Five Finger Snowman Candle Holder

One of the most popular posts I did over the past year was the Five Finger Snowman Ornament. This was something I have done almost every year with my guys. I love to see how their hand prints have grown over the years and how the ornament size has gotten larger in order to accommodate their hands.

I am starting to get a huge collection of these (at least 15) and the kids don't seem to be overly happy to make them anymore. So I thought this year I would try something different; so we made them into a Five Finger Snowman Candle Holder. I was not sure how it would turn out, but after finding the candle holders at the Dollar store, I thought a $1 investment to try this was worth it. Well it did turn out and I think they are adorable.

I started with a squarish candle holder. I really wanted a round one, but they didn't have any. Even though I settled for this shape, I am happy with the results.

I used the same method of getting the paint on my kids hands as the Ornament but I used a more permanent paint that would not wash off if the candle holder gets wet.

Since Sharpies do not write well on glass, I used fabric puff paint to draw on the accents. I actually loved how this turned out because it gave dimension to the glass. I would have preferred brown for the arms, but I didn't have it on hand, so they are black.

As you see three fingers were on the front and the other 2 wrapped around the 2 other sides of the candle. Now this candle is cute from 3 of its 4 sides. Even if the fingers create some wonky snowmen, they are still adorable.

 

 How cute are those? I think they will make adorable grandparent gifts and great keepsakes for us.
 Since I had the paint and tea lights on hand, this project cost me $1 each.

Have a fantastic weekend.
Stephanie

Marathon Runner's Bib Coasters

This gift idea is for all of you who have someone in your life who has taken part in a marathon, half marathon, triathlon, or any other activity where the athlete wears an athletes number bib.

A few months ago, my husband decided he was going to run a marathon and he gave himself one year to do it. He set out a series of milestones that he needed to achieve in order to reach his ultimate goal. His first major milestone was to do a half marathon (21.1 km or 13.1 miles) within 3 months of starting running.

I was and am so proud of how hard he worked to complete his first half marathon in under 2 hours and I knew I wanted to do something special with his runner's bib.

I was at Habitat for Humanity and they had these amazingly beautiful Carrera marble 4x4 inch tiles for $0.40 each. I quickly scooped up every single one that was not chipped and almost ran out the door screaming "start the car". For $1.60, I could make a set of 4 beautiful marble coasters. I had my idea for what to do with his running bib.

Materials needed:

• 4 4x4 inch tiles
• Copy of Runner's bib
• ModgePodge
• Felt protectors
• Spray sealant

Method:
I ran to the local copy shop and made a color laser copy of the bib. In the back of my mind I worried that this could be a "seemed like a good idea at the time" project. If I cut up the bib and it didn't work, I would have felt horrible.

I cut the page into quarters and trimmed the edges so that they fit nicely on the tiles. I then ModgePodged the paper onto the tiles so they fit together when the 4 tiles are placed in a square.

I thought the tiles looked a little empty on the top/bottom so I cut out vinyl, with my Cricut,  to spell "eat, sleep, breathe, run".

I liked this but wasn't 100% happy with how this looked, so I decided to put the date of the marathon along with my husband's race finish time on the tiles instead. I really like how this looked.

I purchased felt protectors at the Dollar Store and placed 4 on the back of each of the tiles. The funniest part is this step cost half as much as the tiles themselves.

Using Valspar's spray sealant/top coat, I put 3 coats of gloss sealer on each of the tiles. This ensures the paper is waterproof and it will keep the vinyl secured. Plus unsealed marble will stain easily from coffee or wine, so this should protect the marble too.

(I blurred out the numbers)

I am really happy with how these turned out. This project fulfilled my wish to make this a keepsake that will remind my husband of the race every time he looks at them.

Grand total was just over $3.00 ($1.60 for the tiles, $1 for the felt protectors, $0.50 for the photocopy, I had the vinyl, sealant and ModgePodge on hand).

I hope this helps you with your Christmas list. If you don't know anyone this applies to, be sure to check out the FGI (Frugal Gift Ideas) page to see all the other gift ideas I have made over the past year.

