Low Cost Christmas Wreath

One of the easiest way to keep costs down is to use things you already own. You would think that would go without saying, but often times people need a reminder to look around and see what they have. This wreath used to have different Barry and ribbons Onnit what they had seen better days. The rest of the reef looks nice still so I removed everything to get down to just a basic green wreath.

From there I decided to check out what kind of Christmas crafting supplies and wrapping supplies and decorations I had leftover from other projects. What I found was some bulbs that I did buy from the Dollar Tree last year. We had used some of the bulbs in the pack to make our own personalized ornaments but did not use them all. The ribbon was left over from Christmas wrapping from years past and worked well to drape it and hot glue it into place. And the boat was one that was left over in a pack of other bows from a different crafting project in years past. So all and all I paid nothing to make this and half a new roof on the porch this season.

Fun Re-Use Idea to help Kids Fan Out Playing Cards

Do you still use K-Cups? Or have some you are using up until you start switching to the ones that bio degrade? Just cut a narrow slice our of your K-Cup and you have a card holder for kids. It's hard for kids to fan out their cards and now you can repurpose something and give them a way.

Heart Tree Made with a Toilet Paper Tube

This was a fun way to reuse some toilet paper tubes before recycling them and create a fun Valentine project. You could go a paint arm and hand print, but we chose to have my son trace it out and cut it out.

I shaped the toilet paper tubes in to a heart shape and he used those to make prints of "leaves" all over his tree. This is certainly a last minute Valentine craft that only needs a few supplies to creat.

DIY Pop Art Water Spot Coasters, plus a GIVEAWAY for Tootsie Roll K-Cups #ad

This project is the perfect way to re-use your used K-Cups and make something useful out of them. I used K-Cups from Tootsie Roll Hot Cocoa K-Cups that have not internal packaging, so they are easy to remove the foil and rinse out to use for this project.

I thought it would be fun to come up with some crafts to re-use K-Cups with. We don't use a lot of K-Cups, but I do like having them for when my husband is traveling for work and I need a quick cup of coffee before taking the kids to school and volunteering. I also like that my daughter can easily make herself a cup of hot cocoa. Anyways - time to tell you how I made this project. 

4 Tile Coasters Cost Me $1.50 to Make!!!!!

When I say $1.50, that is my out of pocket cost from purchasing 4 plain white tiles from Lowe's and 1 piece of felt and 1 tube of point (I was out of red) from Wal-Mart to make these. I had all the other paint colors I wanted to use, so I only needed to purchase the one. I also had the brushes and Fabric-Tac that I used to glue the felt pieces on the back, as well as a can of Hi-Glass clear lacquer (going need to purchase that soon for an upcoming project.)

I need to paint 2-3 coats of each color on the tiles, letting it dry in between coats. Then dipped a K-Cup in paint and pressed it on tile allowing it to smudge and drip (if it did) to have it look like actual water rings spots.

After acrylic paint is completely dry, spray with the clear spray paint. I did 2 coats, allowing it to dry between coats.

When that paint is cured (allow 24 hours), glue down pieces of felt that you have cut just smaller than the tiles to the back with some Fabric-Tac.

I made these for our own use, but I thinking of having the kids each make one for their teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week in May and giving it to them with a box of tea. I was perhaps thinking of making a week's worth of gifts all along the "hot beverage theme". Stay tuned and see what else I come up with.

I love a good tasty review! Check out all those flavors included! All 3 flavors of Charleston Chew are also included!

My Thoughts:

My family and I have tried all of the flavors included in the Tootsie Roll Hot Cocoa for K-Cup Brewers: Tootsie Roll, Sugar Babies, Junior Mint and Charleston Chew (in the flavors of Vanilla, Strawberry, and Chocolate) and they taste awesome, just how you expect each of the candy flavors to taste in a hot cocoa version. My favorite is Sugar Babies, but that is because it is my favorite of the candies listed. I did have an issue of some of the cocoa mix being left in the Charleston Chew flavors, but it still made a full cup and just tasted slightly watered down. All the other flavors made full cups and pretty much emptied the K-cup. I would not hesitate to get this variety pack again for my family. I do love that it is a variety pack because we have so many choices and we can pick one that suits our mood that day. I did want to add that I compared the nutritional info on this with a name brand hot cocoa packet (from a box of 10 packets) and the amount of sugar in the K-Cup was less than half, plus it has 40 less calories and half the amount of fat. I thought these tasted better than the packets I have.

