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Frugal/ FUN/DIY/ HOME/ Seasonal

Going Green Packages And Toppers Part 2

I just keep stumbling upon great ideas, so I had to make a part 2!

Twist Tie Package Toppers
These are from a site called Nice Package.  I love their simple approach to making things beautiful.   They have an etsy shop where you can buy product to make your packages look wonderful. I like that I won’t have to buy anything to make these little Twist Tie Pom Poms.  I have a bunch of twist ties in the bottom of the bin we use to keep baggies, foil and trash bags.  I never use them, so they have piled up.  Now I know what to do with them!  There is a video tutorial, so check out their site!
Plastic Grocery Bag Pom Pom Gift Topper
This is just lovely.  I have a bunch of clear produce bags that I think would make a pretty cool pom pom.  I love the one above, made from Target bags.   Creature Comforts has a tutorial with really great pictures.
Gift Bags Made From Envelopes
These bags are another brilliant idea from “How About Orange…”  I think this may be my favorite.  I often find myself needing a bag for “just a lil’ somethin'” type gift.  I love giving small little gifts away throughout the year to let people know I am thinking of them.  These cute bags would make a small gift just a bit more special. There are so many things you could do to decorate them!  My girls love to make gifts for each other and are always getting into my wrapping bin, so I am excited to show them how to make these and see what how creative they get in the process!




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Frugal/ FUN/DIY/ HOME/ Seasonal

“Going Green” Packages and Toppers

I just wrote a post about using recyclable products to wrap Christmas gifts.  I am using grocery bags for most of my wrapping this year, and the little gift card holders above will fit right in with my theme! They are so simple and cute.  I have random ribbon in my craft bin and alphabet stamps, so I am set!  I drew my sisters name for Christmas, and we both agreed that I will buy her an itunes gift card.  DON’T YOU JUST LOVE THAT?  I love sisters. I ask, she tells, done deal. She tried to talk me into just doing it online and skipping the gift card to make it easier on me (isn’t she great?  aw.) but I think she deserves one of these cute little homemade packages with her itunes card tucked safely inside.
Another thing to make with my grocery bags!
I don’t know if these were made out of recyclable materials, but they are inexpensive.  I have a tradition with family to stamp these tags every year.  The ink and stamp change yearly, its fun to anticipate what its going to be each year.
Ohhhh! I like, I like!  I am a sucker for anything polka dot or round.  My kids would have a blast punching all these little dots.  I may even spray my brown paper bag wrapped packages with adhesive and sprinkle them on!  It’s a party on a package!!
How very cool is this?  It is wrapped with newspaper (or phonebook page?) and the bow is made with strips of a magazine page.  Now that is what I’m talkin’ about!  Click here for detailed instructions from “How About Orange…”

The next 3 ideas are from this book, “Simply Green Giving” by Danny Seo.  I have already talked about this awesome book in my last post.  Looky at what else is in it..

Fun, right?  I have a ton some of these ancient VHS tapes laying around.  They are gonna get re-used this Christmas!  My kids will love pulling that stuff out, at least they did when they were toddlers!

This is so very brilliant.  How cute is that bow?  Guess what?  It smells good, too!
I love a good smell, so a smelly bow really got me excited!!
This bow is made from strips of perfume samples in magazines. Cut, staple, curl.
 Hmm.
Now that I think about it, I wonder how that will smell, mixing all of those perfumes?
It could be good, but it could also be very, very bad!  Oh well, still a very fun idea!

Cut off sleeve, wrap present.  Tie with ribbon.  Lovely.
Ok. This one is in honor of my Sushi-loving sisters.
 They have tried and tried to get me to like sushi, but…
 IT’S JUST NOT HAPPENING!
I gave it a good shot, and still get nauseous every time I think about it.
Seaweed is so very good for you, I really do wish I liked it!  Grrr.
These little sushi guys are pretty darn cute.
How fun would this be with a gift card to a sushi restaurant inside?  Wanna make em’? Click here.



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Frugal/ FUN/DIY/ HOME/ Seasonal

Brown Paper Grocery Bag Gift Wrap

Whenever I forget to take my reusable grocery bags to the grocery store with me, (which for some reason has been often lately, I think I need to keep them in my car!)  I use paper grocery bags.  I’ve been at peace with my forgetfulness lately, because I am going to use the bags as wrapping paper this Christmas!  I am determined to be as wise with our money as possible this Christmas season, so this will help us save.  If you have not been collecting grocery bags, you can also by brown kraft paper or shipping paper by the roll, it is very inexpensive made from recycled materials!

I have all kinds of ideas to make our packages pretty.  My tree will be covered with silver, black, and lots of shiny metallic/mirrored ornaments that we made last year.   I worried about how the organic looking brown paper would look with a more glitzy tree, but I think if I add black, white and silver elements to our packages, it will mesh just fine.

Another frugal and environmentally friendly way to wrap gifts is newspaper!  I think some black and white, newspaper-wrapped gifts under my tree to break up the brown would be beautious!  I plan to make them special with some shimmery, thick, black wire ribbon. Speaking of beautious, check out the bottles below wrapped in newspaper.  They cut the excess paper at the top into strips and curled it!  This idea came from a really great book called “Simply Green Giving” by Danny Seo.  I found his book at the library, it is full of awesomeness.

For smaller gifts, I will be using either brown paper lunch sacks or pages from a magazine.  Those photos in magazines are taking by some of the most talented photographers out there, so why not use them as beautiful gift wrap?

I plan on putting my 3 little artists to work, I can’t wait to see what they come up with! My oldest and I have already discussed some art ideas she wants to do.  She wants to use black paint and make a stick tree with lots of twigs, then add silver little circles as leaves!  Isn’t that brilliant?  She is so great.  The other two I’m sure will get busy with their silver glitter glue, stamps, markers, and stickers.
It’s gonna be fun!
*Update: To see the finished products, click here!

