Make a craft that makes you look like Martha! Really, these take no skill! Anyone can do these beauties. I had a craft party at my house and we all made snow globes and other cute crafts soon to grace this blog! Thanks to Shelly Griffin Photography for the pretty pictures of these creations.
You will need:
Glitter
Small craft trees {These seen here are from Hobby Lobby, Walmart, & Michael’s. Yep, I had to go three places to find three sizes. Awesome.}
Mason Jar
Super Glue
Decoupage
Washi Tape if you want to embellish the lid like you see below.
Little deer/bunny/squirrel figurines {I didn’t get them for these jars ,but I die for them! Check out the dollhouse section of Hobby Lobby for these.)
Steps:
Super glue, not hot glue, the trees to the lid
Decoupage/seal in some way the metal tips of the trees and let dry so they don’t show rust when you look at your tree tops
Put a spoon full of glitter into the bottom of the empty jar
Fill the jar with water
Screw on your lid with attached trees
Shake it like a Polaroid picture
The jar above has tinted water due to the trees bleeding color. It was a neat accident. I guess you could always use food coloring if you dig this and your trees won’t share their color. The one below has a lid trimmed with Washi tape. So cute!
This is another wreath I designed for my upcoming craft expo. It’s clean and bold with a fun little ball sprig to all the Ho Ho to you Jingle Bell this Christmas.
Pin this wreath and follow me on Pinterest or I’ll tell Santa.
Life without tradition is mundane. Okay, being forced to watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” every Christmas as a child was pretty mundane too, but traditions can be fun and enjoyed by all. When you grow up and become a big strapping adult like we all are, excitement is not built into your life like it was when you were younger: first date, prom, graduations, etc. At some point, if you want your life to be a celebration, then you have to start celebrating. You know, putting on your proverbial party pants. Just don’t put on your birthday suit. Really, that suit has never been the optimal choice for parties.
I put together a list of fun Christmas traditions you can do with your family and children. My mom was a stellar rock star princess at making our lives and holidays worthwhile and as mother of one toddler and one on the way, I LIVE to do this for my children. That could be one reason why I put my Christmas tree up on November 1st, I suppose. Merry Christmas to all!
1. WRAPPING PAPER
Yes, wrapping paper can be and was a tradition for us growing up. Maybe this is where I got my intense love of wrapping gifts? Hmmmmm, this post is like some sort of awesome therapy.
When we were children and woke up on Christmas morning, we would walk into the living room and find 4 piles of gifts, one pile for each of us. They never had names on them but we knew by the paper which gifts were ours. Every year my mom Santa, would pick out paper that had something to do with our lives and the things we loved that year. If you liked polar bears well dang it, find the polar bear pile. Cabbage Patch paper? Well, Merry Christmas to me!
Each year it was exciting to see what special paper would signal that you had arrived at your Mecca of gifts. I adored that tradition!
2. REINDEER HUNT
Now, I missed this tradition with my mom because of our family’s unique situation. I grew up the youngest of 4 children and when I was 18, my mom adopted a sibling group. Now that she has 4 new kids, she has started some new traditions.
My mom and siblings live out on some land in the country so on Christmas Eve, they go on a Reindeer Hunt. Walking down the their long, country drive way, flashlights in hand, they sprinkle “reindeer food” aka glitter mixed with oats, down the drive. They also drop some carrots along the way. The fun in this is that the actual deer will come over night and eat their carrots and the children will look to find the food gone! Magical, just like it should be! You could do this in your yard and chomp some of your own carrots after your children go to bed, just to give your kids a thrill. Hey, if all else fails, you will have some really sparkly deer, dogs, and cats running around and nothing says Christmas like some glitter animal bedazzling.
My whole life all of my siblings slept in the same room on Christmas Eve night. We would get into our sleeping bags, negotiate an acceptable wake up time with our parents (usually about 5 am), and go to bed all together and all excited the night before. Then in the morning, like a pack of giddy holiday wolves, we would walk as a group up the staircase, getting the first glance of our stockings hanging on the mantle at the same time! It gets me so excited just reliving it that I could scream, “candy canes!” I think that’s the mark of a successful tradition.
We actually loved this so much as kids that we continued this tradition in to the college years.
4. CALLIGRAPHY…YEP, Calligraphy
Yes, this can be a fun tradition, too. Calligraphy: It’s not just for Benjamin Franklin.
