Frugal Reading Links

Here are a few links to articles that are relevant to this time of the year.  Happy reading

Saving money and getting the kids back to school
http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/starting-school-year.html

Beating the heat in Summer
http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/keeping-cool-in-summer.html

Saving money on water usage
http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/februarys-theme-being-water-wise.html

Budget planning for a new year
http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/getting-your-budget-in-order-for-new.html

Our family's menu plan
http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/my-menu-plan-thursday-20th-nov-thursday.html

Easy card ideas
http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/hand-made-card-ideas-january-2016.html

A favourite Summer salad
http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/creamy-pasta-salad.html

Christmas Presents On A Budget

With Christmas fast approaching,  I'm sure most of you have made plans or bought a few presents.  For those who struggle to find the money to spend on presents,  here are a few frugal ideas

*  Biscuits ( cookies ) in a jar made a delightful teacher's gift,  Kris Kringle,  office party present or a present for a friend.  If you have elderly family and friends this would be ideal.  Many elderly can't or wouldn't bake for themselves.  You could give the biscuits ( or other baking ) in a cellophane bag bought from the discount stores.  Tie the top up with recycled ribbon and add a gift tags.  For a larger batch of biscuits,  use a glass coffee jar ( Moccona comes to mind ),  decorated baby formula tin or an icecream container with a ribbon tied around for presentation.  Here are two suggested biscuit recipes on my blog

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Biscuits

Cranberry Hootycreek Biscuits

Biscuits in a jar

*  Teenage boys can be hard to buy for.  They want expensive branded gadgets / clothes and shoes.  A budget gift could be deodorant and shower gel bought at half price.  Lynx toiletries come on sale quite a few times during the year and cost about $3 each at half price.  Team this up with a couple of giant biscuits wrapped in cellophane bags tied with a tartan ribbon.  They'll devour those biscuits before you know it.

Always buy on sale

*  Make a set of handmade cards.  Kmart sells packs of white blank cards 25 per pack for $3.  Using a glue stick,  recycled ribbon and bits and pieces from around the house you could make an elegant set of card that are unique.  Present them in a handmade box,  a decorated recycled one or maybe buy a suitable size from the $2 shops.  Add a few postage stamps and a novelty pen for the receiver to use.

Using scraps of wrapping paper

*  Not crafty ?  Then maybe the garden is where you'll find a few presents.  Take cuttings from your plants and re pot them into saved garden pots,  containers,  planter boxes or fruit boxes.  Clean the outside of the pot and add a ribbon or saved colored plastic from bunches of flowers etc.

A raspberry cutting we grew

*  Now is the time to plant a mix of lettuce seeds in a pot for a beautiful display to give at Christmas. Both useful and very frugal.

Grow different varieties of lettuce

*  Make handmade soap.  If you make the soap in the next week or so you'll have just enough time for it to cure ready for Christmas giving.  The ingredients only cost a few dollars but produces $30 - $40 worth of presents.  You might even have some of the ingredients in your pantry.  Soap making is not as hard as it seems.  Just follow the instructions carefully and you'll be fine.  Wrap the bars of soap in cellophane and add a ribbon.  This soap could be added to a decorated hand towel or set of face washers.  Here's one of the recipes I use Soap making
  

Handmade soap

Gift wrapped ready to give

*  Men can be hard to buy for.  If they have a bbq then make up a few jars of spice rubs for meat.  Save your baby food or mustard jars to use and add a hand made or printed label.  If you'd like to bulk up the present,  make it into a gift pack buy adding paper towel,  tongs,  canola spray,  foil and cling wrap.  Men who bbq always need these items and it's saves them digging around in the kitchen. I know from first hand experience.  Darren has a tub of his " own " things next to the bbq.


* Google,  Pinterest and Youtube could be your best friend when searching for frugal or free gift ideas.  With a little planning now,  you don't need to spend a fortune on gifts.  Remember,  it's your budget.  You know what you can afford.

I Now Have An Etsy Shop.

A couple of months ago a group of friends and myself opened up an Etsy shop.  Our shop is called The Crafty Mums Co op and is an online shop to sell our handmade crafts to the general public.

We are a group of mums who get together regularly to make greeting cards,  gift tags and other crafts.  We also do lots of talking,  tea drinking and eating.  In other words,  a fun get together doing the things we love to do.

Please come on over to our shop and have a browse.  Once you click on The Crafty Mums Co op you can scroll through all the lovely handmade items for sale.  The other option is to click on the individual shops listed on the left hand side of our page.  That will take you to the seller you'd like to view.

New stock is being uploaded often so there's always something new to view.  All items are handmade,  unique and made with lots of love.  Some can even be made to order if time allows.

Our greeting cards are beautifully made with quality papers and designed to bring a smile to the receiver.  Check out our Easel cards.  They are show stoppers that stand out from the crowd ( not like run of the mill mass produced cards ).

The craft section will be expanding shortly so keep a look out for lots of gifts to choose from.  At the moment I have decorated hand towels and Christmas decorations for sale that make great presents for teachers,  Kris Kringle,  office parties as well as for friends and family.  I personally have given lots of these items as presents and they are always well received.

