We had fresh corn on the cob and I thought it would be cool to make dolls out of the left over corn husks.  We did this project when I was 9 or 10 and I remember the dolls turning out so very cute.

My friend, Becky is visiting so we thought we’d take on the project together, looked up some directions, and got started.

I found instructions to make a simple girl doll that looks like one of these:

It didn’t take me long to begin wondering how on earth adults expected 9 and 10 year old girls to create such dolls.  There must have been a crafty mom in my Girl Scout troop because the dolls I remember sitting on my mom’s window sill were much more perfect looking than what Becky and I came up with…

When we followed the directions both of our dolls turned out looking like the small one.  Becky finished hers up and the doll is sturdy and cute, just way smaller than we expected.  I think her doll would make a very adorable Christmas ornament.  
I don’t have as nice a things to say about my corn husk doll, however.  I was desperate to give you some kind of Christmas project to ooh and awe at. Adding piece by piece, twisting, tying, etc… I worked hard to transform my mini doll into the bell of the ball.  And while mine might look nice and big, she falls apart every time I move her.  And her head is a bit on the shrunken side.

It’s very sad.

While I wouldn’t call our dolls epic fails, they definitely didn’t turn out like the dolls in the first picture. I was hoping to be able to color her dress red with a sharpie or something, make little earmuffs and other warm things for her, and have her holding a page like she was caroling.
I am going to be honest and say that I just don’t think that’s going to happen.

I won’t be posting directions on how to make one because I’m just not sure you should be wasting 30 minutes of your precious time on a doll that is self concious about her abnormal head size and may or may not fall apart if you look at her cross eyed.

However, if you feel so inclined there are instructions for making corn husk dolls here.  You’ll likely have better luck than Becky and I did.

My original idea was making stockings.  Not out of corn husks though. 
I think this is what I’m going to try to accomplish this week.   

I’ll take pictures.

This week’s Frugalicious Christmas post is triple beaded bracelets.
I didn’t get to Hobby Lobby this week so I had to wing it. Luckily, I’m an avid beader and have tons of beads laying around. So, I chose stretchy bracelets that can be made to match your favorite red sweater or to go into your favorite little girl’s stocking.

These bracelets are pretty cheap.  Like I’ve said before, beads are easy to come by.  Thrift stores often have great old necklaces for cheap, as do garage sales.  I like picking through them and finding some with great beads I can re-use.
You can also find nice bead combinations at craft stores or Walmart.  I found some very pretty glass beads at Walmart for really cheap not long ago.

Your supply list:

• enough beads for three bracelets
• stretchy cord
• ribbon or short strip of fabric

You’ll want to string three strands of beads, making each strand different. 
One strand should be more colorful with slightly larger beads.

Another strand with plain beads – using all the same beads on this strand will work well.

And then your third strand can be a combination.  But try not to make the beads on this strand too large if you’re first strand has bigger beads on it.

Make sure to create your bracelet to fit the size of the wearer’s wrist.  Tie them off very well and cut off the excess cord.

Last, you’ll want to tie a short piece of ribbon around all three bracelets to hold them together.  Tie them at their knots to hide the seams.

And you’re done!

This project took me about a half hour but would have probably gone faster had I thought about the size beads I’d need.  My rubber cord was a bit thick for most of my beads so I had to search for quite a bit to find some with big enough holes in them.

These bracelets make excellent stocking stuffers or can be made by girls for their friends as Christmas gifts.  They make a great girly girl project for you to do with your daughters, too.

I’m hoping I’ll get to Hobby Lobby this week.  I have a really neat project I’d like to complete for next Saturday’s post.

Can you braid?  Then you can accomplish this weeks project.  

It’s an almost free project.  As a matter of fact, it cost me nothing.  Zip.  Zero.  Nada.

This weeks project is a scrappy necklace.

I saw these here a while back and bookmarked the site, planning on making them right away. 

That didn’t happen.

However, when I was going through my bookmarked pages recently I spied them again and though they would make a perfect frugal Christmas gift or project.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 3 different colors or patterns of scrap fabric. You’ll want long strips for this.
• Good scissors
• 6 rubber bands or hair binders (you’ll get these back)
• sewing machine or needle and thread

Step 1:
You’ll want to cut 3 long strips of fabic out of each scrap fabric piece about 1 1/2 inches wide – or thinner if you want a less chunky necklace.  You’ll end up with 9 long pieces.  Make them any length you want, just remember that your finished project will be half the length of your initial strips.