Can you think of any other ways to use this? Anyone else have a collection of sporting items that they have no idea what to do with?

Have a great week.

Stephanie

Personalized Monograms on Marble

I think I have found my "go to" Christmas gift for the year.

Paper Pastimes has this amazing tutorial on how to split letters using the SCAL2 program for the Cricut. Denise is so kind to share a video she created clearly describing the few steps (literally 5 minutes)  needed to create these beautiful initials. For those of you don't want to take the time to do this, Denise has actually spent the time and done this with the entire alphabet. She will email the files to you for an extremely reasonable price of $5. You can't beat that!

After seeing what Denise created, I knew I had to make these for everyone! Aunts, kids' teachers....oh the possibilities are endless. I thought these would be great gifts if I made them on an 8x8 inch marble tile. After heading to HomeDepot and Lowes, I could only find 6x6 inch marble tiles. So that is what I will have to work with (for now) until I can find my dream size.

I am not going to do a tutorial because Paper Pastimes does it so well. So please head over and watch Denise's step by step video. For those of you with SCAL, be sure to look around her site, she has great tips, ideas and template. What a wonderful resource!

I purchased the 4 - 6x6 inch tiles at Lowes for under $6 and the Cricut vinyl at Walmart for $10. I calculated I can make 8 tiles with the one Cricut vinyl package. If I had found black contact paper (for $1) I would be using it...but this seems to be impossible to find now.

Here are the tiles I used. Be sure to give them a quick clean to make sure the dust is off them.

 Another trick I learned from Paper Pastime is to mark the halfway points on the 4 sides of your tile/paper etc. when transferring vinyl.

Then mark the halfway points on the transfer paper/painters tape over the image. This allows you to easily line up the vinyl and you don't have to struggle to get it straight! Goodness...Denise is a genius.

 Secure the vinyl as you remove the transfer paper. And you are done!

 Since this is not going to be a coaster or be handled much, I am not going put a sealant on the tile.

 

 I had a Dollar Store plate holder that I used to stand the tile up and finish it off.

Isn't this amazing for the price. $1.50 for the tile, $1.50 for the vinyl, and $1 for the stand. $4 for a great, personalize gift.

Note: I think for my kids teachers, I will put their last name in the middle instead of first names.

I love it! Thank you again to Denise at Paper Pastime!

Got Scrabble? Scrabble tile ornament

This ornament is for all the word nerds out there :) I mean no insult to anyone, believe me my family is right there with you. Scrabble is one of those games you either love or hate. I personally am in the 'hate' camp but most of my family enjoys sitting down for a highly competitive game of Scrabble.

This Scrabble Christmas onament is not a Full of Great Ideas original idea. I have seen it all over the web for a few years now. I am not sure where it originated but I assume since it is on Martha's site, she might be the official creator. You know how it goes, someone creates and hundreds recreate.

I purchased the Scrabble set at ValueVillage (our local thrift store) for $2.99. I would have loved it to be $1.99 but was willing to spend $2.99. It is amazing how $1 bothers me when I am thrifting.  I made sure there were lots of tiles in the box before snatching it up. I had originally planned to frame "I Love You" but never got around to making that. Perhaps in January when I am on a $0 budget again, I will do it :)

Since you are limited by the letters in Scrabble, be sure to decide on what words you want to spell before you start gluing. There are only 1 or 2 of many tiles, so spell carefully. I knew I wanted to make one for the family members who absolutely love Scrabble, so their names got first priority. I did make one for us too just because I think they are freakin cute!

I used my husbands fancy dancy hand miter saw to cut the tile trays. My husband convinced me this was the best method of cutting the tile trays since they are far too small to cut with the electric one. He threw into the conversation that I could possibly loose a finger with the big electrical one. So small hand miter it was.

I carefully arranged all the ornament names I wanted to make in order to get the most names on each tray. Since there are only 4 trays in the game, I wanted to uses them wisely.

I marked where the tiles ended with pencil and carefully cut them with the miter saw.

