Craft Ideas Archives - Page 11 of 12 - Cha-Ching on a Shoestring™

The Dollar Store Diva: So much fun, I couldn’t stop!

November 8th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

These are so sleek/beautiful/cute/fun/classy/colorful that I want to keep them all for myself.

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I have a stack of magazines–Christmas issues–that date back as far as 1989. The other day I decided to put them to good use (a.k.a. recycle them). These slender beauties turned out even prettier and more fun than I expected.

Want to join in on the fun? All you need to get started is: Christmas magazines, Hershey candy bars, scissors (or a trimmer), and an adhesive. No extra ribbon or trim is needed–they are sleek and beautiful all on their own.

I leafed through the magazines looking for pictures that could be trimmed to about 5 1/2 X 5 1/2. Some pictures I chose were not that large, so I wrapped the candy bar first with tissue paper. (As in the bar below with the little guys looking up at their Christmas stockings. Too, too cute.) When I found a picture, I made sure that there was nothing I wanted to save from the back side, then I ripped it carefully out of the magazine.

I didn’t mean to make so many, but I was having so much fun I couldn’t stop. Literally.

I had to decide whether the picture would go horizontally or vertically and exactly which two inches I wanted highlighted on the front of the candy bar.

I love the picture below of the mittens drying on the radiator. Can’t you just see the steam rising from those mittens and scarves, soaking wet from an afternoon of sleigh riding? Bet the shivering sledders are drinking hot cocoa even as I write this.

Finally I wrapped the picture tightly around the bar and adhered it on the back, being careful to adjust the picture so that the portion I wanted on the front was in place.

I still chuckle when I look at the advertisement I found: I WILL NOT BE REGIFTED.

I even found a black and white picture of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, celebrating together because finally they both know that It’s a Wonderful Life.

So there you have it–some conversation-starting gifts to have on hand. You could stack 2-4 of them and wrap them in a bright ribbon as a hostess gift, teacher gift, stocking gift, gift for your neighbor, or a game prize. You could also use them at a dinner or party and ask your guests what memory their picture evokes.

That is, of course, unless you’re like me and want to keep them all for yourself.

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Check out more Dollar Store Diva ideas here!

For those of you who haven’t met her, the Dollar Store Diva happens to be my Mom who has a special power. She can transform Dollar Store and other inexpensive finds into super fun gifts that would brighten anyone’s day!

Want to transform your Christmas with us? My Book The Merry Little Christmas Project – Five Words that will Transform your Christmas has helped thousands of women do just that. If you have ever wished that Christmas didn’t have to be so stressful, I wrote this book for you. Click here to learn more and begin simplifying and organizing your Christmas with me!

The Dollar Store Diva: Counting the Days!

November 2nd, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Want to Do Christmas Well with me? LIKE The Merry Little Christmas Project on Facebook and be a part of our community! We are working together to make Christmas simpler, organized and more meaningful. Come join us!

I’m so excited about this upcoming holiday series from the Dollar Store Diva! I love these Countdown to Thanksgiving and Christmas printables she’s put together for us.

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My husband always cautioned our children not to brush past the thanks-giving of Thanksgiving in a frenzied rush to get to the gift- receiving of Christmas.

He is a wise man.

Perhaps this printable I have created will help assure that my family will follow his sound encouragement.

Over the years I have used a variety of ways for my children to count down the snowy days of December until the magical number 1 finally arrived. This year [inspired by something I found here], I decided to create a Thanksgiving countdown too.

If you would like to join me, this is what you will need:

One 8 x10″ frame. Mine is a black Dollar Store frame.

Two sheets of white cardstock or white copy paper.

A printer

A dry erase marker

If you choose, you will be making two print-outs: one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. And it’s as easy as 1-2-3.

For Thanksgiving:

1) Print page three of this file (orange checked background) on a sheet of white cardstock or white copy paper. You may want to adjust your margins to the narrowest width.

2) Run that printed paper through the printer and print this Days Until Thanksgiving image over it.

3) Trim the finished copy to fit into the 8×10″ frame.

For Christmas:

1) Print page one of this Days until Christmas file (the candy cane striped paper).

2) Run that printed paper through the printer and print page two over the striped background.

3) Trim the finished copy to fit into the 8×10″ frame.

You can store the extra printable in the frame behind the current holiday countdown, so it will be safe and accessible when it’s time for the other holiday celebration.

The really fun part of this is that a dry erase marker works wonderfully on the glass of the frame. So each day your children can use a tissue to erase the number of the day before, and replace it with a lower number!

I am making copies of these to send to my grandchildren in Kansas, Texas, and Pennsylvania. It makes me happy just imagining them counting down the days–10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1–with their dry erase marker!

Ornament Credit

Christmas Background Paper Credit

Orange Checked Background Paper Credit

Check out more Dollar Store Diva ideas here!

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The Dollar Store Diva: A Thanksgiving Sweet Treat

October 26th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Here’s a yummy autumn idea from the Dollar Store Diva! Who’s going to argue with sweet and salty perfection?!