Step 2:
Rubber band each set of 3 together.

Step 3:
Braid each set, creating 3 long braided strips.  You’ll want to tuck one end under your foot to keep a little tension on it.

Step 4:
Sew your ends together when your braid is complete.  Trim your edges.

Step 5:
I took a small ribbon and tied all three strands together at the seams when I was finished.  I didn’t want the necklaces all sliding around on their own. 

I purposely made a necklace to bring some more color to the purple shirt I’m wearing in the picture.  However, if Ryan had been okay with me cutting up his red t-shirt, which he wasn’t, I would have created a Christmas colored one.  A red short one, a white medium, then another red long one.  I think it would have looked cute with a green shirt.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for some cheap, bright red fabric so I can make one soon.

I also think it would be easy to fashion a belt or bracelets using the same technique.

These necklaces are perfect friendship projects.  You can have your daughters create them for friends as Christmas gifts and it won’t cost much at all – nothing, in fact, if you have any scrap fabric laying around or old clothes you don’t wear anymore.  I used a pair of bright colored pants, a little girl’s dress that I don’t know where it came from, and a scrap olive green fabric.

It took about 30 minutes to complete and really didn’t require much skill at all.

And I really like them!

I have to be honest and say that I had no idea what I was going to do for a Frugalicious Christmas project until Friday morning.

And I’ll also apologize that this weeks Christmas project isn’t all that Christmassy.  However, it’s one of those projects that, with just a little tweaking, can be an any-season craft.

I trotted off to the Dollar Tree with Kait in tow first thing Friday morning.  We always have a good time shopping together.  I decided on creating a cheap, seasonal wreath that can be modified to fit any holiday or occasion.

Because it’s fall I opted to just purchased orange and red leaves.  When Christmas gets closer I plan on picking up some fake poinsettia leaves to make a more Christmassy wreath.

So, here’s the supply list.

$3.  That’s all it cost me for the wreath and the two packs of fall colored leaves.  There were a number of color options to choose from, but I liked the red and orange for this project.  I really like orange.
You’ll also need a hot glue gun or some other kind of quick drying craft glue.  My mini glue gun cost me $2.75 and I’ve had it for about 10 years, I think.  I used two mini glue sticks for this project.
Keep in mind that if you’re wanting to make a holiday wreath the Dollar Tree already has a really nice section of Christmas stuff.  Just pick out some more holiday-ish leaves or flowers and follow the same directions.

I found packaged leaves that weren’t on stems.  These looked a little too flimsy for what I wanted, but they would work if you prefer them.  If you go with the ones on stems you’ll want to cut the leaves off before you start your project.

Start by putting a dab of hot glue on your wreath frame, then stick on each leaf.

Make sure to stagger them so you get a more natural look.

You’ll also want to be sure you’re covering the entire green frame.  You won’t want pieces of your frame peeking through.

Then cut a piece of ribbon or string to hang your wreath with.  I hot glued the ends of the ribbon together, creating a loop to hang the wreath with.

I used my wreath above my mantle.  A long time ago Ryan found this mirror in a trash pile at work and snatched it up for me.  I haven’t really used it until now, but love it on my mantle.  I hung the wreath on the mirror and then added a few extra leaves and fake moss to my hurricane lamp project from a few weeks ago.
A few fake pumpkins and voila!  Cute fall decorated mantle for just $11 – I got all the supplies for the hurricane lamps, and the other decor from the Dollar Tree.

The block pictures project doesn’t seem to fit well with the fall decor.  I’m going to have to figure that one out as I have no where else to put them.

This project was quick.  I think from start to finish it took only about 30 minutes.  And it was cheap – just $3 for the wreath frame and the leaves. And I think it’s pretty.

Success!

Today’s Have A Frugalicious Christmas project involves chocolate.  It’s the first tasty project we’ve done in this series and it’s easy, inexpensive, and makes a unique Christmas gift.

I call these Smores-On-A-Stick or Smores Pops.  They are my own original recipe.  I think I saw something about a marshmallow on a stick in a magazine and went from there to create this delicious sweet treat.

