Word & ways and live His mission & message

Flashlight

remember, you are a light to the world

Duct Tape

remember to value relationships & anything can be fixed with duct tape

Stanwood Map

so you can always find your way home

Coffee

to stay awake and be ready

Starbursts

reach for the stars!

Bubbles

remember to have fun!

Graduation Bubbles

 I found these bottles (9 in a box) at the dollar store and decorated them with a "congratulations" sticker & made little graduation caps out of scrap black paper and embroidery thread.  Cost: $.11 per bottle.

Graduation Gift Contents

I found buckets at Ace hardware for $4.59 ea and paid for duct tape $1 ea at the dollar store, Starburst candy $.69 ea and found we had some left over journals at the church=free, flashlights $1.29 ea, Stanwood map=free from the local Chamber of Commerce & coffee=free from a vendor.

The Gift Bucket

I had some red ribbon left over from Christmas which happens to be the color of the Stanwood Spartans and made these humble buckets look like a graduation present.
                                       
                                                         Congratulations Seniors!

Baseball Coach Thank You Gift

We had a really great baseball season with the boys this year with really wonderful coaches (one of them being daddy) so we decided to make them gift baskets with gift cards to dinner & a movie with their families.

I found these cute peanut boxes at Target for $1 and filled them with peanuts & a little flag I made from paper & a wood skewer (this coach coached the Purple Ninjas). 

 I made an "Amazing Coach Award" certificate for each coach and filled the rest of the basket with peanuts, sunflower seeds, Cracker Jacks & a baseball Pez I found at the dollar store.  Each family chipped in and we were able to buy gift certificates to the movies & a local restaurant for a fun Coaches Gift Basket. 

 

THANK YOU COACHES!

 

Rocket Party

Back in September, almost a year ago now, we celebrated Joey's 6th birthday with a Rocket Party!

I made "rocket packs" out of lasagna pans (2 for $1.00) and plastic cups and ribbon and we played "rocket" racing games.  We served "Tang", the drink of astronauts and gave out "Starburst" and "Milky Way"candy. 

We didn't have a place to hang the pinata so Tim built a "Pinata Pod" which worked great!

 The rocket cake.  Happy Birthday sweet Joey!

SALT: SFC Women's Retreat January 2011

In January 114 women from Stanwood & surrounding area met up at Semiahmoo Resort for a special time of "flavoring their faith" at our SFC Women's retreat.  The scripture was from Hebrews 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth" and the speaker, my amazing mother-in-law Carolyn, inspired us with words from the Lord & her life.  SALT: S-seek, A-ask, L-love, T-trust.  The retreat team made these lovely bottles of bath salt by finding inexpensive bottles online ($.45 each), Epsom salt for $3.00 a box (only needed 2 boxes for 114 bottles) & lavender or cucumber oil ($3.50 a bottle, only needed one of each for 114 bottles).  Total: $.50 per bath salt bottle. 

Terra Cotta Cake Plate

 I was looking for a way to display some things at a baby shower last weekend and wanted a cake plate and saw this rustic terra cotta idea at A Girl and a Glue Gun...I've seen these dressed up so nicely with paint & ribbon but I like the rustic look personally.  The terra cotta plate and pot were $3.99 + $2.99=$6.98...not too bad.

Hello!

Welcome to my new blog!  I have had so much fun planning and trying to find ways to make birthday parties, Christmas parties and baby showers cute yet not blow the budget.  It's funny how I can spend so much more than a dollar at the dollar store!  So I try to reduce, reuse and recycle or purchase items that will be able to be used again and again.

Here are some of the party on a penny ideas I've come up with so far...

CHRISTMAS 2010

 For Christmas this year I took the photos out of the frames of our entry coat shelf and put in these letters spelling "Merry Christmas".  Cost= $0

This is a piece of plywood I found in the dumpster which I painted with chalkboard paint ($4.99), chalk (my kids had some already) and I just wrote the first lines of different Christmas carols.  I also hung snowflakes I found at the dollar store to add some Christmas flare ($1.00 x 4=$4.00).  Cost=$8.99

WILD FOR BABY Baby Shower