Here is the NNM Holiday Gift Guide from 2012:
The last few years we have taken to making homemade gifts for our family. Last year we re used our milk bottles to house our easy granola
The year before that we made heart felt individual ornaments
Holiday Gift Guide 2012
This year, the kids made snowflake ornaments out of Popsicle sticks. Somehow, I failed to get a picture of our finished product; but they were like the ones you made in school that looked like this:
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| photo credit: mama jenn blog |
We used pipe cleaners as the ornament hanger and used permanent markers to write our names on the back.
My sister is getting married this year, and her and her fiance love Crate & Barrel. I was able to score a setting for 4 from a local yard sale site on Facebook a few months back. The lady I bought it from threw in some extra place mats, so I used those and some inexpensive, washable fabric paint (which was used for multiple gifts as you'll see) to personalize them for my parents and the in laws.
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| place mat and fabric paint |
For hubby, who is an avid poker player, I decided this idea from Pinterest was perfect! I just used a hole punch and a pipe cleaner to tie them all together. Total cost? A $2 deck of cards ;) and a WHOLE LOT OF LOVE <3
For the older kids; Spiderman, Baby A, and my niece Phia, I used the kids crayon stubs to make crayon disks. I got the idea and instructions HERE
After baking at 250 degrees for about 20 minutes, they were done! The "gift bags" were leftover from the $2 pack of red paper lunch bags we got to make our advent bags. I also grabbed a coloring book for each child from the $1 bin at Target.
Birthdays 2013:
Hubby's gift was inspired by this PIN
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| Walk a Little Slower Daddy |
I was able to get a 2pk canvas for $7.99 at Michaels' Craft Store, and then we just used the fabric paint we had on hand, a permanent marker, and leftover raffia from our holiday ornament wrapping.
And now I have another canvas left to use for a later project!
Sissy's gift was inspired by this PIN
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| make up magnet board |
We scored a baking dish and some magnets at the same craft store, and just used super glue and the same fabric paint at home. Spiderman saw the little wooden accents, which we just super glued on, for $0.49 each in the scrapbook section!
And finally, recipe FUN:
Today we made our own bread to have with just a family size can of tomato soup for dinner...
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| crusty whole wheat bread , easy! |
I'd say it was a success! ;) I only altered the recipe by using whole wheat flour in lieu of white flour. I think next time I'll use a less grainy flour, like almond flour though to make the bread a bit less dense.
We had flour in the pantry, and always have sea salt; so total cost? $1.99 packet of yeast. Result? An entire loaf of bread which fed 4 of us for dinner, 2 slices each! <3
Last night I also used up some ripe bananas, but realized I had no loaf pan- so improvised and used this recipe to make muffins. What I liked about it is that it uses honey and applesauce instead of sugar and oil!
Mine look dark because, again, I use whole wheat flour. They are good, but dense due to the whole wheat flour and the applesauce. Total cost? NOTHING because I was using up stuff we had! <3 Perfect.
What are some of your favorite budget friendly, easy projects??? Food or otherwise??
Find NNM on Pinterest @mymackey
