Thrifty Thursday- Reuse Advertisement Magnets

You know those advertisement magnets you get on the phone books? Or if you ever go to a home show you are bound to get a few there too.  Well don't through them out.  Instead, use them for something else.  There are a couple different ways I have used them.  One way is using them as a magnet.  Here is an example:

You could use a photo and add some scrapbook paper and ribbon and mod podge or use a  glue stick to glue the magnet onto the back. Or I have also made a little card with my information and put the magnet on the back and given it to the women that I visit teach.

Another way I have used them is as a bookmark. Take a strip of stronger scrapbook paper or card stock, fold it in half and glue the magnet on the inside of each end of the scrapbook paper, so they will pull together.  You can then fold it over the page you are on in a book and it will save your page for you.

There you have it some easy super thrifty ways to reuse those advertisement magnets.

Thrifty Thursday - Options for Flower Pots

It might be that you are sick of paying money every year for annuals and having them die, or it might be that you are tired of it coming to this time of year and your flowers not looking too good, or it might be that you don't want to spend the time watering everyday, or it might be that  your pot is in an area that doesn't get much sun.  What ever the reason there are options.  I like to decorate my flower pots all year long.  In the summer most of my pots are planted with the real stuff and I usually do annuals.  Though I might change in the future.  I have some perenial bushes in my bigger pots.  When it comes to fall, I like to decorate with silk flowers and leaves.  Winter I bring out the silk poinsettias and use pine garland to add a little extra.  There are options to decorating your pots all year long and you don't have to feel like your money is dying away. Don't get me wrong I do love live pots and will continue to plant them.  I am just saying there are thrifty options.


Here are some examples:

Here is a silk arrangement or fall.

And here is a spring/summer arrangement with metal flowers.

Thrifty Thursday - Making do...

Have you ever heard the sang, "Make do, or do with out"?  It seems like at times something that is perfectly good gets tossed aside because we think we need want something better. I think that what we don't realize is that we can make the original thing we have better, we can make do with it.  I have not tried this but I love this idea.

Make your door knobs and fixtures bronzed.  All it takes is some sand paper, spray paint and a little elbow grease.  A lot cheaper then paying for all new door knobs. Here are a couple great tutorials.

This picture and a great tutorial is from Judy at Cleaning Junkie.  Click here for the tutorial.

Here is another tutorial from Carefree Blonde, click Here to view. This tutorial shows that she did it to a towel rod also.

I would love to try this out on my bathroom facets.

Thrifty Thursday - 5 Inexpensive Beauty Tips

We all want to look the best we can, but don't always want to spend a fortune doing so.  Here are some expensive little beauty tips that can help us look great.

Tip 1:  Use baby oil as shaving cream.  I did this the other day and it worked great. It also left my skin so soft.  ** Caution though, it is oil so be careful getting in and out of bah or show it might be slippey** I also mix a little bit of baby oil with some shimmery lotion I have that I think is a little too shimmery.  I applied it to my legs and it maked them smooth and shimmer, but not too much.

Tip 2: Read labels.  Look at the store brand items and compare their ingredients with the name brand. If they are the same and the store brand is cheaper then why not buy it.

Tip 3: Use your make-up multiple ways.  I have a brown eye liner pencil that is also the perfect shade for my eyebrows.  Light eyeshadow could be used for highlights. You can use an old clean wand from mascara as an eye brow brush.

Tip 4: Water...is our friend.  Drink enough water each day our body craves it.  About 60 percent of an adult body is made of water. So doesn't it make sense that it is important that we get enough.

Tip 5: Baby Powder use it like dry shampoo.  What I like to do is sprinkle it in my hands and rub them together and apply to roots then brush or comb out.

Wisdom Wednesday & Thrifty Thursday - Spy Party Favors (TNT)

I started this post on Wednesday, but ran out of time to get it posted.  So, I am finishing it up today and thought I may as well combine the two.  Since it is thrifty too.  Pretty much the only expense is the fun stuff you find to put inside.

