Keep Calm and Bluff On - Free Printable

I really wanted to use a line from the Lady Gaga song as the title to this post, but it doesn't match my other boring free download titles. So just start singing Lady Gaga's Poker Face in your head when you read this. I have it I mine and can't get it out, so I am sharing the experience with all of you.

Yesterday, I made and shared the free digital download for the Keep Calm and Love Horses piece. Today, I used the same template and made a poker themed Keep Calm for my brother-in-law for Christmas. I always have such a difficult time making gifts for the men in my life. The ladies are simple, bath stuff, pillows, any accessories, but the guys are tough. I am very pleased with this gift!

My husband informed me the hand that I picked isn't necessarily a horrible hand, as it does have an Ace high...but I had already made it in a slew of colors and I really didn't want to make it over again. I personally am really bad and poker and I would not go in with this hand...maybe that is why I am so bad at poker :)

If you have any suggestions on other Keep Calms you would like, let me know and I can try to share them with you. This only took a few minutes to change the original template.

Remember, you can print these 8x10s for under $1 and if you are frugal you can get frames for $1 too at the Dollar Store or a Thrift Shop. You could also buy a fancy frame and make it look like a really expensive gift. It is all up to you! These can be printed as 8x10s by simply downloading the image (below) and sending it to your favorite print shop for developing. I personally use Costco because their quality is amazing.

To download one these images to print:

• Leave me a comment letting me know who you are going to use this for, which color you prefer or if you would like another color, let me know and I can see what I can do for you.
• Right click on the image you want and select open in a new window or tab
• On the full size image, right click again and select 'save as'
• Save it to a place on your computer where you can easily find it
• Send it to your favorite photo developer, find a frame and you can cross another Christmas gift off your list.
• Please only use these for personal use!
• Enjoy!!

Here are all the colors of  free digital downloads I made for 'Keep Calm and Bluff On':

Do you see this hanging in your basement? Does anyone you know love poker as much as my husband and brother-in-law?

I am very happy to say that is one more person of my Christmas list!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Stephanie

Keep Calm and Love Horses - Free Printable

Do any of you have daughters, sons, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, etc. who love horses? Well, I have a frugal gift for you! This 8x10 printable will cost you around $2 to make; it costs under $1 to print, $1 to frame (if you buy it at the Dollar or Thrift Store). You can't beat a $2 Christmas gift!

As I have mentioned a few times, my sister lives on an old farm built in the 1890's. Ever since she moved there, her daughter has loved horses. After years of horse back riding lessons, she is now begging to get her own horse. I don't think that will be happening any time soon, so I thought I would make her a framed "Keep Calm and Love Horses" piece for Christmas.  I am planning a Homemade Christmas again this year, so I had to start early. Be prepared, I will be making lots of printables, so you might see quite a few of this sort of posts. Don't worry I will offer them all for free, so hopefully you can check off a few people on your list as I am doing the same.
I am not sure which color I like the best, but I think I am drawn to the teal and the Tiffanyish color.

I won't go through details as to how I made this, simple because I really don't think most of you care :) (I will tell you that the font is called Keep Calm and can be found on most free font websites and the horse was a free PNG image I found on the internet. PNG images have transparent backgrounds, so they are perfect for projects like this.)

I will just give you the free download in a selection of colors that will hopefully match your decor.

These can be printed as 8x10s by simply downloading the image and sending it to your favorite print shop.

To download one these images to print:

• Leave me a comment letting me know who you are going to use this for, which color you prefer or if you would like another color, let me know and I can see what I can do for you.
• Right click on the image you want and select open in a new window or tab
• On the full size image, right click again and select 'save as'
• Save it to a place on your computer where you can easily find it
• Send it to your favorite photo developer, find a frame and you can cross another Christmas gift off your list.
• Please only use these for personal use!
• Enjoy!!

 Here are all the colors I have made:

 

 

Is there anyone on your Christmas list you can use this for? Is there any other 'Keep Calm' you would like to me to make and offer as a free download?

Enjoy!

Stephanie

Fixing Ceramic Tile Chips for $5

For all of you out there that have lived with builder grade ceramic tile floors…this tip is for you. We built our first home and waiting for a year and half for it to be finished. We selected all the materials and upgraded many things but our tile floor was not one of them. After we sold that house and moved into our current house, I concluded the previous owners who built this house, did the exact same thing.

