Friday, January 28, 2011

How To Make A Wreath

Watch the Queen of Crafts Sandy Sandler as she shows us one of her craft ideas using the Bowdabra. Today, Sandy will help us how to make a beautiful wreath decor easily!



About the Author
Sandy Sandler is founder of non-profit Crafters 4 Kids and creator of the QVC best-seller, the Bowdabra. Her frugal craft projects and activity ideas are designed to transform the creatively-challenged into creative pros. Sandy’s focus is on creative and easy projects that parents can do with their kids and that kids can even do on their own that are both frugal and green in nature. Crafters 4 Kids focuses on projects that can be done under 5 minutes and under $5. Visit www.C4K555.org. Contact Sandy at jaimevivre@mac.com

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Valentine’s Wedding Favor Craft Ideas

Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular days to propose (or get married) in the U.S.! It’s a day that symbolizes love, of course, so it makes sense that people would want to get engaged or tie the knot on Valentine’s Day. Here are a few neat little statistics on weddings*:
  • 2.3 million couples tie the knot each year
  • the average number of guests on a wedding invite list is 178
  • the average budget for weddings is nearly $20,000
  • Despite the fact that Valentine’s Day falls in February, only 7% of all wedding during the year occur in February (That is still 161,000 wedding, though!)
Due to the fact that 30% of all weddings are now paid for by the bride and groom, rather than traditionally paid for by the bride’s parents*, people are now looking for ways to cut the budget and save some money. If you are looking for last minute, economical wedding favor ideas, you’ve come to the right place! You could even recruit your nieces for help with making them…or host a wedding favor making party weeks before the ceremony. The Crafters 4 Kids website is chock full of craft ideas that are not only easy to create, but also economical, too (they all cost less than $5 each to make). Not to mention, every craft on the website is also absolutely adorable and quite versatile, depending on how creative you are.

Wedding Favors











The Valentine Bath Salts is the perfect little favor! You can set it with the place settings to add that final touch. Your friends will love the care that you put into crafting these little packages as well as the fact that they can go home and relax with their new bath salts while they reminisce about the fun that they had at your wedding reception!

To continue with the complete list of wedding favor ideas, please read the full article Valentine's Wedding Favor Craft Ideas!

About the Author
Sandy Sandler is founder of non-profit Crafters 4 Kids and creator of the QVC best-seller, the Bowdabra. Her frugal craft projects and activity ideas are designed to transform the creatively-challenged into creative pros. Sandy’s focus is on creative and easy projects that parents can do with their kids and that kids can even do on their own that are both frugal and green in nature. Crafters 4 Kids focuses on projects that can be done under 5 minutes and under $5. Visit www.C4K555.org. Contact Sandy at jaimevivre@mac.com

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Great Use For Holiday Cards

Happy New Year!

Here are some great green ideas for using your Christmas Cards, wedding cards, Holiday Cards, now that the holidays are over.  From my great friend Sarah Forhan, the inventor of our brand new hair bow tool. I hope you like her ideas as much as I do!

Instead of throwing away the Christmas Cards or storing them, why not make them into Christmas Tree Ornaments.  During Christmas Break I am always looking for ways to keep my children occupied.  This craft is perfect to do before the tree is taken down the ornaments are stored away.  Make the ornaments now and then in a week when the tree is down the Christmas Card Ball Ornaments can be neatly put away with the other ornaments.

My children and I have made these ornaments several years in a row and there is a lot of instructions on the web.  However, the easiest to follow instructions for this craft (with step-by-step pictures instructions) is here at InkSpired Creations.

I prefer to make the ornaments really large just because it easier for my children to work with them.  However, the great thing about this pattern is you can make them as large or as small as you want.  We used ribbon in the center, as well as, adding a few charms and beads at the bottom.  The kids also have fun adding little charms along the edges where the cards meet.









 

article and photos contributed by Sarah Forhan, http://sarahforhan.com/