How to {frugally} Dress up a Dessert Plate

I know I am a little late with this post as it relates to a craft I did for the 4th of July, but you really can use this "trick" for any occassion so I figured I would share it anyway. It's fast, super easy and cheap frugal. Just the way I like it! {TWSS} ;)




How to dress up a simple dessert plate



We went to a BBQ for the 4th of July and were asked to bring a dessert. I raided my pantry and found a box of funfetti brownie mix that I had bought on clearance after Christmas for some ridiculous price like 50 cents. The kids helped me whip the brownies up and instead of using the green, red and white "funfettis" that came with the mix (since the colors weren't exactly patriotic), we used our own mix of sprinkles from the pantry and just sprinkled them on top. YUM!

Who doesn't love some gooey brownies??

When it came time to pack them up and head out to the BBQ, I decided not to use one of my fancy glass/metal/ceramic platters so I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning it off when we left or leaving it there or whatever. So instead, I went for my dessert plate "trick" of choice which is to dress up a simple disposable plate.

First I selected a plate. I've done this before using those nice thick paper plates but didn't have any in my "stash" that day, so instead, I used a simple white stryofoam plate. Really any type of disposable plate will work for this project as long as the plate isn't too thick. You'll see why in a minute...

Next I took a hole puncher and made holes around the outer lip of the plate - about 1" apart. I just eyeballed it. (This is why you don't want the plate to be too thick or plastic or something that would be difficult to hole punch).

Then I found a piece of ribbon in my "stash" and threaded it through the holes.

Tie it off with a bow and TA-DAAA! From drab to FAB! :)

Since it looked a little too valentine-ish with all that red and white, I colored a few simple stars in the gaps with a blue Sharpie. Much better and definitely nice and patriotic. :)

Everyone thought the plate was so cute and I had no qualms about leaving it at the BBQ to be thrown away later!

What are some of your favorite ways to dress up otherwise plain items?



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DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint {fun kid activity!}

The Heela typically has to work 1 weekend a month. Both days. In addition to working all week. From 7am to 7pm. And, no, he doesn't get paid anything extra for it. Raw deal, huh?

Yeah, well, not only is it hard on him, but I admit that it is often a little challenging for me too on those weekend when he works because I not only have to get all of our "normal" weekend responsibilities done {by myself} that don't get done during the week since we both work full-time, but I also have to take care of {and entertain} those 2 pesky preschoolers known as SweetPea and Boogey. WHAT??? The horror!!! ;)

Just kidding. They're not THAT pesky.Just a little annoying with having to eat 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks and drinks. Greedy little boogers! AND they want to be kept busy for 12 hours straight. Geesh! Where was THAT in the manual??!! I'm not sure I recall signing up for that part of parenthood!

OK... I kid, I kid. They're fabulous! And I do a damn good job as Mommy, thank you very much. But I dare any of you to tell me it isn't hard work! ;)

Anyway.... on weekends like this we usually spend the first half of the day running around doing errands (after a quick stop at the park. Ever been to the playground at 8am? It is pleasantly empty. I highly recommend!). It usually involves a trip to the grocery store and/or Target or some other necessary (but terribly boring for a 4 and 5 year old) task. So I like to try and do something a little more fun/creative in the afternoons. After all, these kids usually spend 10 hours a day at pre-school during the week where they are constantly being entertained or, at least, doing some sort of educational activity so they are used to being kept busy! So Momma gotta deliver! And I can only convince them that scrubbing the tile floors is fun so many times, ya know? ;)

So this past month, I decided to try out one of the activities from my "Kid's Crafts Ideas" Pinterest board. (of course I went and accidentally deleted the pin and now I can't remember where I found this idea originally, but it is all over blogland in various forms)

DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint

The recipe for this 'paint' is so easy it is barely worth listing out, but I'll do it anyway because it gives me something more to write about. [haha]. Basically, you want to combine 1 part water to 1 part cornstarch and then add a touch of food coloring. You can make your batches of each color paint as big or small as you want, but as long as you keep that one-to-one ratio, you'll be good to go. Here is what we did...

