Full of Great Ideas

Monday, September 17, 2012

Christmas in September - Free Printable -The Only Thing Better than Having you for a Mom

It is getting harder for me to post Christmas ideas here on Full of Great Ideas because my family has been known to visit my blog to see what I have been up to. Well, I hope my stern warnings a few weeks ago will be listened to, otherwise there will be no surprises on Christmas day.

I recently saw a wood plaque with the saying “The only thing better than having you for a Mom is my children having you for a Grandma.” I pinned it thinking I love the saying and could make something with vinyl cut with my Cricut. After I spent an hour trying to design it I grew more and more frustrated and thought there had to be a better (i.e. easier) way.

So I went back to my favorite program, Microsoft Publisher, to design the quote. Here is what I came up with.

This is a basic 8x10 file and each row of text is in its own text box, so they can be manipulated independently. In case you are curious the following are the free fonts I used to make this:

The only thing - Alex Brush font
Better than – Gabriola font
Having you for a -Before the rain font
Mom- JT Hidden Vines font
Is out children-Mutlu font
Having you for a- Janda Elegant Handwriting font
Grandma- JT Hidden Vines font

I thought I would give you all an early Christmas gift too and offer this as a free download. I have created the file for Grandma, Oma, and Nanna (Update I have added: Nonni, Nonna, GiGi, Yia Yia, Grammy, Gram, Yani, Mimi, Nema, Nanny, Nana, Nonna, Meme, Queenie.....the list is now really long ).

To download the file, first leave me a comment (not required but I love the feedback), right click on the image you like and open in a new window. Once open, right click on it again and select ‘Save as’. Save it to a place you will remember. Then send the JPEG to your favorite photo printer! As my kids say...Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. I have uploaded a high resolution image that is large enough to be printed as an 8x10. It might print clearly as a larger image but I have not tested it out.

I hate saying it, but please use this only for personal use. I don’t sell the items I make (this would probably cost $15ish on Etsy) but that doesn’t mean I want someone else to sell it either :)

So here are all the images you can download.Here is the one for Grandmas:

The list of images was getting really long, so I truncated the post. So please Click ' Read more' below to see the rest of the images you can download.
For all you Dutch (like me) and German kids out there, here is an Oma one:

And finally the Nanna image.

UPDATE: As requested by HighDesertGal..Grammy

UPDATE: As requested by April..Gram

UPDATE: As requested Gigi

UPDATE: As requested Nana

UPDATE: As requested Nonna

UPDATE: As requested Nonni

UPDATE: As requested Yia Yia

UPDATE: As requested Meme

UPDATE: As requested Mimi

UPDATE: As requested Momma and Moma

UPDATE: As requested Nanny

UPDATE: As requested Nema

UPDATE: As requested Queenie

UPDATE: As requested Yani

UPDATE: As requested Mum and Hanny

UPDATE: As requested Mom Mom

UPDATE: As requested Honey

UPDATE: As requested Tata

UPDATE: As requested Mamaw

UPDATE: As requested Memaw

UPDATE: As requested Yaya

UPDATE: As requested

I hope some of you can save a few dollars this Christmas with this frugal gift idea. I honestly believe you could print and frame this for around $10. Really you could do it for $3 if you buy a Dollar Store frame and spend $2 to print it. Not a bad price for a cute Christmas gift.

Let me know what you think,
Stephanie

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Christmas in September - Corn starch and Baking Soda Ornaments

I have tried salt dough with my kids in the past and although they loved it, I never loved the end result. It seemed to take forever for the dough to dry in the oven, microwave and/or on the counter and I found the color was never really nice.

I have longed for a pure white ornament that could be used as gift tags. So when I found this recipe online (I got the final version I used on cooks.com) I was really excited.

I was excited that I had all the ingredients on hand (who doesn't have corn starch and baking soda in their pantry?) and I love that this recipe produced a beautiful pure white dough that seems to have a shimmer. I am not sure which ingredient does it, but when the uncooked dough is in the light it sparkles. I will try this recipe again and add some white glitter to see how it works..I will let you know how that goes.

I tested out two different ways of hardening this recipe, air dry overnight and baking. I have to say I far preferred the results of the air dry. I liked the the kids could have the ornaments within 30 minutes with the baking, but the final result was a a little yellow and the shimmer was lost. So I highly recommend being prepared for an overnight dry time if you want amazing results.

The candy cane was air dried and the bell was baked. It is hard to see, but the candy cane is much whiter. A funny thing is, I didn't notice until now that we put the hole on the wrong side of the candy cane..so when I went to hang it on the tree to photograph it was a 'J'.

Full batch recipe:

2 cups baking soda
1 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 cups cool water

I only did 1/4 of this recipe as a test to see how it worked. I had intended to make another batch with fancy ornaments and gift tags to post it here on Full of Great Ideas, but I absolutely loved this craft and wanted to share it with you right away. You never know, some of you might be bored on a Sunday afternoon and wanted to do something with your kids.

Method:

Mix cornstarch and baking soda in a pot.

Add water to the powder mixture. It will seem like the water sits on top, but after a little stirring in mixes all together into a runny mix.

Place the pot on a stove over medium heat.

Be sure to stir the mixture constantly.