My littlest just had a birthday, we did a combined party with his cousin and did a spy theme.  My mom did most of the work, making the cute top secret invitations, secret handshakes and codes.  She even made them some brief cases with all of their spy gear. They had fun completing their missions which included, exploding the bombs(black balloons), disposing of grenades ( grenade water balloons) completing an obstacle course and breaking the bomb piñata.  At the end they received their TNT dynamite favors.

To make these you can basically use the firework tutorial found here, with a few changes.

Here are some easy steps you can follow:

1- Cut your paper towel tube. You can get 3 out of one tube. The lengths should be about 3.66 inches.
2- Cut circles out of cereal boxes the size of the bottom and tops of the paper towel.  You can either trace them or us the pattern on the free firework printable found here.
3. Now this is where it gets a little different from the firework.  You are going to glue one of the cereal box circle cutouts onto the bottom of the paper towel tube with some hot glue.
4. Next, you will need to cut some circles out of red paper that are larger than the tube, you can use the pattern on the free firework printable. Make little cuts into the circle. Using a glue stick glue it onto the bottom of the paper towel tube covering the cereal box circle. Making sure you fold down the overhang around the tube.
5. Now take some more red craft paper that has been cut to the length of the paper towel tub (3.66 inches) and wrap it all around the paper towel tube.  I secured mine onto the tube with hot glue. You could use tape too.  The dimensions of my red paper to wrap around the tube were 3.66 in x 6 in.
6. Here's the fun part, stuff the tube with little toys and candy. I also put some streamers in there.
7. Take another one of the cereal box circles and cut a piece of  red paper the same size as it. Glue the red paper circle onto the cereal box circle with a glue stick.
8. Poke a hole in the middle of the circle.  I used a small hole punch for this.
9. Push your black pipe cleaner through the hole. On the inside of the circle fold about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch of the pipe cleaner over and glue it onto the circle with hot glue. Cut your pipe cleaner to the desired length. This is the "fuse".
10. Glue the circle with the pipe cleaner and red paper facing upwards onto the top of the paper towel tube. Don't put a ton of glue just enough to secure it.  This is how they will get to their treat.
11. On the front write with a black sharpie T.N.T., you could also use vinyl, stickers or a stencil here.
12.  Enjoy... To "explode", just pull on the pipe cleaner and the top should come off so they can get to all of their goodies.

Thrifty Thursday - DIY Pedicure

Doing your own pedicure is super thrifty! All you need is a foot file, some nice moisturizer, a cuticle tool, nail clippers, and some finger nail polish.  All of which can be bought at the dollar store. 

First, use the foot file and file all of the rough spots on your foot. Next clip your toe nails.  I actually have a toe nail clipper that is a little bit larger than a normal clipper. Then, file your toe nails. Making them smooth and the shape you desire.  It is best when filing to file in one direction, not back and forth. Next, apply your moisturizer, give your foot a nice massage, pay attention to massaging the moisturizer into your cuticles.  Then gently push back your cuticles with the cuticle tool. Wipe off your toe nails and apply your base polish.  I did two coats. Then you will pick another color, I did white. I used the end of my cuticle tool to make the dots, you could also use the end of a strait pin, craft paint brush or an embossing tool.  Actually I've also used the end of a bobby pin before too. They make dotting tools if you would prefer to purchase one. Then you will make the dots, by dipping your tool into the nail polish and dotting it onto the nail.  As you can tell it is my first time doing the dots, they are not too uniform and my little toes they are a little crowded. Next time I will do it a little different then just randomly putting them on.  I've seen a tutorial that has you put a dot in each of the four corners and one in the middle then you can evenly space them in there. Wait for the dots to dry and then put on a clear top coat. And there you have it some cute toe nails to show off your favorite sandals.

Thrifty Thursday - Up-cycled plastic grocery bag holder

I have a bunch of containers that used to have protein powder in them.  I have up-cycled them into a few different things.  One of my favorite is a plastic bag holder.  I keep one under the sink in the cupboard of each of my bathrooms.  Because, yes I reuse my plastic grocery bags too, they are the perfect size to fit in my garbage cans.  I love using the protein containers, because even though you wash them they still have the aroma of the flavor of shake mix, which then scents my bags. Here's the one I made for this post and no, not all of the ones I have are all dolled up.

