FANtastic Beer Steins on my $0 budget

I can't believe I can say this...I have not spent a penny in 1 week! We had some returns to do from Christmas gifts this week and we were fantastic to return the items but did not buy anything after. Even the kids returned a couple of items and they took the money and have saved it for another time. I would like to say they are learning to save, but I know this is not 100% true. I have to admit that teaching my kids to save and value money has been one of the toughest things we have been trying to deal with lately. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. Please share how you have taught your kids to value money.

We have already noticed that the amount of time we spend together has increased. We spent today as a family playing outside (our weather is ridiculously warm), reading in the sun, doing a couple of crafts and taking down the last of the Christmas decorations. My husband and I both commented how wonderful today was because we didn't run around shopping.

I made my own bread and hamburger buns today and used up a few small items in the freezer (we had hamburgers and hot turkey sandwiches for lunch) but we are starting to run out of fresh vegetables and milk, so I will have to stop by the grocery store quickly tomorrow.

How are all of you doing? Are you saving a few dollars? Are you also spending more family time?

Here is my $0 budget post for today.

Have you seen the NFL beer steins on Pottery Barn's site? They are FANtastic (hee hee hee) and if your football team is in the playoffs it makes you want them even more. Well at $24.00 EACH!!! they would have to have some gold content in order for me to feel they were worth buying. But as soon as I saw them, I knew I could make them for nothin.

Source Pottery Barn

Source Pottery Barn

I should now share a picture of my husband's beer stein collection but I won't because it might make you think he has a drinking problem, which he doesn't :). Well he has lots of beer steins! So I grabbed 4 of his favorite shaped steins and snuck away to my craft room.

I designed the team logo using Sure Cuts a Lot and cut it with vinyl I had left over from my marble tiles. Yes, I could have used contact paper but I really didn't want to mess up one of the beer steins so I used my good vinyl.

To be honest with you, the larger steins with the handles would work easier than this shape since it was difficult to get the vinyl to lay flat on these.  But these did work out great, I just had to cut the vinyl and overlap it carefully to create the circles.

I used a flat knife that I have to cut 4 straight lines to quarter each of the circles. You could use an exacto knife or a pair of scissors to do this too.

I used my painters tape technique to transfer the vinyl to the glass.

Be sure to lay the logo down first and then carefully the circle around it. Remember the circle will be bunchy, so you will need to carefully separate the vinyl where you cut it and overlap it. You can get a perfect circle this way, just be careful not to damage the vinyl otherwise the etching cream can creep under.

You can see the outer part of the circles are bunch and bubbly but that does not matter. You just need to make sure the part that will be in contact with the glass and etching cream is flat and tight on the glass.

Lay the glass on something to prevent it from rolling. The etching cream can run, so you want to make sure the glass doesn't move.

I used Armour etch to etch the glass. My instructions are covered with a million warnings so I have had to learn how to use this from trial and error. I now stir the etching cream before I apply it. This seems to make it give a more even etch.

I apply the cream using a cheap foam brush. I apply it really thick and evenly over the entire area to be etched. Be sure to not get any on the other part of the glass. It will etch almost immediately.

I recommend letting the etching cream sit on the glass for 20-25 minutes. I don't know what the jar says to do, but I did 4 of these glasses, 1 for 15 minutes, 1 for 20 and 2 for 25 and I found the 25 minute ones looked the best.  Once the time had elapsed, I scrapped the etching cream back into the bottle. I was told to do this by a fellow blogger and it seems to work. I then take the steins to my laundry sink and run them under warm water to get off all the excess etching cream.

 Peel off the vinyl and wash the glass with dish soap and you are done.

They took some time and were a little finicky to make, but they turned out great and cost me zero dollars, so well worth it.

 

What do you think? Not bad for nothing!

Have a great spend free weekend.

Stephanie

Fork Stand on my $0 Budget

Did you see the Blessed to Be Blessed's guest post yesterday with here $0 infinity scarf? Amazingly creative! If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Today's post has helped me get rid of use up a basket of old forks I found laying around that didn't match my everyday or my formal set. I made photo stands out of them. This $0 project would work amazingly well with silver forks ...like anyone has some of those laying around to be altered into a plate/photo stand. Steer clear of thick, heavy gauge forks; they are very hard to bend and you will not be happy with the end results.

