The Creative Princess

As most of you know I hosted a cookie swap this week.  We had a LOT of fun and.....I did not get ONE picture of the swap or decorations set up. Not one! I am so sorry.  I have failed you. I did make sure to take some pics though as I was making my cute festive baby jars. WooHoo! Here is what you need: Baby Food Jars -washed and dried Ribbon Scissors Adhesive Squares I wanted to cover the print on the jars Take your ribbon and measure it around your jar leaving just a bit extra.  You will then take your adhesive squares and place on each end of the ribbon. Remove the paper backing and wrap around jar, pulling tight, then press to secure. I wasn't happy with just the blue so I added a "Merry Christmas" ribbon as well. And....that's it!  I love that this is SO simply but adds just the right touch to my decorations.  I also did the same technique to the top of some bigger jars and placed mints and ribbon candy in those. **My notes: It is much easier...

Last week I was given the challenge from #Cbias to purchase some Elmer's and X-ACTO crafting products and make something DIY. Seems simple enough!  But when you are given free range you tend to go blank.  I finally figured out what I wanted and love my cute new frame. Here is what you need: X-ACTO Precision Scissors X-ACTO Templates CraftBond Dual-tip Flexible Pen CraftBond Foam Mounting Tape CraftBond Adhesive Squares CraftBond Sparkle Glue Scrapbook Paper Ribbon Cardstock The very first thing you want to do is remove the back and glass from your frame. Next take your CraftBond Flexible Duel Tip Glue Pen and spread the glue all over your frame. Then top with scrapbook paper of your choice. You may need to reposition the paper a few times or press the air bubbles out. While the glue is drying cut {carefully} around the frame to remove excess paper.  Now is also a great time to remove the paper that...

I can not tell you how hard it was for me to narrow this list down to my top 10!  There are just SO many great ideas out there and sooooo many YUMMY recipes for stuff in jars.  But, I did it!  WooHoo! {Top 10 Frugal Christmas Gifts} Baby Doll Diapers – These are just darling!  They are also SUPER easy to make.   S’mores cake in a jar – from How Sweet it Is .  Now, doesn’t that look UH-MAZING?!?!  I knoooooow!!!  I haven’t made this….yet….but plan to soon.  I will TRY to refrain from eating the lot since they will be for gifts. Homemade Heating Pad – This is a great universal gifts.  Everyone has aches and pains.  Plus, you can use these to warm up little kids beds (just be sure to remove them before placing the child in bed). Hot Chocolate Truffles – OH! MY! WORD!  I think this is a BRILLIANT idea!  You just take one of these babies and plop it (carefully) into a cup of warm/hot milk, stir a...

I kind of stress out this time of year because I belong to a few different groups and have what seems like 30 dozen different Christmas parties to go to......or host.  Then I think of all the gifts I have to get and oh my! Head starts spinning! It's not pretty. This year, thanks to Pinterest I am totally not stressing as to what to make.  Here are my top 5 gifts for friends and/or neighbors. 1) Cookie Dough - I think this is a great idea!  If you are like me, this time of year is crazy and your house seems like a cookie factory at times.  Why not pass this on to a busy friend or neighbor so it is one less recipe they have to worry about.  All they have to do is slice and bake.  Plus, they will have a new recipe for next time. 2) Etched Hot Cocoa Jar - It is REALLY cold here today and this sounds wonderful!  I love how they personalized the jar with the initial of the family's last name. 3) Ice Cream Sundae Kit - How FUN!...

Last year I made my daughters teacher a pair of cute dish gloves , pie-in-a-jar and homemade candied pecans.  She LOVED it.   This year I plan on doing something totally different.  I am not going to give it away.....just in case a certain teacher I know may be reading this.  But just know, it IS included in my Top 5. TCP's Top 5 Frugal Teacher Gifts 1) Breakfast in a Box - I love, love, LOVE this idea!  Teachers work hard day in and day out.  When they get home, most of them, have kids of their own to take care of.  They are tired, they are stressed, they need a break!  Being a busy mom I know I would LOVE to receive this gift so I can imagine my teacher friends would love it just as much.  Who wouldn't want to have a meal taken care of?  It's one less thing to stress about! 2) 12 Days of Christmas - This is such a CUTE idea!  You can give this as one lump gift or allow your child to take one gift per day for 1...

