Decorating for a Party on a Dime - Personalized Name Crosses -DIY

When I was planning our daughter's first communion party, I knew I wanted some photos and art on the table as decorations. So, I frames some of her baptism photos from when she was a baby and made this beautiful cross out of her name. I found the idea on Pinterest and knew it would take no time to make. If you are not interested in making it yourself, you can buy these from many different Etsy shops. But if you are like me and want to save the $15 plus shipping they are sold for, here is how I did it.

I started with a blank 8x10 Publisher file. Insert a text box and type the first name, middle name and phrase.  When I was making this I used 'In God We Trust' but changed it to 'God's Precious Gift' right before I printed it. So you will see both phrases alternating on this tutorial. 

Select the font and size you like.

 Then save the text box as an image. To do this select File, Save As

 Enter a file name and then change the "Save as Type" to JPEG File.

 Click on the 'Change' box and select 'High Quality Printing'

 Back to your Publisher file, delete the original text box and insert the picture of the text box. This way you can mirror, flip and manipulate the text without Publisher doing funny formatting things.

You will need to insert the image three times and then crop each of the three so that you have each row of text by itself.

 Once you have all three lines, you need to rotate the first name and the phrase. You can do this by clicking on the little green circle on the box surrounding the text and dragging it around.

 

 If you would like to have the middle name mirrored, select the middle name image and copy and paste it. Then select 'Rotate' and 'Flip Horizontally'. Line everything up.

Save the image again as a JPEG using the same method as earlier.

 Insert the new jpeg and Flip it vertically.

You will notice the new half is smaller than the original, so what I do to get them perfectly matched is insert the image twice and delete the original.

Save the image as a new JPEG and test print it. I printed mine on canvas paper I purchased at the Dollar Store so it had texture. I used a cheap frame also from the Dollar Store and I think it looked amazing. You could also print it on scrapbook paper for a patterned background. Really this could be made for almost any occasion, so the possibilities are really unlimited.

My daughter loved this and has requested we have hang it in her bedroom.

The total for this decoration, if I had to go out and buy the materials right now, would be $4. $2 for the frame and $2 for the canvas paper (really only $0.25 because there were 4 sheets in the package).
That fit into my very frugal budget for the First Communion.

What do you think? Can you use this idea for gifts or for decoration in your own home?

Stephanie

Decorating for a Party on a Dime (First Communion celebration for my family) - Part 1

I am sorry for being absent from my blog for quite a while; a lot has been going on around my house lately. It started with my daughter's First Communion, then in a moment of insanity I decided to partake in my first 5km race, mix in two kids with strep throat, add a dash of a crazy work schedule and squash all that with major outdoor renovation project and you have one woman who feels like she is going to explode!

Well I am happy to say that life seems to be slowing down, so I hope to share some of the projects we have been working on.

For starters, I am going to show you how I managed to prepare for my daughter's first communion celebration on a serious decorating budget. I know, I do everything on a budget, but since we have hired a landscaping company to redo our entire front(I mean rip almost everything from our front yard out and start from scratch), we are now on a really tight budget. I hate paying people to do any work but this was a huge project. I will show you pictures of the front once it is finally done. Our landscaper's 2 1/2 week project plan has been going non-stop since April 23rd. So two months and counting.

Back to my party decorating on a dime! So when we started to prepare for our daughter's First Communion, she picked the colors she wanted to use - light and dark pink and purple. It really reminded me of Easter but it was her choice. I refused to buy any pre-made, over-priced, First Communion decorations, so I ventured over to my favorite inspiration sites...Etsy, Pinterest to see what people were selling. Of course, much of what you can buy for a ridiculous price you can make for next to nothing! So that is what we did.

