Dont Buy Cards! Make Them!

I used to buy cards. Never the $5.95 cards, but pretty cards in boxes or from $1 racks. However you can make cards for a fraction of this. I started my adventures in card making last year with a few collaged images from vintage books. My confidence has grown to be a bit more creative as I arm myself with inspiring library books.

Dolly had a friend turning 5 in her class. So she made a pretty cupcake card to wish him a Happy Birthday over the weekend.

As for myself, one of my friends had a birthday too... a few weeks ago... and now I wanted to wish her a belated birthday with a gift voucher of my services for 2 nights of babysitting. Recognise the gold fabric? It's from this... There is so much of it!

Our cards only cost about 30 cents each to make. It doesn't take much time. You can use scraps, it's personal and it's fun. I also think it's great for Dolly's self esteem to give beautiful objects she has created.

How do you source your cards?

Gift Box For $5.85

This is a gift box of goodies Dolly gave to her friend for her 5th birthday. Dolly crafted the card and assisted with some of the bag construction organisation. Dolly also guillotined the scrap booking paper into small cuter sizes.

$1.25 Box made from Rubbish & Op Shopped Calendar & Book. (I'm wearing a thrifted $1 top purchased in 2011)

The library bag and box was made op shopped items that were reused. The plastic Doll was unfortunately new from a department store but will be much love.

French Seamed Bag with Different Fabric Straps.

I Love the Pretty Floral Fabric. It's a Beautiful Quality Too.

Total Cost of the gift was $5.85
My labour was more at 7 hours, some of it fun and some of it very frustrating!

Crafted Box $1.25 (glue and bits of an op shopped calendar and book).
Crafted Library Bag $1 (piece of green op shopped fabric and a girls dress purposely purchased for fabric) (Letters are a piece of old damaged fabric needing using).
Crafted Card 10 cents (scrap paper and picture from a damaged op shopped book).
New - 10 Pieces of different Scrap Booking Papers 50 cents.
New - Doll $3 (Purchased at Christmas time for this very purpose).

I felt very satisfied putting this gift together and hope to keep building my crafted gift repertoire and skills to create from used items. This gives me eco pride and frugal satisfaction (as you can see from my face).

Have you made anything this week?

Op Shopping (Thrifting) for Party Goodies

As many of my readers already know I am preparing for my 4 year olds move into big girl-hood as she reaches 5! We are currently preparing for her party which is in 6 weeks time. I know... I'm getting in early... being organised and early on this one means having time to search for great items at prices I can afford. And it also allows me time to make things such as her invites, party bags, decorations and also turn to op shop shops (thrift stores/charity shops) and Freecycle for items I may want.

I'm aiming for a $80 party which will included food, decorations, crafts, pass-the-parcel and goodies. However I don't want the usual prominent stuff from the party area of Coles. And If I do get some of that stuff, I want it to be second hand and maybe upcycled.

This being my last week of the holidays, I popped in to my local op shop (only 5 minute walk from my home) to search for toys or trinkets for pass-the-parcel. I spent a whopping $22 from my $80 budget, but I did well. Take a look...

Op Shop Finds

I purchased 2 candle calabra's to decorate the table for $3 each, quality glass bead necklaces, bracelets and other lovelies for pass-the-parcel. Flower, sandalwood fan and 1 necklace are Dolly's, as part of her costume.

Here are close ups of the great items.

Quality Trinkets for Party Favours

Silver - Yes silver! With tiny animal charms.

Pretty in Pink Glass Beads.

Zebra Beads to Die For. 5 Of Them. I'm Dancing The Happy Dance.

Heavy Glass, Stone and Silver Beads.

Mini Guitar - We Have a Couple of Boys Invited. 

I am upcycling some items and re-threading beads.

The elastic on the zebra bracelet was damaged, it was also too big for small wrists. The Glass, stone and silver beaded bracelet was also far to big for little girls. I cut them and turned them into 4 bracelets fit for Queens with a few additions of spare beads from home.

