Homemade Air Dry Dough:
Here is a quick and cheap recipe and you can make it in such a variety of colors! perfect for making something simple like ornaments or even something like a nativity for your kids room! great if you have kids as an awesome family/babysitting/daycare/classroom activity!
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup water
- any food dye (they have such a wide variety inluding neon colors!)
- bowl for mixing
- newspaper to cover surface
- clear acrylic spray
- cheap latex gloves (if desired to keep from getting food dye on your hands as you mix in the color)
Cover your work surface with newspaper. then into the mixing bowl add your salt, flour, then water into the bowl. Mix or knead until a soft dough forms. then add your color, just a few drops for a light color or more if you want a richer color. Viola! Sculpt your desired idea (if an ornament make sure you have a hole near the top for a string or hook to go through so you can hang it :) and let it dry! once its dry, spray the clear acrilic over the object! YAY!
For a longer lasting clay, I would advice a bake-in-the-oven clay (availible at all craft stores and some walmarts). you can buy it in a variety of colors and it lasts a very long time. :)
Make Your Wreaths!
Yes you heard me right! My mom always trimmed off the bottom branches of our tree and made the wreath out of that. I like the artifical wreaths a little bit better because im able to use them yar after year. the one that hangs under my front porch light I made for like $6 and its on par with some of those $25 wreaths i hve seen for sale! I got everything I needed at dollar tree, but it was the best place for me to get it all for the best price. this is what I got:
- Two of the 12" plain wreaths (they are kinda thin looking but trust me)
- one thingy (lack of better wording) of the 15' pine garland that is plain.
- one spool of a pretty wire edged ribbon
- one or two of the little artifical flowers (I got one of the baby poinsettas and one with little holly berry and pinecones, but get whatever suits your fancy!)
Take your two wreaths and take the little branches and have them all sticking straight up. Then stack them to where one is inside the other and as close as you can get them. take your pine garland and wind it around the two wreaths, joining them together and filling in the gaps. (do it very tightly and close kinda like how you would wrap lights on a pillar or pole.) once you have used up all the garland, take the little braches and flatten them some and fan them out to make it look natural. Take your flower bunch and fan out the stems to where the heads are facing all kinds of different directions. Then take the leaves on the stem and push them to where they meet the head. (everything on each stem should all be at the tip) Three inches down from the head, take the stem and bend it back and forth several times quickly. this will cause the stem to break off. Take the stem and bend halfway between the end and head to create a hook. take the hooked end and push it into the desired spot of your wreath. once its pushed in, take one of the little branches and kinda wrap it around the stem right under the head to give it some extra support. (you can also hot glue it into the branches) repeat until wreath is well decorated! End with trying a pretty bow onto it with your ribbon and hang!
Quick and Easy Ornaments!
You can use a variety of things as ornaments! like using artificial flowers (break away the stems and have the leaves at the head like described above for the wreath, but instead of making the end a hook just stick it straight inot the tree), pinecones from your yard (brush a bit of paint onto the ends for a splash on color), or even oragami! use construction paper to cut out shapes or make paper chains! get creative! also make your own bows for your tree! the possibilites are endless!
Make Your Own Stockings!
This is more of a later this month type project or can be done now. get some fun Christmas print fabric, or any fabric of your choosing for that matter! (1 yard will easily make at least 3 average sized stockings) trace out a stocking shape (fabric folded and wrong side out). then sew the two sides together (wrong side out) and hem the top. add a loop of ribbon/fabric on the top back edge (on the top of the back seam) then turn it right side out! a pretty custom made stocking! for even more fun add glitter, fabric paint, sequins, embroidery, or whatever tickles your fancy! do a plain white one and have your kids draw on it with colored sharpies. have fun with it!
Happy Savings!
Awesom coupon tip of the post: weekends that have a bank holiday usually wont have coupons in the sunday paper (memorial day, labor day, ect.) If you are unsure if your paper will have coupons that weekend, check out www.sundaycouponpeview.com it will gave you what inserts are coming up and what coupons are gonna be in them (there are going to be some toy coupons in there this week)
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