A post on package toppers is next so stay tuned!!

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FUN/DIY/ Seasonal

Thanksgiving Craft-Thankfulness Tree

This was fun and easy! My girls helped trace and cut out the leaves.  Everyday until thanksgiving,  we will write what we are thankful for on the leaves, and paste them on the tree.

On her leaf, my youngest wrote “God”  Awww.

My middle girl wrote “Family”  So sweet!

My oldest wrote “Video Games”  Hmmm…

…at least she is thankful.
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FUN/DIY/ HOME/ Organizing/ Seasonal/ Simplifying

Christmas Journal

This is officially my first post about Christmas, although Christmas has been on my brain for awhile.  I just love Christmas, I already have over half my shopping done!  My mom-in-law (Kathy) is done every year by Thanksgiving, so I try to keep up with her and do the same!:)  It really does make December much more enjoyable.  The only drawback is missing the fun shopping atmosphere in December, and those amazing sales the few weeks before Christmas.   I feel like I miss out a bit,  but really, with Amazon.com, I can usually get the best deal anyway, and the more I can stay out of the stores the better!

I wanted to share with you one of my MOST favorite gifts.  My birthday is around Thanksgiving, so the timing of this gift was perfect.  It is a homemade Holiday Journal.  My amazing sis-in- law (Wendy) put it together for me in 2004, and I have been using it ever since.  It is so much fun to grab it each year and look through all the memories and plans.  Newsletters of Christmas past, pics of my girls with Santa, cherished memories, lists of what I bought each family member–pretty much everything is in one place and it is so handy!

She took a 3 ring binder, put some pretty Christmas paper in the front and back of it, and filled it with tab dividers.  Here are the tabs she included:

–Calendar -its very handy to have the month of December and January in one place, to refer to when out and about, or to check what gift you need by what date, etc.

–Dates–shipping deadlines, greeting cards mailed, departure/arrival dates if you are traveling, party dates, etc

–Gift List— recipient, gift ideas, final Gifts

–Christmas Card List–who you sent one to, who sent one to you

–Kids Wish Lists–a very important list indeed!

–Gifts Received–makes thank yous easier, and I need all the help I can get!

–Holiday Memories–my favorite! Old traditions, new traditions, new ornaments or decorations, where we went, who we saw, what we did, favorite memory, funniest thing that happened, etc.

–Crafts And Decorations–how the tree was decorated, color themes.

–Recipes–what you made, what you wanted to make, favorite cookie recipes, tradition recipes (like my grandma’s pfeffernusse cookies!)

She also included a zipper pouch for store flyers, catalog pages and coupons.  She filled it with plastic sleeves that are great to keep the paper protected and to slide in different memorabilia.

If you want to make your own, the Flylady website has great holiday journal pages, already written and free! You just have to print and fill in the blank, they are awesome and very detailed, she walks you through the holidays step- by- step.  If interested, click here, then click on Holiday Control Journal.
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Seasonal

Trick Or Treat?

My husband and I just got back from a trip out of town.  When we leave our girls, we always try to bring them a little something back.  This time, they got quite the gift.  I was in the airport in Cincinnati, and came upon these creepy candy treats-Scorpion Suckers!

I had to buy them. My girls love being grossed out, and I knew they would be fascinated by these suckers.  I knew it was a complete waste of money, since they wouldn’t eat them, but that was all part of the plan! Quite a creative way to cut down the sugar, if I do say so myself.  How’s that for tricking with a treat?  Sure enough, after all the squeeling and “ew, gross!” settled down, they bravely took a few licks and then decided to save them to “show their friends.”  My youngest did lick enough for the scorpion tail to stick out the bottom.  Yuck!  Who thinks of these things, and what kind of mom actually buys them?!?:)

While we are on the subject of creepy candy, I have to share these Chocolate Human Skulls. (see what you can stumble upon when you read as many blogs as I do?)  These take it to a whole different level. They are made from molds cast from real human skulls, made available in your choice of chocolates, including “bone chocolate” “delicious blend of Belgian milk and white chocolates” resembling the color or freshly cleaned human bones.  That is just WRONG!  I will NOT be purchasing these.  So creepy!

Frugal/ FUN/DIY/ HOME/ Seasonal

Halloween Fun!

We have been having a ton of halloween fun here at the Bowman House.  My girls just  LOVE all things spooky, and have been creating all kinds of spooky fun.  I am not one who is creative enough to come up with a project, so I depend heavily on FamilyFun.com!  It doesn’t matter what the season, the Family Fun website always has great, simple ideas.

Here are a few that we tried recently:

Salt Dough Ghosts and Paper Bag Trees
I can’t believe we have never made anything with salt dough before!  It is a cup of flour, cup of salt and a half of a cup of water.  Mold into any shape and microwave until hardened!  So easy!  The plan was to just create ghosts, but my girls wanted to get more creative, which was great, it kept them busy the entire evening.  The paper bag tree is a cute idea, but all that twisting left my wrists tired, so we decided to make just one!  I think making mini trees with brown paper lunch bags would be much better for little fingers and wimpy wrists.

Gotta have a snack in the middle of all this creepy craziness!  Apples and Almonds, can’t get much healthier than that!

These were so much fun!  My girls spent almost 2 hours at the table creating these, and every few minutes there would be a trio of giggles drifting from the dining room.  They just loved finding silly face parts to glue on to their bags.  Aren’t they funny?

What would I do without Family Fun?  What did moms do without computers back in the day?  I am very thankful for ours, its kinda SCARY thinking about doing life without it!

BOO!

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