First you will need these supplies:

• Any sweet chocolate that melts well.
• Large Marshmallows
• Graham Crackers (I prefer cinnamon)
• popsicle sticks, lollipop sticks, or short skewers
• Sandwich baggies (the kind without the zip-lock)
• Twist ties or ribbon

We purchased some chocolate pieces made for melting and candy making. They were easy to find in our grocer’s baking section near the chocolate chips.

I don’t have a double broiler – I have never needed one. I just use a larger pot on top of a smaller pot on my stove.  Mine fit well together this way, but you may not want to do this if your pots don’t sit steady. I simmer water in the bottom pot and then set a slightly bigger pot on top of it with my chocolate pieces in it. You can melt them in the microwave but the chocolate hardens so fast that I find it works better to just keep it warm on my homemade double broiler.
Be sure to stir your chocolate often as it melts.

While you wait for your chocolate to melt get your large marshmallows ready. Take popsicle sticks, short skewers, or lollipop sticks (if you can find them) and push a marshmallow onto each one. 

You’ll want to crush your graham crackers up now, too.  Put them in a baggy and smash them with the back of a spoon to create course graham cracker crumbs

When your chocolate is completely melted you’ll want to dip your marshmallow into the chocolate. Use a spoon to help cover the marshmallow completely with chocolate.

As soon as your marshmallow is covered with chocolate you will need to coat it in the graham cracker crumbs. The easiest way to do this is to have the crumbs in a bowl where you can grab some and sprinkle them over your chocolate covered marshmallow. Yes, some of the chocolate will drip into the crumbs but that is okay.

Stand your finished pop in a short and thin glass like this:

The chocolate will harden quickly but if you want it to harden super quick you can put the pops in the freezer for 2 or 3 minutes.
We use cheap sandwich baggies to cover our Smores desserts with after the chocolate hardens. Use a twist tie or ribbon to close up the baggy.

And the finished product…

These are quick.  It took me about 30 minutes to make a good sized batch with my littles helping.  I suppose it would have gone by even faster if I didn’t have small hands assisting in the creation.
However, I love that little guys can help with this project.  A 3 year old would have so much fun sprinkling crumbs onto these smores pops.

Pair these with a homemade hot chocolate powder mix, or a cocoa cone for a fantastic little gift bag.  And get your kids involved – they love creating and giving stuff like this!

This week’s Have A Frugalicious Christmas post is beaded bookmarks.

 These bookmarks are easy, extremely inexpensive, and make perfect gifts for any of the girls or women in you life.  And guys too if you can find a manly charm to go on the end.  Just don’t call it a ‘charm’ around him. Call it a page clamping tool, or a micro-screwdriver, or hammer for tiny, tiny spaces, or a steak or something.  Just not a charm, or dangly, or pendant.

What’s even better about creating your own bookmark is pairing it with a classic book.  Barnes and Noble classics are inexpensive and perfect for gifting.  I think I got mine for $2 a piece on sale in their bargain books section. 

Before I get started, I want to apologize for the cruddy-ness of the photos.  We decided to go out of town last minute so I grabbed my supplies and did the project, took and edited the pictures, and am writing this entire post in the car.  It’s fun – and time is going by pretty fast because I’m busy doing something.

There is so much room for creativity with this project, and because of this it is a great use-what-you-have craft.  I grabbed some different beads and charms on my way out the door, along with a spool or ribbon I got from the Dollar Tree. 

Here are the basics of what you’ll need.

• 1 spool of ribbon (thought saying the word ‘spool’ around your 12 year old son may get you called ‘grandma’ - just a warning).
• different beads with bigger holes in them
• charms

Many of these items can be found for very cheap at a craft store, or go to your local thrift store and pick up some old pieces of beaded jewelry.  I love taking apart old necklaces and using the beads for new creations.

First, you’ll want to cut a piece of ribbon one and a half times longer than you want it to end up.  Make sure to cut each end to a point to make threading easier.

Slide on your beads.  You’ll want to do this on both ends of the ribbon.  Tie off the top end of the bookmark.  I just tied a knot, creating a loop at the top because I thought it was cute. 

Then, add your charm to the bottom of the bookmark.  This is where you decide how long you want your bookmark to be.  If you already have a book gift in mind you can use that as your guide.  If not, use an average size book to measure your bookmark length.  Once you have your bottom beads pushed up far enough create your desired length bookmark, add your charm and tie the end off, trimming any excess ribbon away.

If you want to ensure your ends don’t come untied put a dab of glue on each knot, rubbing it in well.  When this dries it will harden the knots helping them to hold firm.