The edged came out a little rough, so I lightly sanded with a fine grit sandpaper.

I marked the middle of the tile tray with pencil and screwed in a hanging eye.

 

If you have girly hands like me and this step hurts, use a pencil tip to help turn the eye into the wood. That is what I had to do to save my fingers. I prefer the eye to be a half turn more than what I did with these so the ornament hangs straight, but once I started to put the tiles down, I realized this was my only option.

I applied a thick line of Gorilla Wood Glue and stuck each tile down. This glue does not dry clear but almost a light wood tone. So if you get any on the tiles just clean it off with a rag, but you don't have to worry too much. If you don't have this on hand, you can use any wood glue, craft glue or even hot glue. They won't be handled that much so they really don't have to be cemented down.

 

 Here are how a few turned out. I absolutely love them and can't wait until Christmas to share.

 So for $2.99, I have made 5 custom Christmas ornaments and I still have 2 more trays left! What a deal!

This could also be made for teacher's gifts. Spell out their names and they can place the tile tray on their desk. I will have to see what letters I have left :)

What do you think? Have you made other crafts with Scrabble tiles?

Stephanie

Happy Movember- MoMoMo Ornament

I know Halloween was only 2 days ago, but I am dreaming of Christmas already!

 This is for all you out there who know and love someone who is participating in Movember. Although my family is in full support of all you men (and women) who are growing your mustaches in support of Movember, sadly, my husband is not. It is not from a lack of wanting to, but since he is Korean, I am mortified to admit I can probably grow a better Movember 'stache than he could :) Just kidding.

If you don't know about Movember, here is what the official Movember site says about it: "During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men." To learn more about it, here is the link.

I decided this yeah I would honor all the men I know participating in this fun and perhaps a little itchy event, by creating them a MoMoMo (not HoHoHo) Christmas ornament. I will cut a vinyl mustache that is similar to the one they sport at the end of the month, add the year and then MoMoMo so they can remember the joy of Movember long after their upper lip is bare and well through the holidays.

There are a few ways you too can create these. I used vinyl cut out on my Cricut. If you have a Silhouette you too can cut vinyl or thin paper and glue it onto the ornament. If you don't have an electronic cutter, don't worry. You can purchase contact paper and the $ store and free hand it or you could draw on the ornament with Sharpie (it works really well and lasts) or if you are really artistic (which I am not) you could paint it on.  Doesn't matter which way you do it, they will turn out cute.

In case you want photos on how I did it, here you go.

I used an old ornament that I bought last year at the Dollar Store. Note: this does not work on Glittery ornaments. Believe me I tried. Vinyl and glitter do not get along.

I cut out the mustache and MoMoMo (I used "Harrington" font) out of vinyl on my Cricut.

I remove the excess vinyl and place painters tape over the letters so I can easily transfer them to the ornament and so they stay in a straight line.

 This is how it looks on the tape.

Lay the tape on the ornament and press down until the letters stick. Slowly remove the tape and you are done. Easy as 1,2,3.

Here are a few more shots. I actually ventured outside to take some photos so it looks like it is hanging in a tree. Sorry for the glare, the ornament is really shiny and it is bright out today. Normally I have the opposite problem..too dark.

 

Happy Movember everyone!
Stephanie

Be sure to check out my FGI (Frugal Gift Ideas) page here for some great gift ideas.

FGI - Frugal Gift Ideas @ Full of Great Ideas

I am sitting here grinning from ear to ear, giggling at one of the dumbest things...I realized I could use the abbreviation FGI and it applies both to Frugal Gift Ideas and Full of Great Ideas. Isn't it funny how such small things can make me act like a child?

Well, I decided a couple of days ago to create one page on my blog dedicated to all things Gifts. As you know the majority of what I do is frugal (aka cheap) so this new page will not disappoint you. There are over 20 frugal, DIY gift ideas and not one is over $30.

I have organized all the gifts I have made over the past year and sorted them by cost to make. The cost is how much I feel you would have to pay if you have nothing in your craft stash. If you are anything like me, you have way too much crafting materials hidden away (so your significant other doesn't see it all and then ask why you are buying more) and you will be able to make these gifts for significantly less.

