Somehow I managed to get all my Christmas shopping done…..except for stocking stuffers for the kids. I figured I’d make a quick trip to the dollar store, and spend $20 or less on both the kids. Easy right? Well I started looking at a few things on Amazon.com, and wondered if that might be a better idea. There are quite a few items that would make awesome Christmas stocking stuffers for kids, and quite a few are under a $1. Doesn’t get much better than that! They’ve got some really cute stuff, including holiday specific items like mini coloring books, pens, mini holiday cards, and lots more. You know, the stuff that’s small enough to fit in a stocking with other items. Usually in addition to the small dollar store items, I usually stuff candy in there as well. At a craft show I had found little chocolates wrapped...
This is my absolute favorite thing to do this time of year. I’m not real big on Christmas, but every year the kids and I make our own Christmas ornaments. It’s become a family tradition that we never miss. What’s great about this craft is you probably have all you need in the house, which makes this a perfect craft to do when your snowed in (like we are today!). First you’ll need cookie cutters and the dough recipe. That can be found on our Christmas ornament craft page at Idea Queen. Just make the dough and cut out your ornaments, then bake. We let them sit over night, and paint the next day. Since this has become a tradition, we also make sure we leave enough dough for each of the kids to make their own hand print. Then each year as we decorate the tree, we look at the hand prints from the previous years to see...
Have you seen the mixes in a jar and thought it might be a cute gift for someone special? They aren’t that hard to make, and I’m about to share with you a really quick and easy way to make your own. All you have to do is take a look at your favorite recipes in your collection right now. Add all the dry ingredients in a clean jar, then write (or type) the instructions for the recipe on a cute recipe card. Make sure you put down what additional ingredients need to be added, along with bake temp and time. Easy! Now if you are short on recipes, you can find some specifically for gift jars at Idea Queen. We are all short on time during this season, so hopefully these two quick tips will save you some time! Read More →
Aside from a gift basket filled with their favorite (and useful) things, what else can you get men for Christmas? Some are about impossible to buy for, because they really don’t NEED anything. My dad is one of those men that is about impossible to shop for. When he needs something, he goes and buys it. When he’s hungry for something specific, he cooks it. He doesn’t use dip mixes or fancy kitchen gadgets. No special coffees or unique mugs will do. For years we bought him tshirts and sweatshirts, but now he has more than he’ll EVER need. This year I think we came up with a pretty good idea. We took something he uses on a regular basis (his note pad) and plan to spice it up. Card stock was glued to the front cover, then we plan to decorate it. The kids will get involved of course, helping to decorate it with ribbon...
With the holidays coming up, we’re all looking for inexpensive gift ideas. Making homemade gifts are sometimes the cheapest, and the most special. Some of these ideas I may have mentioned before, but just in case you missed those posts, I’ll repeat them. Homemade food gift ideas include: - Homemade Bread - Cookies, Brownies, and Desserts - Dip Mixes - Soup Mixes - Jar Mixes Now if you the person you are giving to doesn’t like to do any cooking at all, mixes are probably not going to work. However, you can still make them one or two of the items above. Then you can do like we did and make “coupons” good for any items you’re good at making. I went through some of our favorite recipes and made coupons for them. You can see an example below. Read More →
Looking around I can see this is one item people may be having problems finding. I’ve checked the big suppliers I know that carry just about everything, as well as places like Nick.com…….and come up with nothing. What I did find was not “real” Christmas cards, but ecards featuring Spongebob. So if you are looking for them, it might be as close as you can get. AmericanGreetings.com and search “Spongebob”, and you’ll see quite a few different cards. There’s only 2 or 3 maybe that are Christmas specific, but also quite a few that would work for any occasion. So for those of you looking for Spongebob Christmas cards, there you go! If it’s not quite what you are looking for, you might also want to think about making your own. Especially if you have Spongebob wrapping paper left over,...
I know I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m making quite a few of my kids Christmas gifts. I do every year. It’s less expensive and means a whole lot more than some expensive toy that will break in a few months. Believe me, my kids have enough toys! So here’s the homemade side of my kids Christmas list. I hope you’ll find some ideas here of things you can make for your kids! Doll Clothes My little girl loves her baby dolls. She also loves clothes. So I have to make her at least one or two outfits for her babies. There’s two patterns I’ve made myself, and a few others I’ve bought. With all the different types of fabric we’ve got, it’s not hard to come up with all kinds of different clothes. If you need some help planning this out or need some patterns, be sure to check out our doll...
While a lot of the ideas on our homemade Christmas gift ideas page applies to adults, I thought I would mention a few ideas I’ve done for family in the past. It’s not about how much the gift costs, but rather how much the gift means to the person receiving it. Zipper Bags (sewing required) Last year I picked up fabric featuring my family’s favorite college basketball team. Even though I’m the odd one out (I really could care less what team is playing), my parents and grandparents hardly ever miss a game. So for Christmas I made a small pouch with a zipper for my mom, and a pillow for my dad out of the fabric. They were thrilled! Of course it didn’t cost all but a few dollars for both of them, but it was something very special. Homemade Bread My grandparents are THE hardest people to shop for, so we don’t...
This is one of those websites you can get lost on. Meaning once you get there, it’s hard to close the window. I could spend hours browsing eBay, and easily spend a small fortune. I mean there are some really good deals for awesome products on eBay! I’ve managed to do a nice chunk of my Christmas shopping on eBay, including my son’s largest gift. I always said I refused to buy a game console of any kind, but my oldest begged me and we made a deal related to homework. He’s coming through on his deal it, so I gave in. But still I wasn’t sure how I was going to afford a game system – even a GameCube that’s cheaper than some of the newer consoles out right now. So I turned to eBay. Granted it’s used, but I made sure I read the auctions carefully. I made sure the auctions stated they were in good...
If you are in need of something different this Christmas, why not send an ecard? It will take a whole lot less time than writing all those cards out by hand, and a whole lot less in postage too. Just because you send them via email doesn’t mean they can’t be personalized. Most places that offer ecards allow you to enter personalization in the card. So you get the best of both worlds – personalization AND cost effective! A great place to grab unique interactive Christmas cards is Blue Mountain. You don’t have to worry about spyware or other computer problems. Plus they have an excellent selection of eCards for every occasion. Check them out at the link below! Read More →