Here is what the project looks like in the end:

Materials:

• Old forks
• Needle nose pliers
• Wire bending tool (not necessary but nice to have)

Method:
Using a wire bending tool my husband had (if you don't have this, you can easily use pliers) I bent the prongs of the forks forward and backwards so the fork stood on its own.

You start with the two outer prongs and you bend them forward to approximately a 90 degree angle.  Be sure to line up where the bend is otherwise you will have a wobbly stand.

 

Once the outer two are bent, move to the middle two. Bend them in the opposite direction as the outer ones.

So your fork will look like this.

 

Then using a pair of pliers, I separated the middle prongs so they will provide better balance.

Test out the fork now and see if it stands well. If it is off balance, bend the prongs a little to get it in the right position. I liked mine to lean back slightly but it is up to you.

Then using needle nose pliers, I rolled the 4 prongs to make a loop on the ends. This makes it look a little nicer and provides an edge for the photo to lean against.

I had planned to used these forks as pictures stands. I really wanted this stand to hold photos of my two guys in my office that I don't want to frame since I change them frequently. I love how they are not bulky on my desk.

I now think these would have work great for the Personalized Marble Tiles I made for everyone at Christmas.  I made over 20 of these as Christmas gifts and ended up buying plate stands at the Dollar Store for each of them. I wish I had thought of this earlier because they are far cuter than the Dollar store stands I gave. I will have to remember it next year.

I still have one of my original plates waiting to be gifted (we will see them later this month) so I tested out my fork stand and it worked great. You can barely see the top of the fork sticking out but I love how it doesn't take away from the tile.

What do you think of my $0 fork plate /photo stand?

How has your spend free day been? We have had an interesting morning. My guys were in desperate need of hair cuts but since I am determined to not spend unnecessarily, I sat them down and did it myself. Before you gasp in disgust, my son had really curly hair so even if I completely messed up and had many different lengths, you would not be able to tell on his hair. My daughter on the other hand has perfectly straight hair. So this took me a little longer but ended up working really well. I saved approximately $45 by doing this! Not bad. Maybe in the future I can alternate between me and a professional.

Do you but your kids hair? Anyone have any tricks to make this easier?

Have a great day,
Stephanie

$0 Budget Month Guest Post - Blessed to be a Blessing

Hello everyone at Full of Great Ideas!  I am so excited that Stephanie gave me this opportunity to guest post for the $0 Budget month.  I am new to this whole world of blogging and so I am low on crafting supplies and trying to start small.  Before I launch into my ideas, let me introduce myself!

My name is Alesha and I blog over at Blessed to be a Blessing.  I got married last May to my high school sweetheart and the man of my dreams!  Travis work as the Assistant high school and college age Pastor at our church.  We serve together in both areas and on worship team!  I have always enjoyed crafting and after much deliberation, decided to launch into the world of blogging.  I sew, knit, crochet, make cards, scrapbook, and mend...(I guess that counts as sewing, but I feel like it should be in its own category!)  So here are my projects...enjoy!

Project One: The Infinity Scarf

If you are like me, you probably have a bunch of old scarves laying around that you never wear but won't get rid of.  They are pretty, but for some reason they are never just quite right; they were too thick, too thin, too long, or too short!  And so often I won't get rid of them because they were gifts -  in my case, they were hand knit or crocheted gifts from friends!  I always feel so awful throwing away a homemade gift. =(

So my solution?  Turn them into infinity scarves!  This automatically solves both length and thickness issues - mostly anyways.

I didn't even bother taking pictures for this tutorial because it is so SIMPLE!  Simply match up the ends of your scarf, pull out a needle and thread, and sew them together.  The thread will be so thin compared to the yarn you won't even see it.  Perfectly simple and completely free!  I love, love, love my new scarves.  And here's the best part...if I ever get tired of having them like this, then I can cut out the stitches and BAM!  They are back to normal!  =)

Project Two: Sleeve Removal from a Cardigan
I did this project when before I started blogging and was so impressed with myself that I had to create a blog to show it off!