Many Christmases, I/we would leave a note for Santa with our stockings. I will never forget the Christmas that I opened my letter and across the whole page was a big “Merry Christmas” written by Santa! It was in calligraphy, of course, because Santa doesn’t have poor penmanship. What do you think he is, the Easter Bunny? Give me a break.
I couldn’t believe that I was holding a letter that had been touched and written on by the illusive Santa!!! I cherished it like I would have an autograph from New Kids on the Block. The only difference is, I wanted to marry Joey McIntire, not Santa.
5. ADVENT CALENDARS
Ah, what better way to count down to a day full of candy filled stockings than with a calendar with a daily chocolatey countdown treats? Of course, you can always do just the paper advent calendars if you want to suppress your child’s sweet tooth.
Again, my mom would buy us each our own little countdown calendar for our rooms so that we each had our own little box to open up every day on our way one step closer to Christmas.
My mother gave us calendars until just a few years ago and now, buys them for our children.
6. ORNAMENT STORIES
On Christmas Eve, my parents gave each of us an ornament. They were always wrapped like gifts and big shock, represented something about our lives that year. They never missed a year and we got them at least until we were 18 and each one had our names and the year written on the bottom we would never forget the year that ornament was special. Our tree would always be made up of all of these ornaments that had to do with us/their children and it was almost like a story tree.
I can still remember the one my sister got of the NYC skyline that had a moving train that went through it. It was the year she went on a school trip to the Big Apple and naturally, it was the perfect choice. It was neat to see not only what I got but what my siblings got, too.
Now, that I’m such a total big girl with a family of my own, I’m doing this for my kids on their own Christmas tree in their rooms. Until they get their own hardy ornament supply, I’m using the ones my mother got me on their trees and it’s really neat to show them to my own children.
7. COOKIE DAY
This tradition started later in the life of my family but works for a family of any size, with any age of children.
One day in December, all of the girls in my family get together and bake cookies. We all bring different recipes and make an enormous amount of cookies that would embarrass the Cookie Monster himself. Each family gets to take some cookies home and the rest can be given to friends, church family, neighbors, taken to nursing homes, or whatever you want to do with your cookies.
The little ones can help out and decorate ones of their own which make cute little treats for grandparents, teachers, etc. when put in small Christmas bags or boxes.
Get to baking, Sally. People need their Christmas cookies. Not to mention, cookies are sort of the second portal that draws Santa to your house. The chimney being the first, of course.
No matter what you choose to do for your family, when it comes to making the special details of life special, I think of a the very wise, Snoopy.
When he would get his food bowl, he would dance over it. It may be the same food and it may happen daily, but he celebrated that food.
In life, special days and big events come few and far between. Sometimes you just have to be like Snoopy dancing over the small things in life. I like to think of family traditions as a way to “dance over the food bowl” on the way to bigger, more exciting days. No one is going to do the dancing for you and your kids won’t learn to dance if you don’t. I like to think that I’m the Snoopy to my children’s every day life.
Just like my mother was to me.
I hope you enjoy these traditions just like I did every year growing up. Feel free to share your family Christmas traditions in the comment section whether they are ones you practice or ones you hope to do in the future. And as I say every November 30th, Merry Christmas!!!!!
Do you know someone who is a mom, loves to cook, likes to eat more naturally, loves creativity, likes practical gifts, and loves to save money? Me too, sister. Enter this gift idea that I can’t wait to give and would love to receive.
Make knock off baking mixes/seasonings and put them packaged in cute jars. Above I made onion soup mix in the large jar which is great for roasts. In the smaller jar, I made Rachel Ray’s homemade taco seasoning. It’s all of the yummy with none of the junk and preservatives that come in the pre-made packs.
I embellished the jars with washi tape a.k.a my new addiction, twine, craft paper, a chip board letter colored with a metallic pen, dye cut doilies and gift tags tucked in mini craft bags. The recipes were written on the tags inside the bags with a gold pen.
The full recipe for the onion soup mix is shown. 5 tablespoons = 1 packet. I tripled it for this jar. The full taco seasoning mix is not shown on the card because it’s two sided so don’t make it how you see it here. You’ll be bummed. See that recipe here.
Follow me, Pin, Try & Enjoy! Search “gift ideas” on my site for more inspiration.
