This one is going to be short and sweet. I am falling asleep as I write.
Custom T-Shirts
Anyone with access to a scanner and a printer can do this. You start out with a picture that you would want on a t-shirt. Get an inexpensive, plain t-shirt from a department store. While you're there, pick up some iron on transfer paper for your printer. Scan in the picture and flip it so that it looks backwards before you print it. After it's printed, you can iron it onto the t-shirt. My husband and I made these one year using a photo of his grandfather. It was for his grandfather's surprise birthday.
Clay Christmas Ornaments:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 tsp. powdered alum
1 1/2 cups water
Mix ingredients well in a large bowl. If the dough is too dry, work in another tablespoon of water with your hands. Dough can be rolled or molded and can be colored with a few drops of food coloring.
To roll: Roll dough 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut with cookie cutters dipped in flour. Insert wire or make hole in top about 1/4 inch down for hanging.
To mold: Shape dough no more than 1/2 inch thick.
Bake ornaments on ungreased cookie sheet for 30 minutes in 250° oven. Turn and bake another 1 1/2 hours until hard and dry. Remove and cool. When done, paint and seal with spray varnish. You can lightly sand before painting to make the paint adhere better.
*Alum can be found in the spice section of your store. (This is what I give my children a taste of on their tongue when they are telling a lie, back talking, or saying bad words.) It works wonders for that purpose!
Play Dough
2 cups flour 2 Tbsp. oil
1 cup salt 2 cups water
1 tsp. cream of tartar food coloring
Mix together all ingredients except food coloring in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture gathers on the spoon and forms dough (about 6 minutes). Dump onto waxed paper until cool enough to handle and knead until pliable. Store in a covered container or plastic bag. Add food coloring for different colors. Makes about 2 pounds.
Edible Play Dough
1/3 cup margarine
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract or flavorings
1 lb. powdered sugar
food coloring (optional)
Mix first 4 ingredients together. Add powdered sugar. Knead it. Divide and add food coloring. Keep refrigerated to keep from spoiling when not in use. You can replace vanilla with flavored extracts to give flavor other than just plain sweetness.
Easy Finger Paints
¼ cup cornstarch
2 cups water
Mix in saucepan and boil until thick. Then pour into a jar and add food coloring until the desired shade is achieved. Store covered in the refrigerator.
Finger Paints
1 pkg. unflavored gelatin 1 ½ cups water
½ cup cold water liquid dish detergent
½ cup cornstarch food coloring
Dissolve gelatin in ½ cup water. Set aside. In a saucepan add cornstarch then slowly stir in 1 ½ cups water until well blended over medium heat. Cook until it boils, becomes smooth, thickens and turns clear. Add gelatin mixture and stir well. Pour into containers and add a drop of liquid dish detergent. Add food coloring until you get the desired shade. Store covered in the refrigerator 4 - 6 weeks.
Bubbles
1/4 cup liquid dish washing detergent
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup water
Put the dish washing detergent in the water. Carefully stir in sugar, trying to avoid suds. Take a regular drinking straw and cut into 4 pieces. Then dip into the solution and blow your bubbles. Tie a rope loop up to a foot in diameter on the end of a stick and make a gallon of bubbles. Dip the rope in the bubbles and run with them. This will give you giant bubbles.
Sidewalk Chalk
2 qts. plaster of Paris
food colors
water
Mix plaster of Paris with 1 quart water. Mix in desired color. Pour into paper towel or toilet paper tubes (about 3 inches high). Let dry thoroughly (This may take several days). Remove from tubes and let the kids draw away.
Add other recipes for ornaments
Inexpensive Gift Ideas
A year's subscription to a magazine - Go online and look up magazine subscriptions for $5.00. You will find a lot of magazines for a year from $3.00 and up. (Yes! It's true.)
Go to the dollar store and buy the Cd's and/or movies that they sell for $1 each (granted they are old movies, but still a nice gesture).
Also, the dollar stores sell some pretty good reading books that you can add to the bag instead of the movies (for the people who like to read). I think I calculated for 8 people that this would cost under $30 total. You can also add a candle to each one too... Sometimes you can find them 3/$100 (or you can go to Wal-Mart and get a bag of tea lights for under $5 and it is a lot of candles).
Buy items in sets and divide them among the baskets. Buy a four pack of nail polish for four ladies baskets or buy packs of whistles or other party favors for the kids. Take individual popcorn, coffee or cocoa packets out of their boxes. They will fill the baskets better.
Shop garage sales and thrift stores for baskets and other containers
Dollar stores have lots of great inexpensive gift ideas. Browse!
Use cellophane bags to package your mixes. They are inexpensive when purchased at party stores or florists.
A gift can be as simple as tea bags in a tea cup tied with a pretty ribbon. A large soup mug and saucer with soup mix or a small glass bowl with some potpourri might also make a simple but nice gift.
duplicates and other photos that I wasn't going to put into my scrapbooks. I had enough extras that I ordered simple and inexpensive 2009 photo calendars from a popular mail order catalog. These are the calendars that have a slot for inserting a photograph and the "frame" around the photos is decorated with a theme for each month.
I used photos of my 4-year-old throughout the years to fill up the pages. I am sure my family will adore these functional and thoughtful gifts. Since I had already paid for the developing of the photos, the price was right!
Custom T-Shirts
Anyone with access to a scanner and a printer can do this. You start out with a picture that you would want on a t-shirt. Get an inexpensive, plain t-shirt from a department store. While you're there, pick up some iron on transfer paper for your printer. Scan in the picture and flip it so that it looks backwards before you print it. After it's printed, you can iron it onto the t-shirt. I made a quilt for my mom one year using these same steps but used white fabric instead. It turns out looking like a professional job at less than $1 more than the cost of the shirt!
No, It's Not Trash
I am not a fast-food aficionado, but lots of folks in my office are and the table and drawers at work had accumulated tons of those little ketchup and soy sauce packets. During a recent cleaning binge, all those packets had been gathered up and were going to be tossed out if no one claimed them so I scooped them up, took them home and emptied the contents into my ketchup and soy sauce bottles, filling them completely back up! Great freebie that would have been wasted.
Tangle-Free!
Instead of buying expensive detangler spray, I make up my own and it leaves my hair moisturized and smelling great. First, I take a regular 16-ounce spray bottle and put in two tablespoons of hair conditioner. Then I slowly fill the rest up with warm water and shake until conditioner is completely dissolved. To take care of my curly perm, every morning I spray my concoction on my hair. My hair just comes untangled and I am able to work out curls with my fingers.
Ok, I'm going to bed and hope for a better day tomorrow.
:)
Affectionately,
Franci