We have basic creamy colored ceramic throughout our kitchen and mud room. Unfortunately, in our situation, builder grade materials meant cheap ceramic was used. We are pretty careful and do try to avoid dropping things on the ceramic (obviously no one wants to drop anything on ceramic floor!) but we have noticed over time little chips have been appearing. You might ask how we noticed these chips...well they look like dirt spots. Since my floors tend to be dirty on most occasions, these spots were very noticeable.

Since I am in no position to tear out all the flooring, let alone the damaged tiles, I needed to find a solution to combat my ever growing ceramic tile chip population. What did I come up with? Porcelain chip repair paint!!! In Canada we have a product called Porc-A-Fix. 

I am not sure if you all have it in the US, but I know Rustoleum makes a very similar product. What is it is a really small bottle of paint (similar to nail polish) that is used to touch up appliances, sinks and bathtubs. It comes in a variety of colors, so chance are you can find the one that is pretty close to your floor color. At under $5 per bottle, it was worth it for me to give it a try.

My floor color varies between cream, taupe, beige so I was went with the bone color. I tested the color on a spare tile I had in the garage that the builder left behind and since my floor has a variance in color, I really was able to hide the repaired chips very well.

It was very easy to do since the paint comes with a little mini brush in the bottle. Simply paint it over the chip and let it dry. This paint tends to have a gloss to it, so I applied it a bit at a time to avoid a really shiny spot. I also ran a fine grit sandpaper over the painted spot when the paint dried to scuff it a bit to cut down the sheen.

Here is my after:

To be honest I don’t even see them anymore when I am standing. If I get down on the floor or look very closely I can see the spots. Keep in mind that you might not get an absolute perfect match, but in my opinion, if you get pretty close to your floor color, it is far better than a light tile with large black spot on it.

Here is the before and after again. Before:

After:

Much better! The best part is this is permanent and will withstand my infrequent washings :)

Do any of you have chipped ceramic tile? How have you addressed this problem?

Live, Love, Hope, Pray, Home and Bath Art - Free Printable

We are in the process of finishing our unfinished basement. It has been and will continue to be a long process since we are doing the majority of the work ourselves. But I am starting to get excited now that the drywall is going up. I know it is really premature but I have been working on items to hang on the walls.

If you have not seen the name art on Full of Great Ideas before, you should take a quick peak. It is my absolute favorite thing I have made on my blog and the easiest/most amazing gift. Ultimately it is how my blog started and how most people have come to follow me. Here is an idea of what it is.

Using the same technique, I made the four Live, Love, Hope and Pray images. They print as 5x7s  with empty white space that I cut them down to approximately 4.5 x 4.5 to fit in the small Ikea Ribba square frame.

The reason why they are 5x7 is that most photo developers don't print a 5x5 picture and by designing it as a 5x7, it will not stretch or crop in a funny way when you develop it. Plus printing a 5x7 costs next to nothing, if you want custom sized you pay bigger prices. That is my trick! Makes life easier.

I had wanted all the images to be circles so that there was a contrast with the square boxes and frame.

I will make available for download both the black & white and the color 5x7 images. I prefer the black and white but you can download whatever you prefer.

To download one these images to print:

• Leave me a comment and let me know which is your favorite and if you prefer the black & white or the color images.
• Right click on the image you want and select open in a new window or tab
• On the full size image, right click again and select 'save as'
• Save it to a place on your computer where you can easily find it
• Send it to your favorite photo developer and develop it as a 5x7, head to Ikea and grab the frames.
• I hate saying it, but I again found someone today trying to pass off a template I created as their own...please only use these for personal use! I have always wanted to offer on Full of Great Ideas cheap gift ideas and I don't want to charge people for these, so please don't yourself make money off them.
• Enjoy!!

Here they are all the images that you can download for free. Remember you will have to download each one individually. I don't know how to create a batch download..sorry.

Update: As suggested I have added Home and Bath to the list :)

 

 

 

 

 

If you can think of any other four letter words (and not the obvious one ;)), let me know and I can throw together another image.

I think that you could easily give one or two of these as gifts. I  like how you could mix and match them depending on the person you are giving them to. At Costco, 5x7 are under $0.30 to develop, so this would be a very reasonable gift.

