Freezer paper stencil t-shirts - on my $0 budget

{Remember everyone, that April 1st is the $0 Budget link party here. Everyone is welcome to share their ideas no matter how big or small. If you can't make it but would like to participate, please email me the link and image and I can post it for you.}

We are coming to the end of our March Break and I promised my guys I would do a kids craft with them this week. Since I am in the middle of my $0 craft budget month and I worried I was going to run out of ideas, I borrowed my mom's Cricut.

Forgive me but I must digress for one moment...I want one of my own..or a Silhouette. Maybe if I am positive and put it out there the 'Secret' will bring it. Keeping my fingers positively crossed that one day I will have  a cutter of my own to share my ideas with you :)

OK back to my craft. I have always loved the freezer paper transfers and I have a huge roll of freezer paper so I thought we could customize a couple of shirts for them. They each picked a plain shirt from their collection (since I can't buy them a new one -$0 budget remember) and an image they liked. My daughter picked three hearts (I know it is the wrong season for hearts and we should be doing Shamrocks but she is a girly girl) and my son picked three different robots. I tried to convince my son to use a nicer shirt, but he wants to use this one as PJs so it is fine.

Materials:
Freezer paper (Wax paper will not work)
Iron
Fabric Paint
Item to paint

Method:
We cut the images out of freezer paper (shiny side down) on the Cricut. If you don't have a Cricut or a Silhouette, you can draw an image on the paper side of the freezer paper and cut it out with scissors. It really is easy.

With my iron on medium heat, I ironed the shirt flat and once cooled placed the cut freezer paper (shiny side down) where the kids wanted the image to appear. Carefully iron the the freezer paper cut out to the shirt. You can do this with almost any fabric, so the possibilities are endless.

Using fabric paint, we applied a layer of paint and evened it out with a cheap foam brush.

This is what it looks like once the entire area was covered in paint. My son loves to color things to look like rainbows so he decided to use multiple colors for his robots. After he was done I was a little worried because I wasn't sure if the color pattern had a bad association to it, so I googled it and realized it was the Romanian flag, all is good :).  He is now a  new inadvertent fan of Romania

 

We immediately peeled off the freezer paper, being careful not to get any of the excess paint onto the shirt.

Here are the end results. Aren't they so cute!!

 My son desperately wanted to model it so here he is (fresh out of a bath with wet hair).

 

 

I think I might start making these as gifts for the birthday parties my kids attend. Also, wouldn't it be great as a craft at a birthday party?  Buy a pile of shirts at Michaels when they are on sale (and I am not on my $0 budget) and let each child decorate their own.

17 days into the challenge and still going :)

 What do you think? The possibilities are endless!

Conversation Starter Cards on my $0 budget

Before I start I want to let everyone know that due to such positive support, I will be hosting a $0 Budget Party at the end of the month. Since this will be my first party, I would really love it if everyone who has any ideas (no matter how big or small) to remember to stop by and share them.  I will finalize the date soon but I was thinking April 1st. What do you think?

Here my fun $0 family building craft.

Last summer, my daughter and I had a girls day out in New York City. We went shopping and I took her to the American Girl restaurant for a special dinner. We had the most amazing time! If you have ever been, you know they have a box full of cards on the table with questions or conversation starters to ask the other people at your table. My daughter loved this and I really enjoyed giving her answers to questions we would never have thought about. Like "What is your favorite childhood memory?" or "If you were able to give up one chore for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

This past weekend my daughter asked if we could write up some questions and discuss them at the dinner table.  I thought it was an amazing idea. We wrote our own questions and then went on the internet and searched for "conversation starter questions" and found hundreds.

Materials:
Questions
Scrapbook paper
Mod Podge
Small box

Method:
I put all the questions in one Word file and then converted the text into a table with 2 columns. I formatted the rows to fit 8 questions on each page. We selected a font we loved and started printing them on light colored scrapbook paper. In total we had 20 pages or 160 questions.

Since I could not run to the Dollar store to buy a cute little box to store these in (doesn't fit in my budget of $0), I got resourceful. I used a cup a soup box to create a custom sized holder for the 160 questions.

I covered the box with a piece of scrapbook paper she selected and Mod Podge. I punch 2 holes in the top flap and on the body of the box so I could thread a piece of ribbon through. I used a large bead (doesn't match 100% but she loves it) to slip through the bottom loop to keep the lid closed.

We have put this on our lazy susan in the middle of the table so that when we sit down at dinner we can ask each other questions. It really is fun!

A small project but it still falls within my $0 budget.

If anyone would like me to email them the 20 page Word file (so you can print them yourself or change them to best suit your family), please download it here or leave me a comment with your email address and I would be happy to send it to you.

Side note: I have found we have gotten closer as a family since we started this spend free month. We have spent 2 full weeks without going shopping. We play games, talk, do crafts together or simply lay on the couch and watch a movie. The money saved this month will be nice, but the family bonding time is truly priceless!


Thanks everyone!

Stair Basket on my $0 budget - Organizing my life one step at a time

If you are anything like my family, you always have a pile of stuff sitting on your stairs to either go up or go down. I have always wanted to have a basket that sits on my stairs but I am far to cheap to spend $40 on a small wicker step/stair basket. So I came up with this idea yesterday when I was at the grocery store picking up fresh fruits and vegetables. Isn't it great! Look what you can do with a free pasta box, duct tape, left over fabric and Mod Podge. 