Once it thickens (you will know when it is done..it becomes a ball), turn into a bowl.

Cover with a damp paper towel and let cool.

This is an important step. Don't be impatient like me and try to kneed it with your hands when it is piping hot! I try to teach my children to wait and be patient, but I can't seem to follow my own advice. If you are like me and decide to burn your hands, add one extra step...run hands under cold water and try to refrain from cursing because your children are watching and waiting to the dough to be done. :)

Knead the cooled mixture until smooth. It is amazing at how nice and smooth the dough becomes. I have never used the Magic Dough from Crayola (too cheap) but this is what I envision it to be like.

Roll out the dough to approximately 1/4 inch thick on a flat surface. If you find the mixture to be a little sticky, add a little cornstarch either on the counter on kneed it into the mixture.

Cut out desired shape with cookie cutters.

I had a few cookie press from when I was younger that the kids wanted to try and to be honest with you they are my favorites!

We used a drinking straw to make the hole a the top of each of the ornaments.

My son decided he was going to decorate a snowman with a straw and a butter knife. It is cute and he is quite proud of his work.

When I left the ornaments out to air dry, they dried nicely overnight. I did flip them over before I went to bed to ensure both sides dried evenly. This produced the nicest ornaments! They remained pure white and still have the shimmer to them.

But if you want to bake them, be prepared, they will slightly brown a bit in the process (especially the back). If you plan to paint the ornament, this is a great option for you. I was hoping to make pure white ornaments, so the air dry method was my favorite.

To bake them, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place ornaments on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Be sure to watch closely for the last 10-15 minutes to prevent over browning.

Here is the back of one of the ornaments I baked. See how the back of the ornament is a light brown?

You can seal any unused dough in plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator until needed. I am not sure how long it will last, so I recommend only making enough for you to use within a few days.

The possibilities are endless for this craft! My kids have always loved making things out of dough, but we have never found a reasonably priced dough that air dries. You can add food coloring along with the water to color the dough and like I said, I think some glitter for Christmas ornaments would be amazing!

My kids have always made ornaments for family members but this year I think the ornaments will double as the labels. Have any of you ever make reusable Christmas gift labels? This will be my first year, but I am excited especially for family members who are just starting out and don't have many ornaments.

Have any of you used this recipe before? What have your results been?

Anyone else getting ready for Christmas already? What are you working on?

Have a great Sunday!

Stephanie

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Getting Organized - Plastic Bags

I am going through something right now; not anything bad, I am just tired of looking at stuff. It is like I want to spring clean but multiply that by 100. Have you ever had that? I literally spent 6 hours in my children's rooms just tearing everything out and only putting back what we absolutely love. I have cleaned, purged and organized under every sink in the house. Closets are on my next to do list...I can't wait. I am not sure what it is about but it is making me happier and I feel lighter.

So, this is not going to be an earth shattering post, but it will be helpful for those of you, who like me, seem to amass piles of plastic grocery bags. I honestly use reusable bags as often as possible, but it seems that they end up neatly piled in our mudroom after I put my groceries away but they don't make it to the car by the time I need them. So over months I am left with a kitchen drawer full of plastic bags.

What do you do to keep them neat and tidy and convenient enough to use them again? Well, I tested out the three technique that I thought were the best options I could find:

Cleaning wipes container
Kleenex container
Folding into triangles

The first two I found as solutions on the internet and the third was taught to me by my mother-in-law.

In all three options I used 6 plastic bags just so I could easily compare how well they hold the same amount.

Cleaning Wipes Container
The first method I tried was to put plastic bags in the disposable cleaning cloths container. Someone on a blog did this and covered the outside of the bottle with pretty scrapbook paper. It really did look nice and I would have done this if I felt this was a viable option, but I really didn't. I have a hard enough time getting those cleaning cloths out without pinching a finger or scratching the back of my hand.

I literally stuffed 5 bags into the container and was quite surprised that it would only hold that many. I might have been able to cram another one in but it was tight.

There were two flaws with this technique. Firstly, I should have cut out the prongs that keep the wipes from coming out in clumps because it ripped the bags as they were pulled out. Secondly, the bags are next to impossible to get out from the bottom. The first 2 came out because I could easily reach them, the last few I have to get a chopstick out to bring them to the top.

I guess if you were really ambitious, you could lay the bags flat and then roll them up so they are similar to a roll of paper towels before putting them in. Honestly, this did not work for me. I have the scratches on the back of my hand to prove it too :)

Kleenex Box
The second method I tested was using a Kleenex box to house the bags.I didn't have any empty tissue boxes on hand, but I had purchased a Kleenex box cover for a future craft so I tried that.

I took my 6 bags and stuffed them into the opening. The container held them nicely and could have probably housed a few more. This isn't a bad option, but I don't think it saves that much space.

Triangle Folding Plastic Bags
My mother-in-law has always folded her plastic bags and I never realized how easy and space saving it was. You might think it is not worth the time (30 seconds per bag) to fold the bags but this is by far my favorite method to store/organize plastic bags.

You start by flattening the bag, tucking in the side folds.

Fold the bag in half length wise so the handles line up. Some bags will have the handle in the middle, so you don't have to worry about lining them up.