2 Bracelets Re-threaded to Perfection.

As for the guitar, I made it a bit more fancy to be fit for a royal king. I just need to layer a little more gold glitter and maybe some ribbon.

Royal Music.

If you have any party ideas - let me know...

Have you been op shopping, thrifting, charity shopping?

Use What You Have On Hand

Dolly is currently preparing 4 craft boxes for 3 friends and herself as gifts. Yes she's preparing a gift for herself too. How smart is that.

To present all the inexpensive and op shopped goodies as pretty as possible I have been working on making the boxes as gorgeous as possible to give it extra Zip Dang Bang! I have completed 2 so far (one a night at roughly 2 hours each) while my family sleeps.

The boxes were from The Rambling Expats workplace destined for landfill. Old A4 Illford Photography Paper boxes (back from the darkroom days). He saved them for me knowing I'm a hoarder of all good things. I started cutting random images from books and mags but then remembered these sweet calenders from 2010 and 2011 purchased in op shops for .50 cents each. So cutting and gluing ensued with beautiful outcomes.

 

These are not completed. They need one more lick of glue to varnish and protect, then I'm done. These are time consuming but I'm hooked as I have found it meditative to cut and glue in the quiet. We have a 70th Birthday party to attend soon. I'm planning to ask a shoe shop for a nice sturdy shoe box that I can cover. I hope to fill it with herb/rose petal sachets, chocolate and photos. It's for a man, so I will masculinate all my gifts.

Have you done anything like this before? It's my 1st time and I think it's quite nifty. Have you been using what you have on hand?

I might be away tomorrow as We are taking The Rambling Expat out for dinner - it's his Birthday. Pop over to his fishing addicted Blog to wish him a happy 45th (he only looks 30 - lucky Duck!) We've been together for 19 years. Who would have ever thought? My plan was to stay single and sexy all my life and then I met him... Now I'm content and Rubenesque :-)

Not Too Proud To Accept Your Castoffs

Many people feel too embarrassed or superior to give hand-me-downs to people they know. Either they give directly to charity shops or worse throw the stuff in bins so that no one can benefit from them.

Others feel too embarrassed or superior to accept hand-me-downs. They prefer to purchase everything new. Would never dream of accepting a castoffs or heaven forbid, step into a second hand shop.

Well not me... And my credit card is not maxed out, actually it's usually a $1 in positive credit. I use it sparingly and pay off any purchases within 2 days of using my card. I don't give it much of a workout because I don't buy much "new" stuff.

So when you give me your castoffs, hand-me-downs, outgrown stuff, unwanted items, used things - I LOVE IT! I can sort and take what I want, give to to others, put some on Freecycle or give to my local op shop. Not only are you making me happy with your used gifts but you are helping me save money towards my mortgage and you are helping the environment by giving the stuff another chance. Once I'm done with your stuff it will be passed on, repurposed, recycled or composted depending on it's use and state.

Our friend Nathalie and her gorgeous daughter gave us this lot of out grown books and CDs. We didn't say "No thanks" or feel embarrassed. We were thrilled to receive such a cool stash.

English Books and CD.

French Books and 8 CDs of Stories.

We sorted Dolly's book shelves to make room and have now prepared a bag of 10 outgrown books to give to a baby in the block of flats next to ours. We are not too proud to give and they are not to proud to accept and so the cycle continues.

We are not poor and could buy stuff, however we have decided to use our money wisely and want to look after our planet. How about you? Are you too proud to accept other peoples unwanted stuff?

Christmas Day

Today was relaxed. Dolly woke at 7:30am and said "Do you think Santa has come yet?" I said go and see. So she ran into the lounge and found many small parcels from us and from Santa. Dolly played with her Papa, The Rambling Expat while I squeezed in a bit more sleep.

Then the 3 of us made a batch of fresh pesto for my mum's Christmas present out of yesterdays basil harvest. We used basil, chilli, Parmesan cheese, garlic, toasted pine nuts and virgin olive oil. Simple luxury that is delicious on pasta, rice, veggies and by the spoonful. Mmmmmmm. Cost about $10 to make a jar full (pine nuts and parmesan are expensive here).