If you aren't making your own homemade hot cocoa and are using packets, this produces just as much waste. Although, you can re-use the K-Cup for this craft project and more that I will share with you later. There is no internal pieces to this k-cup like there is on coffee and tea ones, so this has less waste than those.

Product Description from Two Rivers Coffee

As America’s favorite chewy chocolate candy, the Tootsie Roll has remained unchanged since it was first introduced in New York City in 1896. Now, you can enjoy the perfectly balanced cocoa taste, lined with subtle fruit-flavored undertones, as a steaming hot cups of delicious hot cocoa.

The Ultimate Single Serve Hot Cocoa Experience.

This cocoa pack is NOT COMPATIBLE with Keurig 2.0 machines.

ONE LUCKY READER WILL WIN THEIR OWN

40 PACK OF ASSORTED TOOTSIE ROLL HOT COCOA K-CUPS

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I was sent the above product for the purpose of review. All thoughts, opinions and photographs belong to this blog. No monetary compensation was recieved.

3 DIY Wreaths for Only $6

Let me first start off my saying that the reason it was possible to make 3 wreaths for only $6 (plus tax) was because I was re-using wreath forms. So, this year as you discard your wreath, think about if there are parts you can save to make a new wreath next year.

If you look at the picture in the upper right you can see the 3 forms that were a large grapevine wreath, a foam green wreath (you could get something similar at the Dollar Store) and a straw wreath (which only sell for a few dollars at Wal-Mart.)

All of these wreath forms were left behind at the cabin we bought, so I just went to Dollar Tree and bought some supplies (6 items worth) and got some yarn from my knitting bag and used some hot glue I had and cut some branches off of an evergreen outside at the cabin.

My daughter decorated the straw one, while I did the others two. I laid out the pieces on the forms before gluing or tying them in to place. I am pretty happy with how they all turned out and we have 2 newly decorated wreaths at the cabin (plus a third one I told you about last week) and one at home.

No Cost Wreath Design

Are you looking to decorate for the holidays but don't have a big budget for decorations?

Try looking in your own backyard and garden to create your own holiday wreath without spending any money.

Do you use chicken wire around your garden to keep out animals? Well, chicken wire bends easily and can be formed in to a wreath shape easily. Also, the great thing about chicken wire is that it has these awesome holes to shove in evergreen pieces, which is what I did. I just looked to the yard to find trimmings that I could use to make an evergreen wreath that now hangs outside the garden shed at the cabin.

I spent no money to make this beautiful wreath. What can you make just by looking around to see what you already have?

GIVEAWAY and Review: Eco-Jarz Lids

Are you looking for a unique gift idea for that person who is eco-conscious and doesn't like to add to the landfill or accumulate a lot of possessions? Or maybe you just have that person who is hard to buy for and you want to give a practical gift. These EcoJarz lids would be perfect for anyone and are the perfect size for a stocking stuffer.

With EcoJarz Lids you can turn nearly any jar in to a beverage container for on-the-go. Lids sizes are made for both small mouth and wide mouth jars. Maybe you have canning jars just hanging around waiting to be used like I do, or maybe you want to re-purpose a jam jar or a pickle jar; they fit on nearly every jar in your pantry.

Just insert your own straw on the lid and you are ready to go. If you don't have reusable straws, EcoJarz does sell stainless steel and glass straws. Or purchase a wide mouth pop top lid where you can easily drink from the lid and seal it up. If you check out the last picture, I made some ice tea in a quart jar and put the pop top lid on top so that it could be sealed when it was in the fridge.

Product Description from Eco-Jarz

We are a young company focused on challenging the concept of throw-away culture. Our first product — the Stainless Steel EcoJarz Drink Top — is designed to make reuse the new norm. Because our drink tops fit standard canning jars, they also fit hundreds of other bottles and containers that are disposed of everyday.This drink top will fit any standard mouth jar, whether it’s an empty tomato sauce, salsa, or mayonnaise jar. With EcoJarz, the possibilities of turning jars into long-lasting, always-handy, on-the-go drink vessels are almost endless.