Before

 After

Materials:

1 Box with the width and height you want

Fabric to cover

Mod Podge

Duct Tape

Method:
We removed the clear packing tape from the bottom of the box so it could be laid flat.

We measured my stair height (approx. 8 inches) and depth (approx. 12 inches). Using a long metal ruler we drew straight lines on the box to identify where the 'step' piece would be. Do this on both sides of the box..be sure to work on the same end :)

Here is a bit of a tricky part, I only made 3 cuts on each side of the box (see picture below - I made cuts along the bold black lines and I folded along the dotted line) so that I could fold the box  and keep most of the box intact to create the bottom and side of the 'step' part.

Here is where you just have to trust me and work with this as you go. This is hard for me to explain which means it will be even more difficult to understand. But believe me it is easy when you are doing it. The 2 folded pieces come together to create the back of the step, the 2 bottom flaps come up to also cover the back of the step and then there is a long piece on the end of the box that folds up to create the bottom of the 'step' piece. Now that I have lost everyone here is what it looks like after the first 2 steps.

And this is after all the folds and I duct taped the seams to secure it.

 I removed the top flaps of the box because I did not need any extra height. If you box is not high enough, you can use the top flaps for this.

Making the shape of the stair basket, took me about 10 minutes to do. But the next step of covering it with fabric took me almost 2 hours! I didn't have much of this fabric left over from recovering my kitchen chairs so I had to plan wisely. It really wasn't difficult as I used Mod Podge to secure the fabric to the box but the planning took me forever.  I used some left over black vinyl for the bottom of the box so that it wouldn't show any dirt (plus I didn't want to use more of the fabric since I might want to use it on something else later).

So here is the end result from all angles. My carpets look really dirty but they aren't..honestly it is the lighting.

 By the way, someone recommended that I host a $0 craft party at the end of the month so everyone can post their $0 ideas. I have never done a party before...Is anyone interested in participating in this? Please let me know what you think.



Thanks,
Stephanie

Dry Erase Freezer Inventory on my $0 budget

I would like to start off by thanking everyone for their amazing support and all of the suggestions regarding our spend free month. My husband and I have actually been enjoying the past 11 days that we agreed to continue this for Lent. Grammy Goodwill is doing this and we loved the idea. So it looks like I am giving up spending for almost 2 months. I don't think I will have enough hot glue sticks to last me....I might be begging my sister to donate some to my cause :)

I want to thank Anne from Unguarded Moments for making the suggestion to make a quick inventory of what is in my freezer. When I started to make the list of everything I had in the freezer, I came up with the idea for my dry erase "Freezer Inventory" board. Thanks Anne!

 

I made a list of the items I typically have in the freezer and left spots for other foods. The list is behind plastic so I can write on it with dry erase marker and easily delete the check mark when the item is removed.
Materials:
9x12 Canvas (from the dollar store)
1 piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper
1 plastic paper sleeve
Ribbon
Hot glue
Mod Podge
Magnets

Method:
I had a canvas that I was using to test out the subway art from a couple of weeks ago. It was in the garbage but I pulled it out and put a coat of cream spray paint on it.

I picked a piece of scrapbook paper that matched the room and that I would like to look at every day. You could use burlap for this project too; I didn't because I have 4 burlap baskets in the bench and thought it would be too much burlap in one room. I know how can someone say that! :)
I attached the paper to the canvas with Mod Podge by only putting Mod Podge on the outer edges. My first attempt bubbled when I painted the entire canvas with it.

I made a 'staple food' list that contained what is typically in the freezer. I made it smaller than 8.5 x 11 so that I saw more of the scrapbook paper.
In order to make the list reusable, I decided to use a plastic sleeve to cover the printer paper. This way I can put check marks for what I have and easily delete it when I remove it from the freezer.  I cut the sleeve to be a little bit bigger than the piece of paper with my list. I warmed up my glue gun and when it was really hot, I ran a bead of glue to seal the two pieces of plastic on the cut side of the sleeve. Start at the bottom of the plastic sleeve and worked up to the top. The hot glue actually melts the plastic and fuses the two pieces together.

Using hot glue, I glued the outer perimeter of the plastic sleeve to the canvas and then covered it with a thin ribbon attached again with hot glue. If you decide to put a ribbon on the top where the opening is, be sure to put a piece of paper between so that the 2 pieces of plastic don't melt together.

I made a ribbon bow and glued it to the top of the canvas.

Using a free magnet (you know the ones that you get in the mailbox from dentists, car dealerships etc...I never throw these out)  cut into 3 strips, I glued them to the bottom and sides of the canvas. I then covered one strong magnet with ribbon and attached it to the bow. This way when the freezer door opens and closes, the canvas will not move or bounce around.

  Tah Dah! What do you think?

I have had a very productive day. I made an inventory of everything in my freezer, created a beautiful board to easily track what goes in and out of the freezer and the most amazing thing I did was defrosted my freezer! I am too embarrassed to show you the before with all the food in it, but I will show you the after :) . Yeah!  Look what I can get accomplished when I can't go shopping.