We then headed to my mums house for a left overs lunch from last nights dinner of Roast Pork, potatoes and veggies. Simple and delicious. On our arrival Dolly discovered Santa had left her a present at Grandma's, her beloved Rapunzel! Dolly jumped up and down on the spot about 20 times in her overjoyed excitement.

As you can see from the tutu I did not craft as planned. I decided to tell Dolly, that Santa had given a plain tutu for her to embellish herself. This worked a charm and she is looking forward to crafting her tutu into a work of art. This will be a fun and frugal holiday activity.

We had a simple, stress free, easy day just hanging out with my mum eating and watching French TV. On our return home we did a bit more cyclone preparation in the back yard as the winds may affect us tomorrow however it's believed we will not be directly hit. Tonight I will curl up with a book or watch a DVD that I picked up FREE from a Giveaway box at the office. Frugal life is good.

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates this time of year. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my ramblings, inspiring me and making my late nights fun.

Frogs, Cyclones and A Christmas Dash.

The Green Tree Frogs are croaking happily. There are about 20 or so outside. It's pouring which gives relief from the humid tropical heat. Here are some pics for you all to enjoy my loud company.

Beautiful, Bold and Loud.

Leaning Against My Happy Orchid

Another One Hidden Amongst Plants and Junk.

Eco-Frugal as I try to be, I am harvesting some of the rain water to water plants that are not in the direct path of raindrops. I also keep small buckets of rain water for Green Tree Frogs to lay eggs and encourage their reproduction success. We love to look at the tadpoles and give them lettuce to eat.

Harvesting Water. 2 Buckets in Background Full of Tadpoles.

As for the cyclone, it headed west and then changed direction and is now heading east. We may be lucky here in Darwin as it looks like it might skip it's visit to us after all. My louvers might end up intact and now on my urgent TO DO LIST. (Louvers are small glass windows that protect our tropical homes from the elements. If I remove them we are not longer protected. It's like you removing your windows from your home.)

Ceiling to Floor Louvers In Need of Replacing. These are Very Old and Dangerous.

Dolly came to my work building today and saw an area loaded and decorated with children's christmas letters to Santa and old toys. On our way out, she very sadly told me she did not see the tutu she wanted. I then realised she thought this was Santa's storage area and that she was upset she had not seen her name on the list of nice children. My sweet little girl has her heart set on that ugly badly and cheaply made tutu and now thought Santa was not happy with her!!!! I told her Santa has many storage areas and keeps most of his nice kids lists in his pocket and that I was 100% sure she was on it.

We were given an early mark at work so I tried 1 more time to find that out of stock elusive ugly tutu. It was not to be found. So I opted for a sweet and simple $14 tutu and will spend some time tonight sewing ribbons and flowers to liven it up. And maybe it will pass the test... I have held daily discussions that Santa does not always bring that wished for gift as he may have another gift that he really wants to give instead.

This Santa business (lying) is very complicated as my daughter picks me up on any conflicting information I give. 2 more days and it's over. Christmas is just not something I enjoy or want to encourage. But my daughters happiness and believing in the magic is beautiful and for this I will continue to make the effort. Childhood is so short.

How are you doing?

Christmas and Cyclones

I'm still not 100% better so I have been catching up on sleep. 11 hours a night most nights! Still coughing, sore throat, dizzy, sore back and general unwellness :-(  That is why I have been absent here...

We are also preparing for a cyclone which is thought to hit us on Christmas Eve. We have prepared "some" of our cyclone kit, we started to clean up our yard, we have had a huge termite infested palm tree chopped down yesterday and I will need to put our valuables and documents in the safest place I can find in our home.