This project cost me less than $2. It was quick, easy, and required no sewing or gluing. However, depending on what you want to do you can go the extra mile and sew, glue, embellish, etc…

And there you have it, a cheap, easy, and personal gift!

I’ll post a new frugal Christmas gift/idea next Saturday!

Hurricane Lamps – $80 at William Sonoma.  Or, $3 right here in my living room.
Let me ‘splain it to ya.

These hurricane lamps are so pretty – the pictures simply do not do them justice!  And, even better, they’re seriously cheap to create. I made two of these for just $6 total and it took me about 15 minutes!

No Kidding! 

I took a little trip to the Dollar Tree (if you don’t have one you can get the supplies at their website but you’ll have to buy 12 of each thing).  I heart the Dollar Tree, by the way.  I picked up two candle sticks, two vases, and two worship candles for $6. 
I already had the mini glue gun, but if you need to buy one you can get them at just about any craft store for around $2.50.  They usually come with enough glue sticks to do this job. I didn’t even use one whole stick.

I think Gorilla Glue might be good for this project too, if you have it.  The drying time will up considerably, however.
And the blade you see isn’t really necessary.  I just used it to scrape the ornery stickers off the bottom of the vases.

Enough of all that!  Lets get started!

First, put a bead of glue around the top of one of your candlesticks.  You’ll see that my glue gun had the remnants of a red-glitter glue stick.  I haven’t used it in a long time. 
Anyway, after you get that bead of glue on, quickly stick your vase on top, peering down into it to make sure it’s centered.  It should look like this:

It’ll dry within 30 seconds.  Then, you simply set your worship candles inside to create the lamps. 

You can put a bead of glue on the bottoms of them to get them to stay, but I didn’t.  I plan to use my lamps seasonally and want the option of sand and seashells at some point, maybe, with a loose candle stuck in the sand or something, or dried wild flowers in the spring.  There are so many ideas I have swimming around in my mind with this.

I’m sidetracking – back to this project…

Then I sent the boys out for maple leaves and gently stuck the foliage around the candles.  They’re supposed to be gold, red, and brown – you know, for fall, but we live in Florida.  I’m going to have to wait a bit longer for that, I suppose.  I like the green leaves for now, however, but will definitely replace them with colorful leaves once the weather starts to turn.
I also tried adding water and food coloring.  That turned out very fun!  Christmas colors would be really cool and they look really pretty lit up in the dark with the colored water around them.

There are a ton of ideas here; Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years…  I think some kind of red berry would look so cool for the holidays.  I had planned to replace the leaves with peppermint candies and see how that looked but didn’t get around to it.

These would make great gifts for a Thanksgiving or Christmas party host.

Or a gift exchange.

Or just for your own mantle.  Like I said, I’m going to use mine for seasonal use.

And just to let you know, the totally awesome gal I swiped this idea from (it was a project from last year) said she found these for $80 from William Sonoma!

Okay, so it’s a little prettier than my $3 version. 

But, $80!?!

Yikes!!!

I think I’ll stick with my homemade lamps.

Stay tuned for another cheap product next Saturday!

Today we’re making picture blocks. These are simple 5×7 wood blocks with pictures stuck to them. That’s all. Perfect gift ideas start with cute kids and blocks of wood. 

Let me show you what I mean.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Wood, cut to your desired size.
• Spray paint
• Craft glue
• Foam paint brush
• Cotton t-shirt
• Printed pictures

Quick directions:

1. Have favorite pictures printed in your desired size
2. Cut 1″ thick wood blocks the same size as your pictures (or find pre-cut wood at a craft store)
3. Paint wood blocks desired colors
4. Add picture hanger to back or drill hole (if you want the option to hang them)
5. Spread craft glue on the front of the block, smoothing it out with a foam craft brush.
6. Carefully place picture on the glue, pressing firmly using the cotton t-shirt

Here are more detailed instruction on how I accomplished this project, with a few pictures.