I stumbled on the original tutorial for this on Pinterest.  You can find it here . This is a VERY easy wreath to make and the cost....totally...1000%....FREE! Here is what you will need: 1 wire hanger About 3 plastic dry cleaning bags* Pliers Ribbon (optional) That's it!  I had ALL of these things lying around.   The first thing you will want to do is take the hanger and shape it with the pliers, into a circle.  It is ok if it isn't a perfect circle, the bags will conceal it. Next, take your bags and fold them width wise a few times, the open end should remain at one end and the top should remain at the other.  What I did was just keep folding until I got a long slender fold.  Then I just cut my strips every few inches. You will be left with a ton of loops.  Now, take the loops and cut both ends.  Then fold each piece in half and cut again.  Then fold each piece in half one more time and cut again.  Y...

Magical Reindeer Food What you will need: Oatmeal (I use quick cook, or what is cheap) Sugar sprinkles* Treat sacks Twist ties Ribbon Label** Directions: The great thing about this project is you can make it for one child or one million.  For one child, you will need 1/3 cup of oats and a dash or two of sprinkles.  Mix and place in treat bag or Ziploc bag. For 15+ you will need: One small container of oats, or half of the big container. One container of Sugar Sprinkles* Mix oats and sprinkles in big bowl and place in treat bags.  Tie with twist tie and add ribbon and label**. *To make Sugar Sprinkles you can just take some regular sugar and add a few drops of food color to get the desired tint.  I purchased clear (white) sugar sprinkles and tinted half red.  In the past I used glitter but have heard the glitter can hurt the little birds that may eat it. **For t...

Gift Tags While walking through Target yesterday I was FLOORED at how much gift tags were!  Ok, maybe it is because I am cheap but still!  The cute ones were like $5 for 10 of them!  You have GOT to be kidding me! Once I got home I realized I had everything to make them! What you will need: Cardstock Computer Printer Scissors Tape Directions: Located a design that you like, go to picnik.com and edit the pic, add text, etc. Save pic to your computer and open Word (or similar file).  Copy about 6 images onto your doc and print. Cut tags and place on gifts. That is IT!  SO easy and it cost me NOTHING! If you have the time and want to get really creative you can add glitter or ribbon or just about anything to make them REALLY pop.  But, who has time to do that right now?  lol Here are the ones I made!  I LOVE them!

Handprint-Snowman Ornament What you will need: Ornament of choice ( I like clear plastic ornaments, found at Michaels) White, Black, Orange Paint (you can add other colors if you would like) Willing helper Directions Place a small amount of white paint on a paper plate and place child’s hand in paint.  Move hand around a bit to make sure I is well covered.  If hand has a lot of paint you may want to blot some off with a paper towel. Place hand on ornament with fingers spread just a little.  Allow to dry. Once dry you can add your accent paints if you would like.  We have one guy and 3 girls in my little family so I did green, red and pink paint to spruce it up a bit.  I added a top hat, scarves, and ear warmers to my snowmen.  Allow to dry. That’s it!  I LOVE doing these with my children each year.  It is amazing just how much their hand grows in a year.  I also like to p...

Decorative Dish Gloves What you will need: Dish gloves 1/4 yard Fabric or Oilcloth Ribbon/Trim (optional) Sewing Machine Hot glue gun (optional) Directions: 1. Wrap fabric around glove opening one and a half times.  This will be your measurement on how long the fabric needs to be.  Cut at 1.5x mark.  Depending on how much fabric you want at the top of your gloves will determine the width of the fabric you will cut.  The width on my finished set is 5 inches. 2. You will want to “ruffle” the fabric before you place it on your gloves.  It is VERY easy to make a ruffle.  I am sure I do not do it the correct way but coming from someone that knows VERY little about sewing, I think this is the easiest.  Just set your sewing machine to make a long stitch and sew down the long piece of fabric making a straight line.  You will then hold the threads on one side and pull one of the threads on the other to make the ruffle...