If this a biggie I am sure one side of our home will loose it's louvre windows. They are old and we have saved all year to have them replaced. They go from ceiling to floor. We were supposed to have them replaced in November but the builder never got back to me and I have been too sick to be bothered. Now I'm bothered and it's too late :-( Some of my readers may remember Cyclone Carlos earlier this year.

Aside from that, last week I picked up 3 babysitting jobs. I made $120 (12 hours) to look after sleeping children. In that time I read, watched TV and crafted while keeping and eye and ear on deeply sleeping children. I used the money to purchase NEW stuff for Dolly's Christmas. Her heart is set on Rapunzel and a ugly tutu outfit she saw. She is sure Santa will bring these for her. (She has learnt a lot about Santa at school and from peers) I can't find the tutu outfit as it sold out quickly, but found a Rapunzel, Prince and Horse for my mum to gift at her place, from Santa.

And this is what I purchased for Dolly with my Babysitting money:

Mini Presents at Big Prices.

Another Mini Present - Too Cute - Maybe I will Play With Her.

• Wand $5 each - 1 for Dolly and 3 for friends = $20 (small local shop Yay).
• Mini Strawberry Shortcake Doll 1 for her and 3 for future B-Day Party gifts $3 each = $12
• Mini Rapunzel Doll = $23.72!!! Rip Off! - But she will LOVE this and play with it for hours.
• Mini Blythe Pet Shop Doll = $18.75 (This is from Santa)(I love this - I hope she does too)
• Crafting alphabet letters = $5.98 (expensive but creative and educational)
• Glittered crafting paper = $4.86
• Catnip toy for Dolly to give to our pet cat = $3.97

Total = $89.28. A crazy amount spent on new unecological plastic junk. I've been swept up in the crazy Christmas madness trap. I only wanted 1 "new" purchase and ended up with 4 new toys and 2 new craft items for Dolly. Luckily all of this came from the extra cash I made and I hope to make this the only NEW stuff purchased until next Christmas. Here is the second hand stuff I purchased for Dolly a few weeks back with good intentions.

I have $30.72 left in my pocket to purchase some yummies to share with my mum on a quiet and simple family Christmas lunch if we are not in the middle of a cyclone. I'm a Volunteer Admin person for the city shelter so will too busy in the shelter (with my family) to cook a Christmas meal if the Cyclone does hit.

Are you shopping for Christmas or for looming disaster?

Sweet Homemade Chocolate Bars

On our arrival home I cooked quick angel hair pasta with a jar of sauce as we had serious business to get to. Dolly and I were on a mission to make decadent Rocky Road with macadamia nuts, rice bubbles, turkish delight, marshmallows, snickers, mars bar and of course good old cadbury milk chocolate.

This is the last piece for the major fancy gift pack as seen here and here that Dolly is giving her special person tomorrow. We did a little tasting along the way of course and at the end we both had a bowl each to lick and share. Ahhhh the Good Life :-)

Dolly Said This Looked Like Salad!

Mmmmmmmm, Chocolate in the pan ready to be harden in the fridge. We made 2 pans full = 16 generous chocolate bars.

Decadent!

When the chocolates were cut and wrapped in my new favourite style, they were so sweet and pretty I couldn't stop looking at them. I was inspired by a library book showing home made chocolate bars wrapped in pretty wrapping paper. I thought why buy pretty paper when there are so many super cute vintage books all ripped and damaged at the fraction of the cost, ready to use and preventing it from entering landfill.

Wrapped and Ready.

The completed gift is ready for tomorrow morning, being given as a Thank You from Dolly to someone she loves (and Drat - it's not me - I wouldn't mind getting this gift, I'll have to spoil myself and make a pack for me).

Crafted With Heart.

Break Down Of Gifts Costs:

• Rose Petal Sachets .80 cents each = $3.20
• Necklace = $1.00
• Bottle Top Magnets .5 cents each = 20 cents
• Chocolate $1.15 each = $2.30
• Vintage Staffordshire Plate = .50 cents.