So I set out to make the following decorations, with a very limited budget:

• Paper garlands (my cost $0)
• Tissue pom poms (my cost $5)
• Fancier plastic table cloths (my cost $1)
• Cross name art (my cost $1) (Separate post - Decorating for a Party on a Dime - Part 2)
• Gifts for our guests (my cost $2.50 each) (Separate post - Decorating for a Party on a Dime - Part 3)

Tissue pom poms (in various sizes and colors) - $5 for over 30 pom poms

These tissue pom poms sell on Etsy for various prices, but average at about $4 per large pom pom. I am honestly shocked anyone would buy these on Etsy, not only because of the price but they come closed! Opening these things up is the majority of the work involved in making them!

But I am happy to say, if you know how to make them, you can create large colored pom poms for around $0.25 each and you can make white ones for around $0.20 each! (My Dollar store sells larger packaged of white tissue for $1.)  When you but them in half to make smaller ones, you get double the pom poms - so 2 colored for $0.25.

Materials needed:

• Tissue paper (various colors)
• Floral wire or pipe cleaner

These are not new in the crafting world and I have been making them for every party since my daughter was a baby. But for those of you who have not made them before, you will be shocked at how easy they are.

 

I don't know who the original creator of these is, but you can find full instructions on Martha Stewart's site here.  I make them a little differently then how Martha does it. I use 5 or 6 sheets for the big (full length tissue paper) size and use 4 or 5 sheets for the small (half width/full length tissue paper) size. Tip: be sure to have extra wire/pipe cleaner when you secure the middle so you can hang the pom poms with it. 

My daughter and I made over 30 tissue pom poms in various sizes and colors and hung them all over the main floor of the house. We did some with rounded tips, pointed tips, full length/width of tissue and some half width/full length. You can hang them in clusters or by themselves.

Grand total for all of them was $5 (since I had floral wire on hand).

 I have made them with multiple colors of tissue paper within the same pom pom I.e. I use 1 sheet of green tissue on the outside, then 3 sheets of orange(or pink, purple etc) and two yellows on the inside. Once opened up it looks like a flower. Or you can alternate colors and they look adorable. They are cheap, so play around with them.

Circle and cross garlands - $0 (I had the everything on hand)

These circle garlands sell for $1 per foot on Etsy! I used some cheap paper I had from Michael's, in colors me daughter liked, to make these for nothing. I added some crosses so it was First Communion related, but you can make them with flowers, circles, ovals, or any shape you want.

Materials needed:

• Paper - cut into desired shape
• Sewing machine with matching thread

I cut out circles and crosses in various sizes on various colors/patterns using my Cricut. If you don't have a Cricut or Silhouette, you can use some punches or a pair of scissors and make your own shapes.

Once you have a big pile of cut shapes, pull out your sewing machine. Load a thread and bobbin in matching colors, set your stitch to a straight stitch and start sewing. You literally just run your needle right through the middle of the paper and then keep going to make about an inch of thread in between each piece of paper.

You can't mess this craft up! Even if you can't sew a straight line, you don't have to worry about this. To be honest with you, I did not sew a single strand of these...my daughter did them all herself. It took us one evening of cutting and sewing, in front of the TV, and we had more than enough to decorate the house.

We probably made 40 or 50 feet of this garland, so I guess I saved $50 plus shipping.

Lacy edge plastic table cover-$1 each

I got this idea from Cupcakes and Cutlery here. She took a plastic table cover, cut it into strips and stretch the edges to make it look lacy. The result was an amazing ruffle garland. She then did the same thing to the edge of a plastic table cover. So cute and so cheap!


Materials needed:
Plastic table cover from the Dollar Store
Two hands :)

Method
I won't recreate what Cupcakes and Cutlery had to say so here it is:

" Basically you will want to put the plastic in one hand between your thumb and pointer finger and hold the plastic the same way in the other hand right next to the first hand.  And pull your thumbs away from each other.  Give it a test so you can figure out how much and how far you should stretch it.  The good thing about these is that they are never going to come out exactly the same as the last stretch so variety is fine.  Also, you will tear the plastic once in a while.  As long as you haven't torn it clear through to the other side, it is also fine. The tear sort of ruffles as well and blends in."

 It really is adorable and for $1 I could not be happier.