ONE LUCKY READER WILL WIN THEIR OWN 

ECO-JARZ LID

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I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Try It Tuesday: Reclaimed Wood Name Sign

So, we bought this little rustic cabin recently and are working making it our own. We wanted to keep the rustic charm of it, but make it look more rustic intentionally through decor and some updates. This is one of those projects, which was simple to do.

This project was a no-cost one. I used some reclaimed lumber that was left behind in our garage from the previous owners, sticks from out yard and a rock (apostrophe) and acorn cap (dot over the i) that I found in our yard, and some twine and hot glue purchased for other projects that was leftover.

I just cut the wood to the size we wanted and cleaned it up. I left the paint on the wood the way it was so that it helped add to the rustic quality of it. Then I just drilled holes in the top so I could tie my twine through and laid out my twigs to spell out the words and then hot glued them in to place.

Below you can see the picture of the sign as it hangs on our little rustic cabin. I wasn't there when my husband went up to work on adding some new windows and siding and trim (these were all added new to make it look more cabin-y) and hung it at that time. I have not seen it yet, but soon. He says everything looks even better in person.

Book Review: Don't Throw That Away!

I wanted to share with you this book called Don't Throw That Away!by Lara Bergen. It is a cute board book with lift-the-flaps that will help teach even the youngest resident of the earth about recycling and reusing. It gives ideas of house to reuse a jar, a milk jug, cans, a cardboard box, and clothes. I wasn't asked to review the book, I just wanted to share it with you. In fact, I got the copy I am reviewing from the library which you might want to check out too! But you can buy it on Amazon if you wish.

Thrifty Thursday: Re-Use Plastic Lunch Meat Containers

Don't be so fast to recycle those plastic containers if you buy the ones that some lunch meats come in. Often they are the same quality as the Take Along variety that are sold in the "picnic" or "paper" products section of the grocery store. You will probably just need to remove the label & the adhesive used to attach the label on top, but that is easy enough.

These containers are great for sending home leftovers with guests or bringing along when traveling or camping since you don't need to worry if they are returned or ruined since they are free "Tupperware".

Some Chinese take-out places also use plastic containers that have be reused like this as well.

GIVEAWAY and Review: ReUsies™ Snack and Sandwich Bags

I send a packed lunch to school with my daughter about half the time. Each month when the new lunch menu comes out, we sit down and highlight the days she wants to eat hot lunch at school. This routine makes it easier on me because I can just look at the calendar and see if she said she wanted to eat it or not and I don't have to try to remember what she said.

When I had the opportunity to review ReUsies Re-usable Snack and Sandwich Bags, I was very excited. We try to keep our trash to a minimum when possible and for lunches that means having re-usable containers, cloth napkins and bulk items put in re-usable containers.

There is a huge variety of fabric patterns to choose from. The pattern set I was sent is called Floral Vacation. Go check out all of your choices for the Two-Pack set, as ONE READER WILL WIN THEIR CHOICE OF SET. 

This top picture if of the "snack" bag right before I sealed it up to put in her lunch bag, but I thought it fit regular sized sandwich perfect. So saying snack size is a little misleading.

The picture below is of the "sandwich" bag, which is supposed to fit an adult sandwich, so I thought I would try out a 6" piece of french bread and see how it fit. As you can see it fit very well. I really think this is the size of re-usable container that was missing on the market, but it is now here. Now, I can make myself or my husband a sandwich piled high with veggies, meats and cheeses and it has a container it will fit in.

Here is some additional information from the ReUsies website about these snack and sandwich bags:

What are ReUsies™ made of?
They are 100% cotton, lined with leak-resistant nylon. They come with hook & loop closures that are kid-friendly and ensure that the food won't fall out.

Are ReUsies™ safe to use?
ReUsies are free of BPA and phthalates. They are also CPSIA compliant and meet the FDA standards for food safety, which makes them safe for everyday food use.