1. I had my daughter snap fresh pictures of each person in our family. She’s pretty handy in that area.  She messed around on Picnik (a free photo editing site) until she achieved a cool effect.
   When I went to have them printed I toyed with what size to get. I wanted something on the bigger side but the jump from 4×6 to 5×7 is more than $1 a picture! However, with a coupon in hand I went ahead with the 5x7s. They cost me about $8 total for all 8 pictures.
2. Get your your wood blocks together.  I found some for less than $1 at the Hobby Lobby but they were a little fancy for what I was going for.  So, even better than that, and probably cheaper,have your husband cut them like I did.  We have some scrap wood in the garage, so I marked my 5×7 squares so all my sweet husband had to do was cut the them out - it took him about 20 minutes.  If you don’t have a husband who can do this, you’ll likely have a friend whose husband won’t mind.  Or, many home improvement stores will cut your wood for you for a small fee.  You’ll just have to call and ask around. 
   
3. Paint your blocks.  Because I like to use what I have instead of buying new, I ended up spraying the blocks black using my husbands engine coat spray paint.  It’s a black paint that keeps engines from rusting, or something like that.  It worked great and I saved 3 bucks.
4. This is the time you would attach a hanger or drill a hole in the back if you want the option of hanging your pictures. I didn’t.  I decided to stack them creatively on my empty mantle. 
5. Spread your glue.  Run a bead of craft glue up, down, and across the front of your wood block.  Then, take a foam brush or something similar and smooth the glue out thin. 
6. Carefully attach your picture to the front and press it down with a cotton t-shirt.  Keep pressing firmly for a minute or so.

Then you’re done!

This project took me about 20 minutes of actual work (not including my daughter and husband’s part).  And, because I used what I already had it only cost me $8.  It would have only been $2 if I had gone with the 4×6 prints instead.  I think the $8 was worth it though.  They look great on my mantle.

Tip: if you’re concerned about your photos not holding up without glass over them, you can purchase a spray specially made for this for around $15.  However, I read that you can also use clear coat polyurethane spray too – but not if you’re using photos printed on your home printer.  I haven’t tried the poly spray myself, however – so try at your own risk.

Kelleigh posted about creating her 4×4 photo blocks last year and I fell head of heals for them. I don’t know why it took me so long to get mine done, but I’m really liking how they’re dressing up my living room.  They make perfect gifts for grandparents, too.

Next Saturday’s project costs only $3 to create and is very cool!  You’ll want to come back and take a look.

P.S. I feel the need to say something about that picture, the one with me posing in the green shirt and smiling like my face is gonna break - I don’t look nearly as pregnant in real life as I do in that picture.  However, I feel way more pregnant in real life than I look in the picture.  Make sense?  Don’t know why I needed to clarify that. I guess I have issues.

Yesterday Kelly blogged about a cool craft idea she calls ’crayon cookies’. Since my mom restocked us with crayons a couple of weeks ago, and I had a bunch of old crayons I was getting ready to throw out, I thought this would be a perfect time to try her suggestion.  It also goes along with this whole weekly frugal Christmas gift series I’ve had it in my head to start.
Christmas is in just 3 months, people!  And who really enjoys rushin’ around with the crowds in December?  I like to get started early, get done early, and enjoy that period of time we like to call “the holidays”.

Well, Kelly’s idea worked great and I decided to make my own mini-tutorial on how we accomplished this, along with a few tips.  You know, because I take pictures of everything and have to find something to do with all of them.

Things I’ve learned from this little project:

1. Melted crayons are hot.
2. Even though you may normally find your kids ripping the paper off the crayons when they’re not supposed to, that doesn’t mean they’re gonna want to rip the crayon papers off when you tell them that you do want them to.  Funny how that works.
3. They might not want to rip the papers off, but little fingers love breaking crayons. Even my teenager was into this.
4. Using a silicone muffin pan is best, the crayons just pop right out after they’ve cooled with no coaxing. However, remember to put a cookie sheet under the pan because getting a hot-wax-filled silicone pan out of the oven without dripping wax everywhere can get a little tricky.
5. Using a mini-muffin pan allows for more crayon cookies. 
6. Putting the crayon cookies in the freezer to cool greatly decreases the cooling time.
7. Sometimes they have to be stirred while melting.  We used a plastic knife and wiped it with a paper towel before stirring another color.
8. Be prepared to have to explain to your child that just because they were in the oven, and they’re neat colors, does not make them a tasty dessert.

These make excellent Christmas gifts for the little ones in your life.  In a few weeks I’ll be posting a unique create-at-home coloring book idea to go with them.  It’ll make a cute package for family members that live far away, too.

Kelly is often posting cute, frugalicious crafty ideas.  I really am lovin’ her blog lately.