Handmade Cards

One of the great things about having kids is that I may never have to buy another store bought card again! I love having the kids make cards for their cousins, grandparents, friends, etc. And the kids really love it too. I think there is really something special about receiving a handmade card.

I've posted a few of the cards we've made in the past:

Bubble print thank you cards


Christmas tree cards


Painted tissue paper cards


Valentine's Day cards for Daddy

I thought I'd share a few more ideas.

Pinky got a spin art machine for her birthday and the kids have had so much fun making pictures with it. The problem is we now have about a million of these little pictures lying around the house.


I thought it would be fun to use my scrapbook punches to cut out some shapes from the paintings and make cool pictures.

You can see the spin art shapes in the back on the left. Chaos and I made a rocketship birthday card for his friend. The front card is a simple crayon drawing that Pinky made of her and her friend playing in the mud. On the right is one of our painted tissue paper cards.

I'd like the kids to mail a card to one of their great grandmas every week so you will probably see more posts about handmade cards. We may try some fingerprint painting for our next batch of cards.

Do you have any cute handmade cards to share? I'd love to see them!

DIY Recipes

Lately I've been trying a few new DIY recipes for basic household supplies. I've really loved them and thought I would share.

First, we switched to a homemade laundry detergent. We prefer to leave ours in a powder form as it's easier to store and scoop. This is the recipe we use:

2 parts finely grated Ivory soap
1 part Borax
1 part Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)

Store in an airtight container. You only need one tablespoon for an average load, 2 if your things are heavily soiled.

We've been so happy with our switch (our clothes are much softer and the cost savings is amazing!) that I'm considering making some dryer balls in place of fabric softener sheets.

The other recipe we tried is our own detangler/leave in conditioner for Pinky. This one is super simple. Just add a small dab of your regular conditioner to a spray bottle, then fill the bottle with water. Give it a good shake and you're ready to go!

My husband has fully jumped on board the no 'poo movement and while I remain unconvinced he loves it. I've been looking for some baking soda shampoo recipes that he can try. I found some interesting information here (be sure to click the follow up at the end of the post for more info).

I've recently discovered the Homemade Mamas blog that has LOTS of great DIY recipes. You should check it out!

What things do you make at home to save money?

Easy Bake Oven!

One of Pinky's birthday presents from her grandparents was an Easy Bake Oven. With the holidays being so busy, we hadn't had a chance to sit down and bake anything until today. It's just as much fun as I remember!

We started with one of the kits my parents had sent along - a sugar/chocolate cookie mix.


The kids were really excited and Pinky and Chaos each made one cookie. The wait time is loooong though. With baking and cooling it took nearly half an hour for just 2 cookies. I think the anticipation made the final product even better - at least for Pinky it did!




Those little snack packs can get expensive, so I did some searching and found that you can use any 3T of cake mix + 1 T of milk to make an easy bake cake. I also found the following blogs full of recipes for the Easy Bake Oven:

Kitchen Crafts n More

Budget 101

And, if like me, you have trouble finding a "standard" light bulb for your oven (we found ours at an Ace Hardware store), check out this post on Mom Times Three.

Happy Easy Baking!

Pictures and Coupons and Bargains...oh my!

I spent the weekend ordering pictures for my upcoming scrapbook retreat. Want to take a guess on the magic number? I'll give you a hint...it's closer to 1000 than it is to 100. Yikes!

Thank goodness for coupon codes. I ordered the bulk of my pictures using Shutterfly's prepaid plan (9 cents per print - is there anything out there cheaper?). The remainder of the prints and shipping came to almost $55. No fear. I headed to retailmenot.com. If you've never been there, you really need to. I always check there for coupon codes before buying anything online. I found several codes there - free shipping on orders over $30, 10% off entire order, $10 off a $30 or more order, and 30 free prints. I was able to stack all the coupons and got my order down to $6!!! Woo hoo!!

Now maybe I'll have a little extra cash for new supplies...

Oh, and the magic number of pictures? 719. My husband thinks I'm nuts for ordering so many. I must prove him wrong. ;)

Random Musings...

You know, shopping after Christmas used to be my favorite bargain shopping time. I think I have a new favorite though - after Halloween sales! I picked up a great clown costume and ninja costume for the kids' dress up trunk for $8 total. I also scored 4 sets of lights (2 orange and 2 purple) for only $1.75 each. I think I will hit a few more stores tonight looking for more dress up outfits. I can put them away for birthdays and Christmas.

I love a good deal...