This little refashion turned a sweater that I never wore into the perfect accessory!  Take an old shirt, blouse, or cardigan and go to town!  The full tutorial is on my blog.

Thanks again for having me and I'm looking forward to hearing more from you guys!  Thanks again Stephanie!

How to make your own Vintage Book Print on a $0 Budget

Day 5 and all is well on my $0 Budget front. We are having a hodge podge of things for lunch today so I can use up those little things I found in the freezer. The kids usually love this because they gets bits of some of their favorite junk type food (you know the last 3 chicken finger, a handful of french fries, a few perogies) so they won't complain. 

 

If you have been on Pinterest recently, you probably have seen those really cool Vintage art pieces where the designer has 'created' art on old dictionary paper. You know the ones I am talking about; they sell for $7-$8 depending on the Etsy seller. Well I use the word design very loosely because if you have a printer, internet access and an old book you are willing to cut up, you can make these for NOTHIN.

(sorry, I haven't hung it. It is standing on my headboard)

 

I sat down last night after getting the kids to bed and thought I would give this a try. It literally took me 5 minutes from the time my behind hit my chair to being finished.

Here is how I did it within my $0 budget.

At my local not-for-profit thrift store they have a book shelf of free books. One offs that they can't sell so they just let you take what ever you want. So whenever I am there I look for old books and dictionaries. I like to stack them to prop up little items on our bookshelves. Over the past few months I have created good collection of odd old books...some are not as good as others like the Nursing one from a really long time ago that has horrible drawings in it. I be sure to keep it high so the kids don't see them :) Sorry, I went off topic a bit.

So I grabbed one of my free books that was a little bigger than 4x6 and had a nice yellowing to it. If your page doesn't have the color you want, search on the internet and there are simple ways to yellow the pages.

I carefully cut out the pages with an exacto knife and a metal ruler. Since the book I used was a gardening one, I only used pages that had no drawings on them.

 

 I searched the internet and found an amazing site that offers "Free vintage images, printable, downloadable" . The funniest part of finding this is, that after I started going through the images, many of those being sold on Etsy are from this site. So you might be able to create the exact one you like for FREE.

There are so many on this site I can guarantee you will find something you love. Here is my favorite octopus (which they have loads of) and one of my favorite flowers.

When you find the image you like, right click on it and select 'Save Image As' . Save it to a location you will find easily.

Open Word and insert the image. I used a full page to design it because my printer is horrible and I find this works the best. But be prepared to have a few test prints before you print the final ones.

Here is where it gets fun. I didn't want my images to be really bold, I wanted them to be a little blurry and not crisp. So I used an artistic affect called 'glow diffused'. It just softened the image around the edges.

If you want to change the overall color like they have on the Etsy shops, this is how you do that. Select the image by clicking once on it, go to the 'Format' tab, select 'Color' and then this window will open.

Then run your arrow over the different colors to see what they will look like. Once you find one you like, click on it. That simple! You can always go back to the original so play around and see what you can do.

Next, put a sample paper in your printer and test how it prints. Change the size, positioning, etc. as you need to and print it again.

It really is that easy!

I had a three panel frame from IKEA sitting around that I had intended to use last Father's day but I never got around to. So I printed three images that remind me of our travels (the squid from Korea's fish markets and the sea horses from San Fransisco's Monterey Bay Aquarium). The best part is these can easily be changed as I grow tired of them.

The possibilities are endless! Wouldn't it be great to customize these?

• My mom is a nurse, so I could cut a page out of my horrible nursing book and print the nursing symbol on it.

•  If you have a gardener, cut a page out of an old gardening book and print some images of flowers, trees, etc.

• A dictionary page for a teacher with their name, initials, or the Chinese symbol for teacher.

• As a wedding or shower gift with a large heart and then the bride and grooms initials  and wedding date.

If you don't have a local thrift store to find the books at, talk to your parents, grandparents, neighbors, go to garage sales. I can guarantee you will not have to look far to find what you want.

What do you think? Can you use this for something?

I guess I can post this on both my frugal gift idea page and my $0 Budget page :)

Stephanie