Care Instructions

ReUsies™ can be machine washed and dried, washed in the dishwasher, or for longest life simply wiped clean with a soapy sponge and air dried.


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I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use 
personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Thrifty Thursday: Make a Leaf People/Animal Craft

 This was such a fun activity! We invited some friends with us to go hiking around and have lunch at Sakatah State Park and do a craft.

We let each of the boys pick whatever they wanted to for leaves & acorns as we were hiking through the woods, then we came back to our picnic table and got our the supplies I had brought (glue, a piece of paper & re-used supplies - aka googly eyes,)

Then we let them pick out what they wanted to glue on & where and decide what they were going to be. My son's is above and he made "Mommy (the big oak leaf), Henry (the smaller maple leaf), Lucy (the smaller one of our cats is the smaller leaf) and Larry (the larger of our cats is the larger leaf at the bottom.)

Notice how we also used leaves as legs and a mouth.

My son's friend made mice with his leaves and acorns.

Just wanted to share a couple more pictures of the boys frolicking at Sakatah State Park.

In MN, you can buy a state park admission pass for $25, which we had not bought in several years. So, now that we have one we are going to make sure we use it.

#190 Revive Old Pillows

The pillows I recovered and the ones toward the center. They are light tan and hunter green in color.
In this picture you can see the cream colored cashmere pillows I have had for about a decade that now have various holes on the back side, how they got there I don't know. I'm just going to blame the cats. The front side was a nice cable knit cashmere, but there were a couple of tiny holes in the front, but with kids when do the pillows ever stay facing the right way so company doesn't see the holes on the back side.

This was a simple enough project with minimal sewing skills needed. My daughter & I picked out fabric from JoAnn's that was in their home interior section (thicker & more heavy duty fabric in this section) that was in their discounted pile of bolts. A yard of this fabric was $6 and was almost exactly what I needed, there is minimal scraps leftover.

All I did was simply sew along three sides with the wrong sides facing out and then turned it right side out, folded in the fourth side and pinned it and stitched that down in a coordinating color of thread (which I was lucky enough to have some.)

Six Dollars! That's it! For 2 new pillows. And nothing is going in the landfill because I kept the cashmere cases on them so that it provided a smoother look.

But if sewing is not something you are interested in doing, check out buying pillow cases from a store to give your pillows a new look (or in my case get rid of the used-up look). Stop yourself from throwing away a perfectly good pillow when it just needs some updating.

#166 Creative Uses For A Plastic Lid

These ideas came from watching my kids play with some other ones at an ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) class earlier this week. I knew I had a couple and thought they would be fun to make with my daughter.

All we used was 2 lids from whipped topping containers, a hole punch, some ribbon, scissors, and a plastic bag.

The top collage is of the one I made for my son. For his I punched holes around the entire perimeter and cut out a center circle. Next I cut out strips from a plastic bag. And finally I tied them all around. He likes using his as a basketball hoop and throwing a ball through the hole. The other thing he likes to do with his is use it as an instrument (he loves to make noise). The strips of plastic hitting each other make a Sssh! Sssh! sound.

This bottom collage is of my daughter and her version. For her version I allowed her to pick out any thin ribbon we had, while I punched holes around only half of hers after I cut out the center circle. Again, tie the ribbon through the holes. She liked using hers as a fairy crown or as dancing ribbons.

This was so simple to make and there is just so many possibilities. Make some with your kids and see what their imaginations come up with as uses. Let me know what they come up with.

Let's Keep It Going – Recycled Crafts

Continuing on the Recycled Crafts Theme that I have had in many of the tips and as I head into the school year with my daughter and eagerly await the arrival of our son, I am going to change the direction of this blog.

Each week I plan to present you with a new craft that we have completed in our household by reusing items that might have otherwise ended up in a landfill. My daughter loves to do crafts and overtime the amount of supplies I may have to purchase could really add up, also the amount of packaging that these supplies came in would add up. We will still need to purchase some supplies, but we will present you with some recycled crafts that reuses items or repurposes items we already own.