TOTAL Gift Price = $7.20

I think the gift is very eco-frugal pretty and I'm feeling proud of my efforts. These 2 years has seen a big change in me from a buyer of regular stuff, to a buyer of discounted stuff, to a buyer of second hand stuff and now to a buyer of second hand stuff to recreate into other items. Many hours and lots of heart went into these gifts, which is a much nicer feeling then wandering around a department store looking for a generic gift like all the others.

Has your lifestyle changed in the past couple of years?

Op Shopping For My Daughters Gifts

In the past 2 weeks I have op shopped but not purchased much as I have tightened my belt.

However I am buying a few gifts for Dolly's Christmas present. I'm not into Christmas but I really don't want her to feel she's missing out when all her friends are being treated to lovely gifts. She is soooo excited about Santa, so I need to make an extra effort. I will organise Santa to leave 1 "new" toy such as Rapunzel or something similar which I know she will adore.

This is what I have found for her which will be part of the gift from me. A spend of $8.25.

$$$ Break Down of Stash:

• Charlie and Lola book $2.00
• Katie Meets the Impressionists Book .25c
• Plastic snap together toys to create creatures. $2.00
• Ceramic bath tub for her doll house (This was a candle which I removed) $2.00
• 2 handmade ceramic plates from Thailand to add to her tea set $2.00

I'm trying to keep it eco frugal by buying local second hand wherever possible. It's hard at this time of year. There is a lot of psychological tactics employed by shops and it's hard to not get sucked in. What about you? Are all or some of your Christmas items secondhand too? Do you find it hard at this time of year to being frugal or even eco, due to the mayhem of parties every couple of days?

Blue the Budget on a Gift

A friend had a baby girl about 4 months ago. And I was slow at delivering our gift. But this is the hamper I created and gave last Sunday. Over our usual budget as baby's mum is the person who hooked me into the community garden and has saved me a lot of money in produce and health costs by eating my own organics and getting exercise. Plus the gardens give me a fantastic mental health boost.

My $3 secondhand basket has:

• A new dress $15 (on super discount), 
• Lovely local hand made soap $4, 
• Op shop (higher end brands) clothes $3 
• A few of Dolly's gorgeous outgrown clothes and books.
• Gift tag is a picture cut from an old diary and glued to a piece of card.

I love the hamper and Dolly was very proud to present it. She made the mum change her baby's clothes 4 times during the morning. I'm currently preparing another baby hamper for another friend. I found a gorgeous baby, designer dress at the op shop for $2. Retails for roughly $180!!! This time I'm going to try to stick to budget.

My frugality has been a bit poor this week as I feel the blues. I feel exhausted from work. I just want to eat junk food and not cook. I want to sookie-la-la. I don't want to buy stuff though (just chocolate). Instead I've wanted to purge and have been able to declutter 1 or 2 small items per night which is freeing up more space. That feels good.

Do you think you spend more when you are over tired or have the blues? 

Rubbish and Clutter Turned in Nifty Gifts

So here are the mystery gifts For World Teacher Day I blogged about yesterday.

Mystery Gifts

Earrings and Magnets. I used mainly recycled items except for the earring hooks and glue. Gifts are:

1. For female Teacher; dangly Jetsons Earrings. 
2. For the Teacher Assistant; dangly Sleeping Beauty Earrings. 
3. For the male Student Teacher; Flinstones Fridge Magnets.

Sweet Upcycled Gifts

This is what I used:

• Beer bottle tops - from a thirsty neighbour, 
• Images from old calenders - I purchased at the op shop for 50 cents in 2009
• Earring hooks (new) - purchased at Spotlight in 2009
• Flat fridge magnet - cluttering my fridge since forever, from junk mail.
• Craft glue - to stick image and waterproof it.

Groovy Magnets

For the cards and packaging I used scrap pieces of scrapbooking pages saved from Dolly's other crafty projects and the old calender pages.

Packaging to Match the Gifts

Sleeping Beauty Earrings in Sleeping Beauty Packet with Card.

Linking up to Recycled Fashions. Take time to click and get inspired.