How about a super easy, super yummy treat to make and share?

Several years ago, my friend Paula introduced me to a colorful fall snack made with only two ingredients: candy corn and honey roasted peanuts. [Paula says 50:50. And I’m not going to argue with this sweet and salty perfection.]

I threw together a batch today; I then dropped a few spoonfuls into plastic sandwich baggies and tied them with thin ribbons. I just happened to have orange, brown and white ribbon [47 cents each from Walmart] –the three colors of the candy corn.

Hanging from the ribbon were too, too cute FREE PRINTABLE tags I found here.

These could be used as place cards on the Thanksgiving table, or a bowl of tagged baggies could be part of your autumn decorations. Family and friends will be delighted when you offer them a thanks-for-stopping-by sweet treat.

Check out more awesome Dollar Store Diva ideas here!

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The Dollar Store Diva: Framed Thanksgiving Hymn and Give Thanks Printable

October 24th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Here’s another simple yet beautiful autumn idea from the Dollar Store Diva using Free Fall printables. I LOVE it.

Printable Thanksgiving Hymn

I think that this framed Thanksgiving hymn is one of the favorite things I have ever created. I have it on display in my family room, and every time I walk past it I think, “I love that picture!”

And it was ever so easy to make.

First, I printed on tan cardstock a copy of “Come Ye Thankful People, Come” that I found here.
Then I ran that printed copy through the printer and printed Give Thanks over the hymn using this printable I created. A word of caution here: when you print Give Thanks over the hymn, be sure that you have slipped the paper into the printer tray properly. It’s very disappointing to wait with anticipation as the printer is whirring, only to have the text printed upside down!
Next, I stepped outside my front door, gathered some autumn leaves, and then arranged them on the printed document.
Finally—the exciting part!–I slipped this all under the glass of a dark brown frame from the Dollar Store and proudly put it on display.

What a lovely reminder of the reason for this autumn celebration.

The framed print made me so happy that I decided to have some more fun.

I printed four copies of the hymn per page on tan cardstock.
Then, as with the framed picture, I ran the hymn through the printer and printed Give Thanks over the hymn.
I used my trimmer to cut out the four prints and wrapped each card with a slender orange ribbon, slipped in a sprig of baby’s breath and—Oh!–a lovely place card for my Thanksgiving table.

I plan to have this as part of our family celebration. We will start off the meal by singing this hymn placed on each person’s plate. I love the thought of my family, as one voice, raising this ancient hymn of praise to God.

If you aren’t familiar with this song, you could print any number of other songs (How about “Over the River and Through the Woods”?), quotes, poems, or verses about autumn or gratitude.

By the way, don’t you like my pretty napkin? It’s a Dollar Store dish cloth. Yup—a Dollar Store dish cloth. They come two or three to a package. I keep my eye out for them, and I actually have them in appropriate colors for each season. I just throw them in the washing machine along with the rest of my laundry, and they are fresh and ready for the next festive meal.

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dollar-store-diva

For those of you who haven’t met her, the Dollar Store Diva happens to be my Mom who has a special power. She can transform Dollar Store and other inexpensive finds into super fun gifts and crafts that would brighten anyone’s day!

Check out more awesome Dollar Store Diva ideas here!

Want help simplifying your holiday season? I wrote my book with YOU in mind…

The Dollar Store Diva: Happy Fall Y’all!

October 17th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

The Dollar Store Diva is back and this time she has FREE FALL PRINTABLES!

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Who doesn’t love the word FREE?

Include the word PRINTABLES, and I’m a happy woman.

Then add the word FALL—as in FREE FALL PRINTABLES—and this woman decides that life is indeed good.

I have the privilege of teaching English to adult immigrants and refugees. For many of my students, this is the first time that they have experienced fall. Autumn in New York is a thing of beauty, so I like to make a big celebration out of the wonder of this season.

I decided to decorate some Hershey bars for my students and my family using the colorful harvest art I found online. [Which I happily categorized as FREE FALL PRINTABLES.]

I wrapped each candy bar in one of the following: decorative orange scrapbook paper, a page from a book, a comic strip, brown paper from a bag, a doily, or tan cardstock; then I added ribbons or yarn for a final festive touch.

[Oh, the possibilities are endless.]

On some of the wrapped bars I attached a Happy Fall oval tag with a fat pumpkin that I found here— adjusting its size to fit the Hershey bars.

Another is decorated with the word Autumn and a splattering of fall leaves. I found the printable here.

On another I typed the words Blessings Galore in black with a font (Honey Script 72) on my computer and printed it on brown paper from a Dunkin’ Donuts bag.

Finally, you’ve got to love the sketch of the tree with the falling leaves on the bottom left candy bar! I found this fun idea here.

This FREE FALL PRINTABLE from My Blessed Life sent me directly to the grocery store for supplies to make caramel apples. [OK—I confess that I cheated; I bought a package of Caramel Apple Wraps. But ever so easy, and ever so yummy.]