Really simple to do:

Just re-use a container that you have. Empty wipe containers work great too.

I wrote with a permanent marker on the front of mine, but you could paint it on or vinyl it on too.

I put a piece of fabric along the top of mine with some hot glue and added a flower.

Then just stuff them full of all those plastic grocery bags you have!

Thrifty Thursday - DIY Personalized Notebook

The other day I made these with my kids.  They loved it, because they are personalized! They couldn't wait to get writing in them.

So, I basically made these for free!  All you need is:

- An empty cereal box

- Scrapbook paper

- Glue & paint brush

- Paper for the inside (I used printer paper)

-String and a needle

- A small 1/4 of an inch hole punch

- Anything you'd like to embellish it with (stickers, cutouts, sandpaper and ink to antique, etc.)

- Paper cutter and scissors

Step 1

Cut cereal box.  I cut my cover 4.5 inches X 9 inches.

Step 2

 Fold the cereal box cut out in half, smoothing crease with a bone folder or finger.

Step 3

Cut out the papers for the inside.  Make them about 1/4 of an inch smaller than your cereal box.  So, for mine I cut them 4.25 inches X 8.50.  I used three 8.50 X 11 pieces of paper, cutting them twice so each book would have 12 pieces of paper when folded in half. 

Step 4

After folding the inside pages in half, take a hole punch and punch two holes along the crease about 1 inch apart.  I just eyeballed it to make sure they were the same distance from each side.  Next place the inside pages on top of the cover. Through the holes mark where they need to be punched.  Fold the cover and punch with a hole punch.

Step 5

Put the cereal box cut out cover on top of the scrapbook paper and mark the size. Then cut it out to the same size.

Step 6

Open back up and apply glue to the side with writing.  You could use white glue with a paint brush, or a glue stick, or mod podge.  Smooth the scrapbook paper on to the glue covered cereal box. make sure you get all bubbles out.  Fold back in half and allow to dry.

Step 7

When it has dried you can cut or file off any over hang from the scrapbook paper. Also, now would be the time to embellish.  For this one, I sanded all of the sides.  Make sure when doing this you sand outwards.  After sanding I applied some ink with a beauty sponge. Then since my scrapbook paper was double sided I cut out a square and turned it over for the checkerboard patterned paper.  Then I cut a flower out of that same paper. I used the extra white paper and cut out a flower with it and distressed it with some ink.  Then I layered them all onto the cover.

Step 8:

Putting it all together.  I used some sting that I bought at the dollar store.  You could really use anything you have (Bakers twine, ribbon, yarn, etc.) I have a needle with a big eye that I was able to string it through.  Put your inside paper inside of the cover. Then poke and string it through all of the holes.  I started on the outside and strung it inside then strung it back out through the other hole.  I then tied it in a double knot and on some I did a double bow.

These are my kids creations.

I originally was going to have them use them outside and do a little activity with them.  Like leaf tracing. But my oldest was way to excited and gave his a title and started writing in it, before I could say otherwise.  That's okay, we can make more and do something like that another day.

Thrifty Thursday Tip

I was low on time today for the post, so I thought I'd give a little thrifty tip.  My tip is to sign -up for coupons at your local restaurants. We use this a lot!  It can make a big difference in your bill.

Thrifty Thursday - Simple Framed Art

This is so easy and thrifty!  All you need is a frame, scrap book paper, some little embellishments or graphics and Mod Podge.

Mine is a 5x7 frame.  So, first I cut a piece of card stock to 5x7 (the mustard color is my card stock).  Then I started to randomly cut scrapbook paper that were ordinating colors.  This is where scrap pieces could come in handy.  I layed out all of my scrapbook pieces and my images on my card stock, arranging them how I thought they'd look good.  Then I started Mod Podging them on.  When all pieces are attatched to the card stock cover the who'll thing with Mod Podge.  Allow to dry, when completely dried place in the frame and you have a new decoration for your walls or table.  Good places to find inexpensive frames: Walmart most dollar stores, second hand stores like Deseret Industries or United Way.