Please share our shop details with your friends and family.

The Crafty Mums Co Op shop

The Crafty Mums Co op Facebook page

You can also click on the Etsy ad I have on the right hand side of my blog.

My business card.

Christmas decorations for the tree

All hand towels come with a bonus gift tag.

Easel cards for females

Easel card for men

Gorgeous side stepper card.

Christmas hand towels come in five designs

Cards for car lovers

Summer dance time card.

Ballerina card

These decorations come in sets of four.

Card Making Ideas September 2016

Although I love making female cards,  I know I need to learn how to make men's cards as well.  After all,  they do celebrate birthdays, Father's Day,  anniversaries and Valentines Day too.

Recently I was given a handful of motoring booklets and magazines that had suitable pictures to use in card making.

Here's what I've made lately -

These cards were made on a cream colored card.  I found packets of 10 sheets of cardboard colored cardstock in the $2 shops.  Each sheet was cut into four giving me enough for 40 card fronts.  I edged the cardboard with a black ink pad to give it an aged / vintage look.

The red background for the car is a paint sample card from Bunnings hardware store.

This image is from a Kaisercraft 12 x 12 inch sheet that had multiple images to cut out.  This makes a quick and easy card.

This one was made on a silver card.  It gives it a sporty look.  I try to keep most of the cards blank and add a sentiment when the card to being given.

Hand Made Card Ideas July 2016

Here are the latest cards I've made mostly using items I already had on hand.

 Pamela from our card making group had the feet shape cutter. We all made sure we cut out lots of feet to make more cards in the future.

 A very simple but effective card using a butterfly shape punch.

 An old school atlas was used for the background.  Then black patterned paper was scrunched up and glued onto the map.  The corners were rolled up using a pencil.  Another map was stamped then the edges roughed up then glued on.  This makes a great men's card for any occasion.

This shabby chic card was made using a cream card and a page from an old book.  A couple of shapes of contrasting colors and a clock stamp was used in the middle. A button and a couple of pieces of feathers wool added to the corner.

This ladies shabby chic card was made using grey patterned card stock,  a small paper doily,  material or paper flowers and a little gift tag.  Layering is the key.

I just love this chicken card.  The chickens were made from different shapes.  The body is made from half a circle.  The comb is a little flower shape,  the wings are a heart and the tail is part of a flower shape.  The legs were drawn on and the ground is a roughed up piece of cardboard from a box.

This is a single easel card.  A4 card stock is cut in half lengthways then folded in half then that half folded again. Patterned card stock is glued to one of the folded portions.  If the patterned card stock is not very thick,  then mount it onto another piece to give it strength.  Add something to the bottom to keep the card upright.  I added kitchen twine then decorated as per the theme.

A side view

A simple Valentine's Day card using patterned paper,  ribbon,  a little bling and a heart. The writing was found on the internet and printed off.

This card uses scraps of paper, a doily and a butterfly cut out.  I glue the butterfly's body only so the wings can be folded out.  A couple of blings were added to the body.

This card uses a few layers, patterned paper ( from the internet ) and an old button in the corner.

A very simple yet stylish men's card using an embossing folder for the background,  similar colored strips of paper, kitchen twine and an old button.

Hand Made Card Ideas May 2016

Here are a few more ideas for making cards on a budget.  These cards were made in April at the monthly Cheapskates card making day..

Cath Armstrong from The Cheapskates Club saw a similar card to this in the shops for $2.  The original only had a tutu on a blank card.   Cath thought we could do better than that and this is what we came up with.  We used a bit of fluff from a costume.  Only 1 cm of fluff was needed but a couple of feathers from a colored duster will do the job too.   I embossed a piece of card and cut it to size.  A  strip of wrapping paper could be used on the left of the card.  The bodice was cut from glittery card stock but you could use any card stock and decorate with glitter pens.  The skirt was glued on first then the bodice was mounted with sticky foam dots.

This men's card was made using three different colored card glued onto a grey card. The clock in the middle is a sticker bought from the $2 shop. I think 6 clocks come on a sheet. Alternatively you could use a stamp or a picture of a clock cut out of a jewellery catalogue.  The striped paper is card stock but wrapping paper will do the job nicely.

Continuing to reuse what we have,  this card was made using a map from an old Melway, street directory or atlas.  I'm sure most of us have an old school atlas on the bookshelf.  I also see them in op shops for a few dollars.  Alternatively you could go to tourist information centre and grab a couple of local maps.

Using up bits and pieces was the theme for this card.  We used circle punches to get perfect circles.  Alternatively you could cut squares out of scrap bits of paper.  The birthday cake is a stamp that was colored in.  We sponged on a little bit of ink around the edges and roughed it up.

The flowers on this card were bought from a craft shop for $1.99 with 40 in the packet.  The ribbon is a scrap glued on with a glue stick.

Here's the inside of the flower card.  The presents were cut and folded on the insert then decorated with scrap bits of wrapping paper,  ribbon and bows.  The insert was glued in last.


I hope you've been inspired to gives some of these designs a go.