What you need (per color):

1/4 Cup Cornstarch

1/4 Cup Water

A few drops of food coloring (I used Wilton gels)

Ingredients needed for DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint

What to do:

The mixing and storing method is up to you, but here is what we did...

In a plastic cup, dump in 1/4 cup cornstarch.

Next, add 1/4 cup water.



Add 1 part water to 1 part corn starch



Stir well. Be sure to get all those globs out!

Stir well

Add a few drops of food coloring and stir well again.

Repeat in a new cup for each color desired.

Paint!

(See, this isn't rocket science people! ;)

[note: The cornstarch will settle a bit as time passes so just be sure to stir up the paint before you use it each time]

We transferred our paints to a muffin tin so there was less chance of a cup tipping over and then headed outside with our paint brushes in hand. Here you go...

DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint

I have to say that the effect of the 'paint' was pretty cool and really did look like chalk once the water had evaporated. We did this activity on a warm day so the water evaporated almost instantly which gave us instant gratification. All the better! We had more success seeing the different colors on the white sidewalk than we did on the black driveway (which was no surprise) so keep that in mind when choosing your "canvas". We also noted that some colors showed up better than others for us, but that didn't detract from the fun in any way. My girls really enjoyed this activity and I will definitely do it again!

Be advised that this is a messy activity (assuming your kids are normal) so be prepared with some baby wipes/towels/a hose for clean up before going back in the house!

The carnage

And since you're already so messy, you might as well follow this activity up with some juicy watermelon. :)

Now get out there and have some ~FUN~!!!

*UPDATE* Since a few people have asked... We did not have any problems with stains on clothes (or kids!) but I will caveat that by saying my girls are 4 and 5 and managed to keep their clothes relatively clean. They really got more of the “paint” on their legs, arms and hands, but no color remained after a quick washing up. But, to be safe, I don’t let my kids do messy crafts in their “sunday best” anyway. In terms of the pavement, we actually had rain that very night and, much to the girls dismay, the “paint” was completely washed away with no evidence of the fun time the day before. But, I’ll add the disclaimer, of course, that your experience may vary so use your own judgment.

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Hand Sanitizer Snowman

Every year I am faced with the challenge of figuring out what to give my daughters' daycare teachers as a gift for the holidays. They've got several women who come in and out of their classrooms each day, plus the teachers for their extra tutorial sessions. Needless to say, it can really add up when you start buying gifts for everyone. While I want to show our gratitude for the care they give to our girls all year, I need to try and keep my costs to a minimum. Last year I did THIS and it was a big hit.

This year I decided to mimic an idea I had in my Pinterest files from last year. It was originally posted on Crafts and Crap and I thought it was so clever, cute and wonderfully cheap frugal! YAY!

It starts off with a bottle of hand sanitzer from the Dollar Tree. I forgot to take a picture of the 'before' but I simply peeled the back label off the bottle removing any lingering adhesive with some olive oil (I use this in place of goo gone). I left the front label (making it the back) on so the teachers would know what was in the bottle.

Next I gathered up my supplies... A large selection of ribbon, some self-stick buttons left over from my scrapbooking days and some foam stickers from the snowman craft kit I coincidentally bought last week at Michaels (using a 40% off coupon, of course!). We used the stickers from the project pack for the eyes, noses, and mouths of our snowmen.

Foam snowman project pack used for eyes, mouths and noses

Then I called in SweetPea and Boogey and let them "have at it"! They selected which ribbon they wanted to use for each teacher and I tied it on for them. They then added the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons themselves. Here they are all lined up ready to go...

Hand Sanitizer Snowmen

You can tell which ones were made by Boogey because she always puts her snowman noses straight up and down. LOL

Whose nose is whose? :)

Since the girls were very particular about which snowman was for which teacher, I added name tags on the back using my label maker.

Label Maker label identifies who it is for.