Everybody has a friend or friends that loves to throw parties or entertain. Maybe you have friends that are good decorators or artistic. Maybe you have a friend that saved all of her cool table runners or mason jars from a great outdoor wedding. Pool your resources, be creative and borrow anything you can that would work for your party. Maybe it’s a friend’s awesome vase or re-using displays or decor from a friend’s previous party. Nothing says frugal like FREE!
Dollar Store It Up
Dollar stores get a bad wrap and when it comes to parties, they don’t need one! Any budget savvy party throwin’ diva will tell you, there aren’t just diamonds in the rough there…there are straight-up diamonds! Patterned snack cups, paper straws, little neat containers for party favors, candy, favor boxes, solid plates in round and square, and on and on. No one will know and it can be just you and the change in your pocket’s little secret. Or you just can blab about, “Can you believe I got this for this price?!” That’s my favorite. Wallow in the victory.
Save BIG on Printing With These Tips
Buy a REEM of white card stock (110 lb minimum-that’s what I buy) at Staples or like copy center and use your own card stock to have your files printed on. One reem will last you a bazillion parties and save you big!!!! Supplying your own paper rather than paying per piece saves you loads per order and you have lots of paper for future orders. Another important thing to know is that copy centers charge you per cut so a 4 x 6 invite fully cut invite will cost you up 40 cents PER invite more, JUST FOR THE CUTS! I typically save 12 dollars or more for each order and can get all of my invites (usually 25) and party packages items like cupcake toppers etc. for 8 dollars! It really doesn’t take that long to make your own cuts and you can get the same product(s) for SO much cheaper.
Staples is by far my favorite copy center to use and they are so helpful and full service copiers. You email in your order with all of your specifications and boom. I even put in the special instructions, “Please pull a ream of 110 lb white card stock for printing these items and add that to my order.” It’s a great and easy process and I got 0 dollars and 0 discounts from Staples for saying that.
Have Favors That Pull Double Duty
Consider “giving” a favor that is one of the party activities. Did kids make sand art at your party? Did they tie-dye shirts? Did you serve drinks with crazy straws in non-throw away themed cups? Send them home with them! Favors can pull double duty even beyond the activity being the take home favor. You can also use your favors as table decor/centerpieces. Why buy both favors and table decor when they can be one in the same and save you some money? If you make your table decor an activity that also goes home as the favor, then you have won at life.
Invest In Reasonable/Versatile Party Pieces
When I say invest, I don’t necessarily mean “make a big financial investment”. I simply mean, if you see a neutral table cloth you like at Home Goods, buy it an re-use it at as many parties as you can think. When Target has glass jars or glass milk bottles or pitchers in the one spot aisle, stock up and have a set you can use over and over as drink ware at several parties. An ultimate way to be frugal is to build a supply of highly usable items so that what you do need to buy at each future party, goes down and down
Re-Invent
Spray paint is my BFF. Just asked my husband who thinks I would even spray paint a fabric chair. Oh wait, I did that. Sound too good to be true? Dang. It was, girl. It was. But moving on…Take your metal cupcake stand and spray that puppy in as many shades as you have parties. Paint that basket, re-cover the fabric, change out the ribbon on the banner, paint the pots, do what you have to do to make what things you have, work for you over and over again.
Save on the Cake
I use to decorate cakes from my home and they are awesome and WORTH the money when you pay for the skill, cost, time and labor from a home decorator BUT, it isn’t typically very frugal. Consider buying a smash cake for any age of child so that they have their own personal themed cake but then, supply cupcakes for the rest of the guests. You can build really cute displays around a smash cake and truly, with the right icing and a basic icing tip, most anyone can make great looking cupcakes. If you make them yourself, you can save big bucks. Buy a small smash and save on the 35 person serving cake.
Venue
Chuckie Cheese is great if that is what you want, but it is also like paying for 10 kids to go to Disney World. Chuckie don’t come cheap, honey. Try going outdoors for your party. Mother nature comes cheap or free. Consider renting a pavilion at a park which costs basically nothing. Here in my town, it’s 8 dollars for 2 hours. Or, if you want to book a place, try a week night or off-peak hours to get a less busy facility and sometimes, better rates! Do you go to church? If so, check with your church because depending on the place, they will often let you use their facility. You can also do a double party where two friends host together and split the cost. Think a double party for 2 BFFs. There is a gymnastics facility locally that does splits for people often: same deal, half the price for you. When it comes to venue, think outside of the box on how you can save money and when you can, pick one that allows you to bring in outside food and drink. That way you have what you want, at the price YOU can control.
