Fast Frugal Gifts

 Here is a cute useful gift idea for little girls. A bow hanger. Shops in our area sell these for $20.00 or more, CRAZY. Our little girls needed additional bow holders as theirs are full. This is one of the many projects on my To Do list. Yippee mark another project off that list. So here's the scoop on making one of these. I bought the wooden letter for under $3.00 a the local big box craft store. The ribbon for hanging bows is from my stash. It's hard to see the cute polka dots on pale pink ribbon.

 For the bottom of the ribbon I just made a knot, quicker than sewing and less dangerous than using the glue gun

 Here is the back of the holder. Just hot glue the ribbon down then add a hanger. I did my best to get the hanger on but I stink at nailing. The SIL's can put the hangers on! Total cost? Maybe $4.00

 Check out these snow globe coasters. I found the tutorial HERE. While I like the snow globes on the tutorial and will do some like those in the future for today I went with a quicker method. The figurines in these globes are a finger puppet pack I found at Target in the $1.00 bin. Felt, rick rack, vinyl, and sequins are of course from the stash. No stash? I would guess these could be made for under $5.00 a set

 Make sure and check out the tutorial for detailed instructions but here is my short cut. After using wonder under to attach the Mrs. Clause to felt I then used a 4 1/2 inch circle as the globe template. Can you see the pencil lines where I cut?

 Next was to zig zag the lady down, this went fast as she was already assembled. After that I went by the tutorial (I think) to sew on the vinyl. I'm not sure what quilters vinyl is so I just used the clear vinyl I had on hand

 I am lazy....I didn't want to mess with matching the front and back of the globe base making sure nothing got out of line sew. Here is my cheaters way. I cut the top in the size and shape I wanted, on the back I just cut a piece of the brown bigger than I needed. Once all 4 sides were sewn  just trim the back. Got that? Really the tutorial is much easier to understand.

 Oh ya, an additional tee for one of DD's friends popped up this morning,sigh

 

Do you ever try one or more of the new recipes that you come across this time of the year? I can't help myself I always do a few but end up back to our OLD favorites!! I whipped up  what was suppose to be home made no bake mints last night. Seeing as how I was out of peppermint extract (how could that be) I used Rum extract instead. The are really good! I'm thinking the peppermint might have been too much for our tastes. They are now tucked in the freezer for gift giving and a bit of nibbling. Recipe at the end of this post

Here are those frugal coasters again, why you ask? Cause why not do another give away this week. You have a choice between a set of these coasters or one of the felt Christmas trees with ornaments from last week. All you have to do is post a comment sharing your experience trying a new holiday recipe, was it a winner or loser?  Are you like our family that always reverts back to the traditional family favorites?

Mints

8 ounces cream cheese soften
6 cups powder sugar
1 tsp peppermint extract (or whatever flavor you like)
Food coloring if you want, I used yellow for mine

Whip the cream cheese until creamy, add powder sugar one cup at a time, mix well, after the 3rd cup add the extract, then continue adding powder sugar. You should have a very stuff dough.

Cover and refrigerate a few hours.
Now roll the dough into 1 inch balls
Place on parchment paper
squish the balls down with the back of a fork
cover and refrigerate for a couple of house.
Store in air tight container in fridge for 2 weeks or freezer up to two month's

TIP, When rolling the balls if your hands get too sticky dust a bit of powder sugar on them. It also helps to dip the fork in powder sugar to press the mints down