There is another label along the bottom that says who it is from. The girls did all the typing themselves (with some spelling help from mom). They love that label maker almost as much as I do!

One more pic...

Super Cute Hand Sanitizer Snowman

My only out-of-pocket cost was the $1 each for the bottle of sanitizer ($10 total for 10 teachers) since I had all of the other supplies already. Lovin' that!! And they are super cute and great for the classrooms!! And I love that my girls were able to decorate them themselves!!

What are your frugal teacher gift ideas???




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Such is my life. (aka "Snowflake Specimen Art re-visit")

Well, I have a confession to make. I haven't taken down my Thanksgiving decorations yet. *sigh*.  Yes, such is my life.

So don't even expect me to post any "new" Christmas decor ideas anytime soon. Yes, such is my life.

But... in the interest of the holiday spirit, I thought I would re-post one of my most successful projects to date originally shared last year. And it seems this post has been quite popular recently (at least according to my statcounter) so maybe you won't mind seeing it again...

Yes, it's my Snowflake Specimen Art! :)  It cost next-to-nothing to create. And you'll never believe what it's made from! Click HERE to go to the original post and learn all the deets.



Snowflake Specimen Art



I can't wait to pull this beauty out again! LOVE!

Boxes on our Walls - Part 4 {Assembling}

When I left off before, I had cut all of my molding pieces and gotten out this baby...

I gave this Nail Gun and Compressor to the Heela for his birthday this past year and he graciously showed me how to use it for this project. Now, you could clearly do this project with a hammer and nails, but if you have access to a nail gun, I highly recommend using one!

If you want a play-by-play visual of how to do this, check out THIS POST here by Thrifty Decor Chick. She actually made a video of the process and it was my go-to guide! I won't go into too much detail since that video is so great, but here are the basics...

{NOTE: Before you start assembling your boxes, I recommend painting your wall (if you plan to) as well as painting your molding pieces. According to all the research I did, it is much easier to paint everything before you put the molding up on the walls. Then later, you just fill in nail holes, caulk edges and touch up paint where necessary. I admit I had the luxury of skipping the painting step altogether since we had hired painters to come do our entire lower level the week after I did my boxes. But if we had not had them coming in, I would have painted everything before nailing, etc.}

Starting at the edge of your wall, use your spacer to determine how far away from the edge/top/bottom your left piece of molding needs to be. I cut my spacer from a paint stirrer/stick.

Use a pre-cut spacer to determine how far from the edge/top/bottom you need to be.

Use your level to make sure your molding is straight.

Make sure it's straight!

Nail in place using nail gun or hammer and nails. Line up the corner of the top piece and repeat the process, then repeat with the right piece, and lastly with the bottom piece. Don't worry if you have some gaps as they can be hidden later with spackle.

Align your angles to make a nice corner.

Here is a finished box - ta da!

For boxes on the same wall, again use your spacer to ensure you are the proper distance away from the first box and from the top. Continue, continue, continue. :)

Use your pre-cut spacer to make the positioning of your boxes easier.

Here is how it looked once I had all my boxes up (before caulking, filling in nail holes or painting).

LOVE!

Your next step would be to fill in all of your nail holes and caulk the edges. As mentioned above, I did not have to do this step myself since the painters we hired to do our lower level preferred to do it themselves. However, go HERE to see recommendations on this step (again from the fabulous Thrifty Decor Chick - she rocks!).

Lastly, your final step would be to touch up any paint. Again, since we had the painters coming in the following week, I was able to avoid the paint process. Here is the final result after they had caulked and painted a coat of primer.

Already looking so good!

And here is the final result after the walls were painted (Sherwin Williams Balanced Beige) and the area below the chair rail was finished out in semi-gloss white.

Finished {mock} Wainscoting - LOVE!

And here is a before and after collage...

What a nice change!

