Gear up for Christmas and do a craft with your kids!

This is a small assortment of the ones we did this year and last year. There are more:-)

You can buy a ton of different ornament kits to make from Oriental Trading. At our house...we all love to do crafts. This makes it REALLY super easy for me! I dont have to cut and buy all the seperate pieces we need...it all comes...though occasionally you are missing a piece in your bag...but they give you a little bag of spare parts! So, check it out. These are just some that we have made this year. After we make them we pass them out

to teachers, neighbors with cookies, and give all our family members one.

And, my frugal comment about the ornaments: if you check after Christmas time...a lot are on sale. Some are on sale before also...but especially after:-) You can do these for as little as .33 cents each! Happy crafting!

~Lindy

Sand (salt) Art!

One of my daughters and I did this as a parent/child activity when she was in Pre-K. It was so much fun that we have done it at home just for the fun of it and even done it at a birthday party she had for a party favor!-Their very own art! All you need is a bowl, salt, colored chalk, and a container to pour it into.

1st pour your desired amount of salt into a bowl and pick your desired color of chalk. Take the chalk and stir the salt until it's the color you want. The longer you stir the salt the darker the color will be. It goes a bit faster if you kind of rub the salt against the bowl with the chalk.

Make as many colors as you want and create a masterpiece your child will be proud of. My kids sand art are in the living room displayed on a shelf. :-) Enjoy!

~Lindy

Dried flower art

I needed some kind of art for my bathroom, so I went and picked some little purple flowers that were growing in my yard (yes they were basicaly weeds...but they were free). I dried them and then arranged them in my frame. This cost me absolutely nothing because I already had that frame. But, if you need a frame they are always on sale at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. I tied a bow to make it look like a bouquet with some rafia ribbon.

~Lindy

Pot holder 1st aid kit

This is an awsome idea. My sister-in-law showed me this that she made at enrichment in her ward. And you probably already have the stuff to make it! You need a potholder, snack size sandwhich bags, a piece of ribbon, and a sewing machine ( or a needle and thread).

You can use it for a 1st aid kit ( I would) , a travel make up bag....I'm sure there are a million ways you could use this! And, attach a button on the opposite side and loop the potholder hanger onto it to keep it closed!
~LINDY

Birthday Banner

A friend gave me a link that had a picture of one of these that someone made...so me and my sister made them! It's something we will have forever and will become a family tradition! I used my cricut machine to cut the letters. Then we traced them onto cute fabric and did a lot of cutting! :-) We also used the iron on stuff to attach the letters to the squares we cut and sewed. Then we sewed each square onto a piece of ribbon.

~LINDY