Remember I have a long list of free printables here, frugal gift ideas here, and $0 crafts here. Be sure to take a look at them.

What do you think? Do you love the circle in the squares as much as I do?

Is anyone else planning for Christmas yet? My family has agreed to another homemade Christmas, so I am excited to see how we all do with the challenge.

Have a great day!
Stephanie

First Communion Art- Free Printable

My son Christian was celebrating his First Communion this past spring and he had decided he wanted no gifts, instead he wanted to donate to World Vision. He created a wish list on the World Vision website and we told family that if they wanted to give something, he wanted to provide gifts to others in greater need. I was and am so proud of him. He put great thought into each item he selected.

• He wanted chickens because they have lots of babies and they would grow quickly.
• He picked a fish farm, so the people receiving the gift could have a business of their own. 
• He picked school books and lunches for school aged kids because he could relate to them and he was upset to think children are hungry. 
• He asked for soccer balls and other sports equipment because he felt every child should be able to have fun. 

He was 7 at the time and I was amazed at how mature he seemed. I can cry every time I think about it.

Well, he decided he wanted to decorate the house with things we already had in the house. So we tried to use some of the items I made for my daughter's First Communion last year but much of it had not survived being stuffed in a storage tub. So, I framed some photos of him from his baptism, hung balloons and streamers which we had already in the house, and made him an 8x10 with a nice quote for the buffet table.

I had stumbled upon Lisa Moorefield's site and found her list of favorite chalkboard fonts and chalkboard background download and I was inspired!

I searched online for quotes, saying, etc. and found this. Someone on a forum had suggested it as something to write in a card and I loved it.

I won't share all the details how I made this. I am just going to provide you with the images that you can download and print yourself if you want to. I have included a few different colors so you can use it for a boy or a girl. If there is another shade you prefer that would match your room better, let me know and I can see if I can make another one. Won't guarantee anything but I will try.

To download one this 8x10 image:

• Leave me a comment and let me know which you like the best
• Right click on the image and select open in a new window or tab
• On the full size image, right click again and select 'save as'
• Save it to a place on your computer where you can easily find it
• Send it to your favorite photo developer and find a frame
• Please only use these for personal use!
• Enjoy!!

What do you think? Let me know if you would like this as a 5x7 and I can reformat it.

Have a great day!
Stephanie

The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe!

I am not going to become a food blogger, as I have stated when I shared my rotisserie chicken recipe, but I have a few recipes that I absolutely love and though you would appreciate them.

After posting my glassed etched cookie jar, I thought I would share my recipe for the best chewy chocolate chip cookies in the world! If you are not a chewy cookie lover, just stop reading now because these are not for you. Granted if you cook them for a longer time they would not be as chewy, but still, there are plenty of crunchy chocolate chip recipes out there, go find one of those :)  For all of you, who are like me, who love the chewy cookie, this will be a favorite of yours too.

These cookies freeze amazingly well, taste great frozen and are a personal favorite for Christmas baking!

I am not a food blogger so I didn't photograph the process but I think you can clearly understand the instructions.

I have been making these cookies since I was in University (sad to say that was almost 20 years ago~ wow I feel old) and don't recall where it originated but I have made minor changed to it from the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (my trick if I don't plan ahead and it is not softened, I grate it with the large opening on a cheese grater. Works like a charm!)
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract (2 tsp if you like less)
• 1 egg (at room temperature)
• 2 cups all purpose flour (I have used the unbleached before but have not tried with whole wheat flour)
• 2 tsp corn starch (this is the important ingredient to make it chewy)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups chocolate chips (I tend to use 2 - but you can decide)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F
• Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla and the egg and mix well.
• With mixer off, add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt on top of the butter/egg mixture. Gently mix dry ingredients together with a fork and then mix with the creamed ingredients.
• Stir in chocolate chips
• Drop by spoonful onto parchment lined (or greased) baking sheet and bake for 8-12 minutes depending on the size. You will know they are done when the edges turn brown. If you like a crunchier cookie, let the top brown.
• Leave cookies on hot sheet for approximately 5 minutes to set before transferring to a cooling rack.

 Yields 36 cookies (I make the cookies medium size)

Has anyone else ever used cornstarch in cookies to make them chewy?

Enjoy and happy baking!
Stephanie