I hope your will continue to periodically check in to this blog to see what we have been up to and give you some ideas. Some crafts may be targeted to kids, while others may be crafts that take adult skills. I will continue to post on both Twitter & Facebook when I have made new updates to this blog. I may throw in a few other tips here or there besides my recycled crafts ideas.

In the meantime, I will be working on adding labels to all the posts I have already made so that you can click on a label and find all releated posts. And if you are new to this blog, please go back to June 2009 and start reading my tips for how you can save money while being mindful or saving the environment.

Save Green Being Green!

#99 Reuse Baby Food Jars

Ok, so you didn't make your own baby food & instead bought jars of it, or maybe it was just a few jars. Let's make sure you reuse or recycle those jars. My sister recently used hers to store & organize all her spices.

I found this list that is pretty comprehensive of a TON of crafts you can make. I recycled mine from when my daughter ate pureed food, so I don't have any laying around, but with baby boy due in 2 months they will soon be come in the house. I know I said I was going to make my own this time, but probably not everytime. Sometimes it is nice to have a jar or 2 on hand or in the diaper bag since if they are kept sealed you can have them around and not worry about refrigeration.

And you can also use them to put some of your homemade baby food into.

#96 Make a Recycled Toy Drum & Drumsticks

We just made this as a craft project entry for our county fair for my daughter. She actually did most of the work. We started out using an empty chip canister, some used tissue paper that came wrapped around something, some chopsticks that came with our chinese food, some ribbon we bought at a thrift store, a little glue, & a couple of marshmallows. She mixed up a mixture of water & glue to use as a decoupage, then applied a layer to the outside of the canister and started applying layers of ripped tissue paper and water/glue mixture. She also applied a couple pictures of the fair mascot which we had printed out. Then we set that aside to dry. Next was making the drumsticks, which we could simply just used chopsticks, but she thought they needed a large head on the end and came up with the idea to stick marshmallows at the end (of course we had to get a couple out for her to eat as well and she really wanted to eat the ones she put on). She was very proud of herself for coming up with that idea.

After it was dry, I made holes in the side to stick in the ribbon and helped he push through the ribbon. Then I tied knots on the ends on the inside and she replaced the cover and was ready to go. It will take a couple days for the marshmallows to harden, but then they will solidify on the chopsticks. Have fun!

#90 Try Out Freepeats.Org

If you are in the market for items related to maternity, infants or children and live in or near a metro area, you should check out Freepeats.org. It's like Freecycle, but is specifically geared towards maternity, infants & children. It does cost $1 to join, but you can get that dollar back if you post 2 offers before the end of the month.

#86 Reuse Business Magnets

This is one of my favorite ideas to share & pass on. It's so simple and those business magnets are plentiful. It seems like all sorts of businesses create these magnets as a cheap way to provide you with some sort of “freebie” that will advertise their business. I keep a few of them because they are businesses I patronize and I like to have their phone number & hours of business handy, but most are useless to me. So, what I do with them in cut them into smaller pieces and glue them to back of crafts or pieces of artwork my daughter does. Usually a whole magnet is excessive, so cutting it up into 3-4 pieces works well to attach to the back of a piece of paper artwork. And the magnet works stronger when it doesn't have to go through the paper (hence needing a smaller magnet surface area). And when you are done displaying the art/craft you can always take it off and glue to another item

#85 Recycle Your Children's Artwork

We all know how fast this can and does accumulate and really, what do you do with all of them? You can only keep so many. We use paintings and drawings as wrapping paper. From time to time let them have a big sheet of packing paper or butcher paper and you will be able to wrap up those larger pieces. Everyone seems to love the personal touch of homemade wrapping paper and I get to save money on buying wrapping paper and can share the art work that they put the time into making. Sometimes we even specifically make artwork that will be used as wrapping paper and other times I just grab some out of the bin of artwork.

We do this with cards as well. Usually for cards, we specifically plan an art project that will involve us making card(s). Not only does my child get to be creative and have fun, but she works on creating something for someone special and I get to save money on buying a card. We all know that cards can be just a formality, especially when it is just something they read quickly once and then they get recycled. People seem to be more appreciative of the homemade card and have a tendency to hang on to them or display them rather than recycle them.