I know the majority of you are not planning your Christmas list yet, but I am. All of us up here in the Great White North have already had our Thanksgiving, so all we have between now and Christmas is Halloween and that is not a big event in our house.  So Christmas is my main focus.

I am having a big debate with myself as to what I should do this holiday season regarding gifts and this blog. As I do most years, I am planning on making many of the gifts we will give. Here is my problem; the people I make these gifts for i.e. family, friends and teachers, all read this blog. How can I post my ideas so you can make them before Christmas, without those who will be receiving them seeing them in advance? I might just have to ban all I know from peaking.

I have some great items in the works and will start posting homemade Christmas gift ideas soon, so stop by in the next week to see if the ideas are something you too can use.

Be sure to check out the new FGI - Frugal Gift Ideas page.

Happy 'Homemade' Gifting.
Stephanie

P.S. I will put the date I updated the FGI page at the top so you can quickly see if anything has been added since you visited last. I hope this makes it a little easier than scrolling down every time to see if something is new. If you have any suggestions on this, I would love to hear them.

Wedding Date Art

I realize it is only October, but I have been working hard to get names checked off my Christmas gift list for a couple of weeks. I was so excited with my most recent project, I could not wait until November or December to share this with all of you.

The most popular post I have posted on Full of Great Ideas was my absolute favorite project, my Name and Est. art. It is my fall back gift. I have given it to friends, family, teachers, daycare, etc. I have even changed it so that it is a baby announcement for my recently born nephew. Well, when my brother was married I knew I wanted to make him one but I wanted it to be unique. Not only because everyone in our family has one like mine but also because his last name doesn't fit as nicely.

I remember seeing something on Pinterest that I loved, but as you know, if you don't Pin it while you see it you will not find it again. I knew the image I saw was similar to the baby announcement but had a photo on the top.

So here is what I created first:

 Then I thought I would try sepia:

 And lastly, my personal favorite, black and while:

I used the same technique as I did with the name/est. art. Here are the links to the Leo Reynolds site where you will find the letters and numbers.

When you find a number you like, make sure you open it fully before saving or inserting it.  When you are looking at the page of 50 or so small images, click on the image you like to make it larger, then right click on the image and select 'View Medium 640' or bigger. Once the new image opens you can drag and drop from this screen ..but if that doesn't work, right click on it again and select 'save image as'. Save the letter/number to a place on your computer where you can find it. Open the Publisher file and 'insert', 'picture', 'from file'. Find the letter/number on your computer and select it. Adjust the image size to fit.

Once you are happy with the design, save the image as a high resolution JPEG (to do this in Publisher follow theses steps: 'Save As', 'Save as type', 'JPEG', 'Change...' (Resolution), 'High quality printing or commercial printing (300dpi)') .


I was so anxious to see how it looked (as you know I am not a patient person), I printed it off on my horrible home printer. By no means did this give me the best results, but it did prove I love the way it turned out.

I created two sizes for this, the first was 8x10 and the second was 11.75 x15.75 (to fit into Ikea frames and to be printed on a 12x18 sheet at Costco). I am extremely happy with how the 8x10 looks with a mat but the larger will look great too without a mat.

I will print this at Costco for $1.89 and I had the frame on hand..so grand total for this Christmas gift is under $2. I guess if I had to buy a frame, it would be under $20. Not bad.

What do you think? Is anyone else working on their Christmas list already?

UPDATE: I have uploaded the Microsoft Publisher file to Google documents. You can download it here. Please leave me a comment to let me know whether or not you were able to download it ok. I am willing to share this as long as you promise to use it for personal use only and not to sell them. Note when you click on the link, Google documents will give you a note saying "Sorry, we are unable to generate a view of the document at this time. Please try again later." Or it will say "click here to download original file" you can save it by clicking on the link. That is ok. Simple click on the arrow down button (next to the print symbol) to download the file. Save the file and then you will have no problem opening it in Publisher after you download it.


Stephanie