Happy fall, y’all!

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Check out more awesome Dollar Store Diva ideas here!

The Dollar Store Diva: Let’s Have a Ball!

September 12th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

This plastic container beckoned me from a shelf at the dollar store; I was attracted by its shape (it has a grip handle) and its perky blue lid.

Doesn’t it just beg to be filled with fat multi-colored gumballs?!

Since we give money to our kids and grandkids for their birthdays, I’m always on the lookout for creative “wrapping” ideas. My new daughter-in-law (Yippee!) celebrated her birthday in July, and a shiny plastic container filled with red/blue/yellow/green/orange/pink gumballs was just the “wrapping” I needed to celebrate Macia’s first birthday with the last name of Hill.

I slipped her cash gift under the lid, then filled the jar with a happy assortment of gumballs from Wegmans.

And, most certainly, a gift for Macia needed to be tied with a festive bow of green polka-dotted ribbon.

Inside a small card made from scrapbooking paper I wrote:

Happy Birthday, Macia!

HAVE A BALL on your 25th Birthday!

And, yup, I was absolutely right–as soon as Macia pulled the gift out of the bag, she opened the blue lid and popped a gumball into her mouth and then proceeded to share her birthday bounty.

My too, too cute grandsons Griffin [7] and Lincoln [4] both celebrate their birthdays in August.

Before you read any further, please be assured that–from the bulk candy aisle in Wegmans–I called my grandsons’ mother to get her permission to give these gifts to her boys.

Kaley said that I could give them this gift because, she assured me, she would be in charge of allocating them.

To make labels for the front of each jar I matted green and blue scrapbook paper and added a large sticker with their initials. Then I rolled their cash gift in a strip of paper and taped it under the lid, making two fun parts for the boys: 1) grabbing a sweet treat from a jar overflowing with them and 2) unraveling the paper-wrapped bill.

Smiles all around…

I was having so much fun that I decided to include my adored first-born grandson in the frivolity.

Andrew also celebrated a birthday in August. Because he lives exactly 1729.89 miles from my front door (requiring a minimum 27-hour-and-17-minute drive), I was not able to attend his 21st birthday party. [Small sob.]

Hey, I thought, why not send a mayonnaise jar filled with gumballs via USPS for this milestone birthday?!

I printed HAVE A BALL on your 21st birthday! in bold red letters on celebrative paper, removed the Hellman’s label from the plastic jar, cut the paper to the same size and wrapped it around the jar. On the side of the label opposite the birthday wish, I wrote his name and address, and the postal clerk attached the postage there. [Keep in mind that this jar contained a pound of gumballs, so the postage significantly exceeded a first-class Forever stamp.]

Just think of all the occasions you could use the HAVE A BALL theme–for an anniversary, retirement, birthday, wedding shower, baby shower, graduation, vacation, back-to-school, or off-to-college gift.

Oh, my, what fun can be had…

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Easy Angry Birds Cupcakes

August 14th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Just thought I’d give a little glimpse into why things have been rather quiet around here today. I’ve been making these little guys for a certain 7 year old’s birthday party.

We had a few casualties due to an inexperienced baked goods driver…but most of the birds and pigs survived the trip. And they were a hit with the elementary crowd. (They don’t look too happy about it though, do they?)

In spite of previous cake-making snafu’s, this one was overall a success. I love a recipe that is hard to mess up!

All I know is that I got a BIG hug from the birthday boy, so that’s a victory in my book.

You can find the step-by-step tutorial here.

The Dollar Store Diva: A Bottle of Sunshine in the Mail

August 9th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Here’s another clever gift-in-the-mail idea from the Dollar Store Diva! What little kid wouldn’t love receiving this?

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My postal clerk actually enjoys seeing me coming; she is fascinated by the objects I send in the mail.

When I first brought these goodies home from the Dollar Store, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with them:

a 6-pack of bottled water,

a bag of Twizzlers [who doesn’t love Twizzlers],

and some lemonade singles powder packets.

I only knew that I wanted to slap some stamps on the bottles and send a bit of sunshine via the USPS.

And then I thought of my sweet grandchildren in far-off Kansas–three of their birthdays are in June! They are always happy with their usual birthday card with Grandpa and Grandma’s usual cash gift, but this year I wanted them to also get something fun in the mail.

Kayla’s birthday came first; in her emptied and thoroughly dried water bottle I put an assortment of the drink packets and some plastic straws surrounded by celebrative pink grass. Audrie’s bottle was filled with bright red Twizzlers; Brandon’s had Twizzlers and several fruit-flavored freezer pops–not yet frozen, of course 🙂

I wrapped colored paper around the label on the bottles, added their address, and at the time of each birthday, headed off to the post office.

Three times my friendly postmaster smiled, applied the stamps, and sent the little gifts across the miles.

And three times, a certain mail box in Kansas contained a plastic bottle filled with sunshine.

xoxo

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