I love making things because they are one of a kind!

Thrifty Thursday- Cute Paper Wallet Card for Father's Day

I made these for my dad and father-in-law a few years back.  I can not remember where I found the idea.

Here are some pictures:

They were pretty easy to make!  It is all out of thick scrapbook paper.  On the inside cut the paper smaller than the outside. Each inside layer you decrease by an inch in height.   Ink around all of the edges. Layer on top of each other sealing the outer edges and bottom edges with double stick tape. Leave the tops open, so you can stick some cash or a gift certificate to their favorite place. On the outside layer you also ink the edges and round the corners, I used a rounded corner punch.  To add a little bit more embellishment you can use a push pin and make pin holes around all of the outer edges, then use a fine tip pen and make little lines connecting the pin dots, giving it a stitched look.  I also cut a contrasting little square and stamped it.  I gave these cards for birthdays, thus the birthday stamp.  But you could stamp it with something else, like initials, a fish, a baseball, etc.

Update:  This paper wallet can be made with just one sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 card stock.  Here are the dimensions:

• Turn the paper so it is length wise and cut at 9 inches.  Reserve the 2 inch piece for later.
• Fold the paper in half so each side measures 4 1/2 inches. Unfold.
• Cut the paper so it measures 9 inches by 3 1/2 inches.
• Now cut the next pieces from the remainder of the paper. There will be one piece that will measure 9 by 3 inches
• The next will measure 9 by 2 inches.
• The last piece will be cut from the piece reserved at the beginning and it's size will be 8 1/2 by 1 1/2. Fold this piece of paper in half.
• The two pieces that measure 9 inches by 3 inches and 9 inches by 2 inches will need to be met up with the piece that measure 8 1/2 by 1 1/2 inches. You will them cut the excess one each side of the first two papers, so they are the same length as the smallest. The new measurements will be. 8 1/2 by 3 inches, 8 1/2 by 2 inches and 8 1/2 by 1 1/2 inches.  Place glue or double sided sticky tape on the outer edges of each piece and layer together.

Thrifty Thursday- Inexpensive Fun Outdoor Play (Field Day)

The past two days I have been involved at the school with field day. There were so many fun games that were played and all of the kids had a blast!!  Here are some fun inexpensive outdoor games that could be played this summer:

Dip-Drip-Drop:  This is a fun game of "Duck-Duck-Goose", but with a twist.  All but one kid sits in a circle.  The kid who is not sitting is "it" The person who is "it", has a wet sponge and says "Drip" and touches the kids heads.  When he is choosing someone, then he says "Drop" and he drops the sponge, running around the circle and sitting in the spot where the kid he chose was sitting.

Pour the Cup: There need to be two equal teams.  The kids get in two single file lines.  Place a bucket at the end/back of the line of kids.  Each kid has a cup.  The first person in line scoops some water into the cup (I used a big cooler full of water). They then lift the cup over their head and try to pour into the person's cup behind them.  So, they are pouring it where they cannot see where it is going.  The person behind them needs to have their cup up and ready to catch the water.  Then that person pours it over their head into the cup behind them and so forth until it gets to the last person, who pours it into the bucket.  Then the last person runs up and becomes the new person in the front of the line.  He then scoops up water and pours it behind him and so forth.  The game continues until the first bucket is field.  The first bucket field is the team who wins.

Face Painting: This is a classic!  Kids love to get their face painted.  You can either do it the traditional way of using face paints (I like to stock up after Halloween when they are all on clearance).  Have a picture of things that the kids can choose from.  Have them sit down in front of you and ask them to hold still. Then use your creativity and paint something on their face.  You could use q-tips if your concerned with keeping things clean.  Just use them on one kid and throw away and use a new one on another.  Some classic things to paint are: hearts, sun, smile face, mustache, rainbow, star, skull, snake, spider, butterfly, flower, etc.  Another option is to use washable skin tattoos.  All you need is water to apply these.  They are usually easily washed off with baby oil or olive oil or rubbing alcohol.

