Frugal Christmas : Crayon Holders

My first Frugal Christmas gifts were for adults, but we also drew a niece and nephew as well for our family's get together. I usually keep some coloring books on hand for our girls and last year we ended up with a lot of extra coloring books, which is perfect for some frugal giving. I had also bought quite a few boxes of crayons with the 2009 back to school sale - 20 cents a box! While a box of crayons and a couple books would probably be fine, it's much more fun to have something to put your crayons in! So here's my second Frugal Christmas project - crayon rolls. The particular tutorial I used was one I downloaded a long while ago and can't seem to find the original post, but Fiskars has a darling simple roll tutorial designed by Susan Weinroth, and Skip to My Lou has a fun ric rac version as well if you want to make your own ;) Since I didn't have extra batting hanging around I used some extra fleece scraps I had in lieu of batting, it worked great!

Here's the inside of the roll. These are so cute and fun, the girls have been begging me to make them some too, so you can probably bet that I'll be making some for them as stocking stuffers ;) We'll be heading to my SIL's tomorrow for a Thanksgiving BBQ and then Saturday we'll have a traditional thanksgiving at my MIL's. Friday will be our usual Christmas decorating fiasco! Anyway, thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Frugal Christmas : Rice Hot/Cold Packs

Thanksgiving is nearly here which means Christmas isn't far off. For us, buying thoughtful gifts just isn't feasible this year and with me in school I need projects that are quick to make! One of my gifting projects is rice heat packs. Not long ago, Paul hurt his back pretty badly. Long story short, I made him a rice heat pack and he loved it! That little pack helped his back so much during the day when he couldn't be on the muscle relaxants, and even now it helps with minor aches and pains or if my feet are really cold ;) We drew Nana and Paul's brother for Christmas this year (our family draws names for Christmas instead of everyone trying to gift everyone) and neither of them have a handy little heat pack, so these are going to be our gifts to them. I adapted the pattern in One Yard Wonders for the obi-inspired heat pack and simply took the heat pack part and the pocket and to make these. Total time - about 45 minutes for one (I'm a slow seamstress). If you want to try the same type of thing but don't have the book, Sew Mama Sew has a great tutorial for a darling set of heat pack goodies! It's a little more complicated, but super cute if you have the time. For a really quick heat pack Real Housewife has a longer wrap around rice heat pack that is amazingly easy to whip up! The best part, all these were made with stuff I had on hand! How's that for being frugal ;)

And this here is my little draft snake that I whipped together using Simple Sewing's easy peasy instructions. I sew on my dining table, sitting close to the window. It's been windy and rainy here and I noticed a chill draft cutting in while I was making the heat packs so using some scraps I had sitting out I made this little guy quick! These are so simple to make, cut your fabric 7" tall by how wide you want, or use scraps to get the width. Right sides together sew one short end and then the long end. Turn right side out and fill with rice or dried beans. Fold under the open short end and sew closed. Viola! No more drafts ;)

A Little Thank You

I was so happy today when we went to C's SEP. For one she's doing great! I can't remember if I mentioned it, but back in October they fully integrated her into the class and put her on monitor status, which has both some benefits and drawbacks. C's been thriving though and the only concern is that she can't test independently and get a real score. Basically if you give her a test to do on her own in class, she does poorly. But if she has someone directing or keeping her on task, she scores at 100% or near there. Anyway just the fact that she's doing so well in school and is even a little ahead in her reading is so wonderful, especially since we wondered if she'd ever do okay in school with her PDD. We are so proud of her! The second thing was the book fair. We've been anxiously waiting for the book fair this fall since they always have some really fun new books in paperback. We picked up the new Skippyjon Jones (Lost in Spice), Goldilicious, another pinkalicious level book, and Llama Llama Misses Momma. After reading them all my fav has to be Skippy, but then again it always is, that cat is too adorable! Anyway, enjoy my quick little card ;) Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful Monday!

Another Fall Chloe Card

Two cards in a single week, I feel like I'm on a roll ;) Sparkle's weekly challenge this week is to make a card to hold a gift card. I needed an extra b-day card for this month and since I already had another Chloe stamped out I decided to play with her again. This time I tried for some polka dots on her scarf ;) Here's the inside:

Unfortunately I'm catching a cold or something, which means that I don't feel like doing much of anything. Making this card was a little bit of a pick me up but already I'm feeling worn out again. I've been trying to take it easy at home so that I don't miss class. Luckily I busted my butt this weekend and got a lot done for my art class so I'm not falling behind with all this lazing around, trying to get better. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the card ;) Thanks for popping by and have a happy Wednesday!

Fall Birthday

Another month has flown by and it's so nice to finally sit down and craft. Can you believe I haven't bought any crafting stuff in 2 months?! I guess that's what happens when you've got a family and you go back to school, lol. I feel like all my free time is spent trying to get time in with them. I had gotten a few goodies back in August but haven't gotten to touch them and my desk still has the Halloween papers I was going to do more crafting with from back at the beginning of October. While this isn't new paper really, it is paper I hadn't cut into yet ;) This card is for Sparkle's #17 stamp challenge. Both Sparkle and LHM are doing this sketch challenge this week. I'm in need of a few fall b-day cards so Chloe was up again. She's been my go-to stamp for birthdays. It felt so nice to play with some paper and glue!!

The weather here has finally cooled down enough to be called fall ;) We had a pretty hectic October and unfortunately the girls didn't get to do any trick or treating this year. C came down with a bad bug and by the Thursday before Halloween she sounded awful and was running a fever. The doc said no school or trick or treating unless the fever was gone, not only was she very contagious but the cough was moving down into her chest. So she ended up missing school for a couple days and also Halloween. Because they didn't get to trick or treat (A still got to go to one Halloween party with a friend), I made a fun witch/treasure hunt game for them. It lasted about an hour and a half and they used nerf guns to shoot down ghosts, found hearts to turn their zombie dolls and animals back to normal (we made little cardstock masks and taped them to their faces), and had to follow a map to find the Witch's Watchtower, shoot the witch down, and blow up the tower with golden grenades (candy they collected throughout the hunt). The girls had a blast and it was fun to make up a role playing game for them to enact. Thankfully, C's cough was much better by Monday and her fever gone. It always worries me so much when they get so sick like that! Anyway, tomorrow I'll be getting them in their costumes to take pictures, now that C is all better ;) Thanks for visiting and have a lovely weekend!