SO?? What do you think? How'd I do? Personally, I love the way the boxes came out! I plan to do some more in the dining room and on the upper landing (where we already have chair rail). Those areas have already been painted white semi-gloss so I'll just need to add my boxes (I'll paint them before hand) and caulk. I'd like to add some along the stairs too, but those require a little lot more work since they will have funky angles. We'll see if my math skills are up to the test - someday! ;)


I'd say this project was a fabulous success and couldn't be more pleased with how it came out. :)






**You can see the rest of this series here:
Part 1 - Idea
Part 2 - Sizing
Part 3 - Cutting

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Boxes on our Walls - Part 3 {Cutting}

Remember how I told you HERE about how I had decided to add some boxes to my walls? And then HERE I told you about how I decided what size to make my boxes. Well, now it is time to tell you how I actually "built" them. In other words, how I cut the molding and put it on the walls.

When I left off before, I had headed out to Lowes to buy the molding to be used for my boxes...


So I knew that I did NOT want to make wood boxes. Yes it would be more professional and all that, but I also knew it would be more difficult to cut, nail, etc. So I took Thrifty Décor Chick’s advice and went for the foam-like stuff that is so much easier to work with. Initially I was going to use the stuff she recommended HERE which costs less than $5 for an 8’ length. 

(pardon the glare and crappy cell phone pic)

But the more I looked at it, the more I felt it was a little too wimpy for the look I was trying to achieve. So I splurged on this stuff which was much more interesting even though it was much more expensive and decided that the extra cost was worth it (although I admit, I had a realllllly hard time telling my cheap frugal side to shut up!).

Much more expensive at $13 a piece, but also much more stylish

I ended up needing 9 pieces for my 7 boxes - ouch! (but oh, so worth it! :)

Next step was to do all my cutting. I had previously purchased a miter box at Lowes (less than $15 for the box and saw) and got it set up in the garage. 

Handy Dandy Miter Box and Saw

Now, mind you... we have a whole wall’s worth of work tables, but the Heela has it all covered in junk important “man stuff” so I had to improvise with a couple of trash cans. Hey, I can be resourceful like the best of 'em! {Tip - I recommend putting something with “grip” under the miter box as I found mine really slipped around a bit. The Heela found an old rubber car floor mat in his pile of junk “man stuff” and it worked perfectly!}

Improvised work area - puts the term "white trash" on a whole new level - LOL

Then I just started measuring my pieces and cutting the ends at a 45 degree angle. {Tip - If your molding strips are like mine and not uniform on each side, make sure you are making your angle cut the right way}. Huh?? Ok… so my molding looked like this.

I decided that I wanted the right edge (as you look at it in the photo above) to be on the inside of my boxes. This means that my angles always need to look like the piece on the right in the photo below…

My angles all needed to be like the piece on the right

I admit that I made my cut going the wrong way more than once. {Rookie mistake!}

Be sure to pay attention to which way your angle needs to go!

But once I got into the groove of things, it just flowed. {Tip - I had previously tallied up how many pieces I needed of each length. Then I determined how to get the best “bang for my buck” from each 8’ length of molding. Some 8’ lengths gave me 3 pieces of cut molding which were all the same size, while others were cut into 4 pieces of different-sized molding. Just play around with the numbers until you are satisfied. The goal is to buy the fewest number of 8’ strips possible}. 

{Tip - As I cut each piece of molding, I wrote the exact length on the back. This way I wouldn’t have to guess which piece was which or re-measure them later to be sure I had grabbed the right one}.

Jotting down the length on the back of each piece of molding helps keep them organized

Here they are all lined up and ready to go. Yes, it was a lot of cutting, but thankfully, this foam stuff cuts SO easily!

That's a lot of cutting!

Now it was time to put them up on the walls. So I gathered my molding pieces, a level, a 3" spacer (I cut mine from a paint stick) and this lovely baby...

Not a necessity for this project, but it makes it soooo much easier!

In the next installment, I'll tell you about how I actually built the boxes on the walls. To be continued... :)




**You can see the rest of this series here:
Part 1 - Idea
Part 2 - Sizing

Part 4 - Assembly