Shovel & Bucket Water Relay:  Have kids separate into two equal teams.  You will need Four Buckets.  Have a bucket at the beginning of each team at the start of the race and then a bucket at each end of the race.  The first person in line scoops some water up with their sand shovel and tries to race to the other bucket, without spilling the water.  When they get to the bucket they pour it in and then run back to their line and give the shovel to the next person in line.  Who then scoops up some water and races down to the bucket and so forth.  You continue doing this until the first bucket is field.  That team is who wins.

Tug of War: You will need an inflatable kiddie pool filled with water and a long rope.  You divide the kids into two teams.  Each team gets on a side of the pool and holds onto the rope.  When you say go, the kids begin to pull.  The team to pull the other team into the kiddie pool wins.

Pillow Case Race: This is a potato sack race, but with pillow cases instead.  You could have as many kids race that you have pillow cases and room four. Mark a start line and a finish line.  We used orange cones.  Have the kids step into the pillow cases and hold the tops with their hands.  Have them line up on the start line.  When you say go, they are to hop to the finish line.  If you don't have a large area for them to hop they can hop down and turn around and hop back.  The first to cross the line wins.

Swimming pool ping pong relay: Fill a swimming pool with water and bath bubbles.  Then drop some ping-pong balls into it.  You will need two bucket to put at least 15 feet or so away from the pool.  Divide the kids into two teams.  The first person in each team searches in the pool for a ping-pong, when they find one they run down and put it in their teams bucket, then run back and the next person in line goes.  The first person to get the specified amount of ping-pongs into their teams bucket wins.

If you need any clarifications on the descriptions of these games, please leave me a comment. Happy outdoor fun!!

Thrifty Thursday- Flower Centerpiece

This is an inexpensive centerpiece. That looks great!

You will need:  

-a glass container (this one is  an old rinsed out pickle jar)

-some nice dirt

-an assortment of plastic flowers

-wire clippers

-about a 2inch width piece of tulle

What to do:

-make sure jar has been cleaned and dried, also that all stickers and residue have been removed

-fill container with dirt

- start to assemble the flowers, cutting off some of stems as you go.  Your flowers should be taller in the middle and gradually get shorter as you go out.  

-tie your tulle in a bow around the jar and there you go a fairly easy inexpensive centerpiece

I think total cost on mine was $3.  I bought all the flowers at Dollar Tree.

I had originally made a bunch of these containers to go on the tables for my son's baptism dinner.  But instead of the plastic flowers, I had made paper flowers with wire stems and Rolo candy centers.  They were thank yous for our friends and family to take.

Thrifty Thursday- Make-up

I am going to let you in on a huge secret, I don't spend a lot on skin care and make-up.  What I mean is I go for the store brand skin care and for the make-up I look for the deals.  I get my skin care at Walmart.  For Skin cleansing I love:

 St. Ives Timeless skin.  It makes my skin so much smoother and clear. It also exfoliates your skin. I use this at night.

 I use Equate Firming Cream at night after I wash my Face with the St. Ives.

I use Equate Anti-Wrinkle Cream in the morning after I wipe my face with a cleansing wipe (I buy the cleansing wipes from dollar tree).  I love that it has sunscreen in it.  

So for my make-up I go cheap too, I don't notice too much difference with the stay of the make-up and it doesn't irritate my skin at all.  Everybody's skin is different though.

I buy my foundation from Walmart or Rite Aid, which ever is cheaper.  I just buy the NYC brand.  My powder I either buy their or sometimes Dollar Tree will have one that matches my skin color.  I also try to buy my eye shadow from Dollar Tree.  I think you can not spend a lot on your make-up and still have it look great. I think the key is making sure your colors match your skin tone and knowing how to apply the make-up correctly.  What colors go good together and what colors go with your coloring.