Other Saving Savvy Tips
Avoid helium. Due to the helium shortage, 6 months ago I paid 40 dollars for 2 mylar balloons and 12 plain latex balloons. BOOOOO. Try searching Pinterest for creative ways to use balloons that don’t involve paying for the gold priced helium.
Never pay more than a dollar for tablecloths. I almost always use plastic table cloths. You can get them in almost any color, shape and size at dollar stores and just pitch them when you are done. You can use tutorials to make them ruffled, layered, and so on. I always buy contrasting colors and make table runners.
Try to keep your party favors 2 dollars or under per guest. It can be done. Years ago I did these over-sized balls for my 1 year old’s birthday. They were a substantial, affordable, decorative, fun and practical gift for the little tots and was season appropriate.
Win this felt garland {made by me} from my mountain shower. It is perfect for a party with a complimentary theme whether it be adventure theme, outdoor, camping, winter, or even, yes, Frozen. Not throwing a party? This would look PRECIOUS as decor above a bed or dresser in a baby’s nursery or kid’s room. To enter to win, follow herpartypants on Instagram and share this photo, tagging my account in the share!
If you are already a follower on Instagram, and with that new account, I can promise you probably aren’t, haha. You can share this post on Facebook and tag herpartypants Facebook fan page in the share. Of course I think you have to be following that page to tag me. I know who all is following me already and who isn’t so I will know to count you in that way.
A winner will be announced via my Instagram on Friday!
My sister makes these ALL the time whether it’s for parties or just because. Make everyone think you are Paula Dean and make these bad boys. {AND SHE MAKES HERS GLUTEN FREE AND THEY ARE STILL SOOOOO GOOD! JUST USE GLUTEN FREE FLOUR AND THAT’S IT AND THAT’S ALL!}
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners’ sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.
I did a super simple baby shower for a family member. It was a come-and-go, co-ed shower with no games or even gift opening! It was a simplistic, say hello, congrats, and grab some food type of gig. The lady of honor didn’t want a big to-do and isn’t in to themes really so I thought of something I knew she loved: mountains. She loves backpacking and her hubby does too so I picked fall foods and this adorable invitation from Etsy shop, Invited by Audriana. .
I used kraft paper cones and few craft Christmas trees because they were half off, and painted them in to mountains. I’m using them as they are on my mantle for winter decor. LOVE IT! And believe it or not, they painted SO fast.
I found these 3 dimensional trees that you put together for 4 dollars at Hobby Lobby….before the 40 percent off coupon, of course! I loved that they were a natural color and the leaf-less tress played into fall and outdoors for this October shower.
I made this banner by hand after seeing one on Etsy. I made it for less than 5 dollars! I used the thicker, stiffer felt and cut triangles and peaks and glued them to white thin rope. Love!
I bought tree slices from, no shock, Hobby Lobby, and used them as serving pieces. My mom made these mini pecan pies and they were delicious and cute. Score.
These are so yummy, I could scream! Click here for the recipe. You MUST make these! I used this log that was cut in half, also from Hobby Lobby, so it was round on the bottom. It looked neat on the table and actually balanced just fine.
These are the HUGE bottles of bubbles and the sand art kit and glowing bouncing ball making kits are large sets as well. In the very front is a sidewalk chalk set with brushes and stamp set. ALL of that was for 10 dollars! You can’t even buy two jars of colored sand at Hobby Lobby for that price, much less the funnels and containers to fill with sand and this kit comes with 6 or 7 containers to fill and design. Not only are these great gifts, they are affordable but still substantial in size and go a long way. It’s a 10-12 dollar gift with a 3 dollar price tag. Boom-badda-bing!
Talk about crazy.
And where is this jewel of a place where you can find toys and groceries? Aldi! A diamond in the rough! Those who Aldi, swear by Aldi, and I am one of those gals. The prices can’t be beat and you never know what you will find in the aisle that carries a range of seasonal, toy buys, etc.
You can buy name brand toys as well and I have seen everything from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Minnie Mouse, and Disney princesses. They have also Fisher Price toys as well. You truly never know what you will find but what you do find will GURANTEED be the best price you could find anywhere.
I buy a huge chunk of my monthly groceries there and snag little nuggets of greatness like these all the time. Buy them for gifts or just as things to tuck away for a raining day. Aldi, Aldi, he’s our man, if he can’t do it….
