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

Out Damned Spot! Out I Say! Removing Candle Wax from Carpet

For my birthday last year, my sister gave me a Scentsy type of wickless candle. I absolutely love the look of the container and the amazing scent it puts off.

Well, for my daughter's first communion, I moved it to my formal living room (off the hardwood and onto a carpeted spot) because I thought it looked nicer. Little did I think about what would happen if it spilled. This is what happens..you have beautiful green melted wax all over cream colored carpet.

Initially, the first reaction is to wipe it up. NO! Believe me, leave it alone and let it dry. I know it is hard to stand back and stare at dark colored wax on your carpet, but believe me, do it.

Once it sat for a day, I tried to tackle it with a butter knife. I thought "how hard could it be to scrape off the wax?" Very hard. In fact it doesn't work.

 

Then I thought a hot steam clean might do the trick...nope that didn't do a thing but leave my carpet damp.

I had heard about using your iron to remove wax, but I honestly thought it would set the stain into the carpet. You know what you were taught about stains on clothes...never use heat or it won't come out. That is what I worried about with this. If I put heat on it, then my carpet would be stained green.

But after exhausting my limited options and watching a few YouTube videos, I pulled out my iron. I started by setting the iron on low (again hoping to avoid staining). I placed paper towel over the wax and then put the iron on the paper towel. This did not work!

 

So, I held my breath, turned the heat on my iron up to the medium-high cotton setting (with no steam) and ironed away on top of the paper towel.

I made sure to do two things frequently: I changed the paper towel (so that the wax wasn't put back into the carpet) and I wiped the bottom of the iron with an old dishtowel (so I wouldn't ruin my iron).

In the areas where the wax had gone down into the carpet, I used the tip of the iron to get between the carpet fibers.

I was and still am shocked at how well this worked. It did take some time (about an hour), so you will need to be patient, but there is absolutely no stain left on the carpet. This method was a great way to get wax out of carpet.

Here is my before and after. (They were taken a few hours apart...so different lighting :))

Have any of you had this fun experience and found other techniques that work?

Note: I do recommend spot testing the iron on your carpet to make sure you don't melt or damage your carpet with the heat. Also, I cannot guarantee that other waxes will not stain. I am overjoyed mine didn't.

Up next in Out Damned Spot! Out I Say! - the best way to clean a stained stainless steel sink. If it is called stainless steel...why does it stain so easily?

Have a great weekend.
Stephanie

Out Damned Spot! Out I Say! Permant Marker + White Board= Seeing Red

Have you ever had one of those days you wish you stayed in bed? I had one a couple of weeks ago when I struggled (aka screamed, threw a fit or two and ran) to get to the train on time only to find out it was delayed (so the rush was pointless), then I got into work to see my coworker had used his recently purchased permanent markers to write on not one but two white boards. I literally said to him "my 6 year old even know the difference between a permanent marker and a whiteboard marker!" The funniest part was some of the details were his personal lists and not work related. Made me chuckle a little bit. But the deed was done, so I had to figure out how to get it off.

I received a great tip from Amy on a previous post (where I ripped up a white board because my kids drew on it when they were little) on how to take the permanent marker off with Murphy's Oil Soap.  So I thought I would test it out with a few other methods to see how they compare.

So this is what challenge I faced. Not only was it permanent marker, it was red permanent marker! I found this to be the hardest of any color to remove; but I did.

The methods to remove permanent marker from white board I tested:

• Murphy's Oil Soap
• Magic Eraser
• White Board Marker (I will explain below)
• Combination Murphy's oil soap and magic eraser

Murphy's Oil Soap (Undiluted)

I dampened a microfiber cloth with Murphy's Oil soap and scrubbed away. It worked really well and only took bit of scrubbing to get it all off. You will need lots of cloths because the permanent marker almost seems to be an oil that sits on the cloth. I did end up with bright red stained fingers from this method.

Magic Eraser

I dampened the Magic Eraser with water and scrubbed the permanent marker. It seems to smear the permanent marker across the white board; again it felt like the permanent marker had oil in it. Do you see the shading of the word below?

It eventually took everything off with more scrubbing, so it definitely is an option if you face this same problem.

White Board Marker

Monstermoma recommended scribbling over the entire area of permanent marker with white board marker! You read that right...cover the permanent with white board marker. Guess what, it works. It is not the best solution out of all of them, but it will work if you have no other choice.

So here is what it looked like. The permanent marker is the red and the green is the white board marker. I found the permanent marker almost transferred to the white board marker so be careful not to ruin your white board markers with this method.

Use the white board eraser brush to clean the area and here was what you have.

Not completely gone, but after a few more tries it was.

I did find it did not clean the board to it original state. It left little lines of permanent marker in grooves on the board. You can kind of see it in this photo at the bottom left.

Combination Method - Murphy's Oil Soap and Magic Eraser

I found this to be the best solution to remove the permanent marker. Dampen your magic eraser with Murphy's oil soap and scrub away. It easily removed the permanent marker and the oily film that I struggled with with both of the individual methods.

Ranking of methods to get permanent marker off a white board:

1. Combination of Murphy's oil soap and magic eraser
2. Murphy's oil soap
3. Magic eraser
4. White Board Marker technique

So here are some full after shots. I would show you the before images where these boards are completely covered with red permanent marker, but I don't think we need to know my coworkers to do list since we all have long ones ourselves.

Two sparkling clean white boards!

Not bad if I do say so myself.

I hope this helps some of you out there; I wish I knew about it when my two kids were really young.

Up next in "Out Damned Spot! Out I Say"....colored candle wax in cream carpet! 

Do you have any tips or tricks of your own?
Stephanie