So have you used up some of your clutter lately to save some of your money?

Repurposed an Owl for 2yr Old

This morning we headed to a Birthday party for a 2 year old at the swimming pool so I made an Owl out of old clothes and Dolly helped me make a Birthday card. And then we wrapped it up in Dolly's art work.

Wrapped And Ready To Go.

I was notified only 3 days earlier of the Birthday Party so found myself crafting an owl in my lunch breaks at work, the midnight hour at home and I got up an 2 hours earlier this morning to finish off the job. It took me just over 5 hours to copy and cut my template, find and cut the fabrics and make it as I am not skilled in crafts/sewing (yet).

The wonderful thing is I only used items from home that were saved to have another life, making me Eco proud. The whole gift only cost me $1.45, which makes me Frugal proud.

Hoot Hoot

Cost to make the owl $1.25 (blue fabric, brown felt and cotton thread).
Body - 2nd hand trousers I've worn to tatters but was able to recoup some of the fabric.
Eyes - scrap pieces of felt I made from 2nd hand wool jumpers. 2 buttons from Freecycle.
Beak - Dolly's outgrown and stretched 2nd hand yellow dress destined for the rag bin.
Applique - Large 2nd hand top purchased for $1 for the cute blue fabric over a year ago. Plenty of it left!
Wings / ears - New brown felt we had at home.
Stuffing - from unneeded pillow that lost it's shape in the wash.

Vintage Card Image (1970 - Good Year).

Dolly's 1st ever sounding out spelling on her own was her friends name "Ila"

Cost to make the card 20 cents.
Green Paper - Scrapbooking block of paper purchased about 2 yrs ago. 10 cents a sheet.
Picture - Children's 1970s 2nd hand book for 50 cents, purchased to cut up. 8 images = 6 cents each.
Glue - From home and used some scrap paper.

I felt very satisfied and super proud at my achievement. Lots of people at the Party oohed and aahed at my homemade gift and The Rambling Expat beat my drum. This gift project ticked all my happy boxes: Frugal, Ecological, Perfect for the Recipient and it also Decluttered some of my old worn out clothing. (I've linked up to Erica at Recycled Fashions - my creation is not technically a fashion item but it was made from clothing I had previously purchased in op shops and we had worn to shreds.)

I know I could have a box of gifts waiting for those short notice events, however I have tried in the past with new stuff but the gifts I stashed were never suitable or were forgotten about. Now I have a very different set of ideas and I try to not purchase any new items if I can avoid doing so. I do purchase a few second hand gifts for a handful of people I feel sure about, but I also live in a small flat that is already chaotic and bursting at it's seams so don't want to go down that road too much.

Have you done anything lately to make you jig a happy dance? Even if it did take you forever...

Herbal Tea and More Gift Giving

A long time work a colleague had a birthday this week. Happy Birthday Bev!!! As I'm on my personal mission of nothing purchased new and everything has to be within a certain $10 budget, I struggled. I struggled because I was too time poor to make anything and she's a strong woman who knows what she likes and doesn't like, full stop, no buts...

My brain had a lightbulb moment and this is what I gifted.

Apricot Delights.

A old glass coffee jar filled with dried apricots and apricot balls. I know she likes them. They are clutter free. They look pretty. They are a somewhat healthy snack for her office desk and it was just a bit over my budget.

To contribute to the morning tea I purchased a packet of Palmier biscuits (Italian) and made 2 bottles of herbal tea. To make the tea I simmered a pot of water with a generous amount of chopped basil, ginger and lemongrass. Once cooled down I added the juice of 1 lime. I placed the liquid into 2 sterilised glass bottles (old pasta sauce bottles) and chilled over night in the fridge.

My Home Smelt Delicious.

Refreshing and Healthy.

They were refreshing and zesty. A a super healthy addition to a table loaded with delicious rich, savoury and sweet foods. They were also frugal and eco as they were organically grown local produce. So that makes me very happy indeed.

Have you been frugally zesty lately? Love to hear from you...