I will have a couple more Decorating for a Party on a Dime posts to share; here is a sneak peak at the next two decorations I made.

Cross Name Art - $1

 Celtic knot etched jars filled with gourmet jelly beans (gifts as the guest)  - $2.50 per guest

Do you have any frugal party decorations you like to use? Do you tend to decorate more or less as your kids get older?

Have a great day!
Stephanie

Out Damned Spot! Out I Say! Cleaning your not so stainless stainless steel sink

Do you agree that the term stainless steel is an oxymoron when it comes to your kitchen sink? My stainless steel kitchen sink is always stained so lets be honest, it is really just a steel sink. In fact, I find sometime my stainless steel cutlery stain from tea and coffee. Do you find this too?

So, I set out to find the best method to clean the stain out of our stainless steel sinks. I have my favorite method, but I thought I would test out a few others and see how they hold up vs mine.

I tested the following 6 methods to clean a stainless steel sink:

• Fantastic cleaner (This did nothing to remove the stains so I won't share photos)
• Magic Eraser
• Baking soda paste
• Stainless steel cleaner
• Dawn dish soap and peroxide
• Vinegar and dish soap

I personally hate bleach and try to avoid it as much as possible. So you will very rarely see me use it in any of my cleaning. So if bleach is your trick and gives you great results...let me know.

Magic Eraser

This is a staple in my cleaning bucket and under my kitchen sink. It is actually how I have always cleaned my kitchen sink prior to this test. Please note I have never had a new sink so mine are always scratched..so I cannot guarantee it won't scratch a brand spankin new sink. Mine are so sctrached up I didn't see a difference.

I dampened my magic eraser with water and lightly scrubbed the bottom of the sink. The magic eraser pulls the stain off immediately with very little scrubbing. You can see a clear line where I stopped and you can see the dirt on the eraser.

I highly recommend this method because you can get the eraser into the cracks and even all over the drain plug.

Baking Soda

I sprinkled baking soda on the sink and added a little water to make a paste. I then scrubbed the paste over the sink using a kitchen sponge.

 

To be honest with you, this method did very little to remove the stains. I was a little disappointed with the results because I find baking soda usually does a good job on kitchen projects. But I have to say next to the magic eraser, this was a fail.

Dawn Dish Soap and Peroxide

Using the same recipe I used to remove dirt from my grout here (mix 1 part Dawn with 2 parts peroxide) and scrubbed the sink. This recipe did well with the grout so I had high hopes, but it didn't do anything for the staining in the sink.

 So Dawn dish soap and peroxide is not fix to a stained sink problem.

Stainless steel powder cleaner
I have this powder cleaner for my Logastina pots and pans. It works great on them to remove staining and discoloration so I thought I would try it on my sink.

It worked amazing but scratched my sink. As mentioned, my sink was already really scratched but this created little fine scratches so you could see where I scrubbed. Don't recommend this one at all if you worry about your sink being scratched.

Here is a photo comparing the first four methods.

 

I then thought I would try one more since the Dawn dish soap spot was still really stained (I could have done it on the other sink but you wouldn't be able to see them all together then).

Vinegar and Dish soap

 I poured white vinegar onto a kitchen sponge and added a drop of dish soap. Scrubbed away and found it worked surprisingly well. Is it as good as the magic eraser...no. But it did a fairly good job.

Ranking of the methods to remove stains from your stainless steel sink (after I disqualified the pot cleaner for scratching too much and Fantastic for doing absolutely nothing):

1. Magic Eraser - Clear winner
2. Vinegar and Dish soap -Did an Ok job
3. Baking soda

Here are the before and afters again:

 Here is the sink after it was entirely cleaned with the magic eraser. So my personal favorite won hands down!

Do you have any tricks you use to keep your sink from being stained?

Up next in Out Damned Spot! Out I say- Cleaning windows. You know spring is here so we can go outside to clean the outer windows.
Have a great Mother's Day weekend everyone!
Stephanie