Pantene Beautiful Lengths

Being Charitable

We decided Hannah needed a shorter hair-do, she needs a lot of help getting the knots out after showering.  She's also been talking about donating to Locks of Love once it was long enough.  However, I found a Canadian way of donating through The Canadian Cancer Society and Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

Here are the requirements from the Canadian Cancer Society: donations must be a minimum of 8 inches long. Hannah's clean and dried pony tail measured 11.5 inches long. Above, her hair is wet because I had just finished shaping it into a page boy after cutting off the pony tail.

 PANTENE BEAUTIFUL LENGTHS

ARCHWAY

2-1055 MIDDLEGATE RD

MISSISSAUGA ON L4Y 9Z9

There is a "postage paid" printable e-label on the following link, very convenient - found here.

As per the Canadian Cancer Society site: 
Pantene Beautiful Lengths accepts hair donations, then creates, ships and donates real-hair wigs to Canadian Cancer Society wig banks across Canada. There is no cost to the Society or to the individuals who receive these wigs. Please consider sending your hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths as a meaningful way to support someone on a cancer journey.

Getting Organized

While perusing the Internet for some DIY Kitchen organizing tips, I came across this post from Kevin & Amanda.com, on how to make your own wood drawer dividers.  

I've been looking at different dividers and bins from various Kitchen supply stores and the prices were just going to be too much.  I couldn't wait to try out this project after finding the post.  I bought 12 pieces of lumber.  At just over $25 Canadian - what a bargain for completely custom fit organization.

I used 1/4 inch thick "hobby board" made of poplar from Home Depot.  They were just over $2.00 CAD a piece.  It took approximately 3 boards per drawer - I've only completed 2 so far, so that's a guesstimate.

Here is what you'll need (no husband required):

I covered the bottom of the drawer with parchment paper, or you can use newspaper, just to protect it from glue drips.

I laid out my utensils how I wanted, measured and cut the pieces to fit.  I glued the dividers together, but not to the drawer walls.  I want to be able to remove these later if necessary. Or to add drawer liner later on.

You could be really exact and make a a box frame around the inside of the drawer before adding the dividers, that would require extra wood - I am El Cheapo. 

I chose to add just the dividers.  I did have to add some end pieces to stabilize it so the

whole thing wouldn't slide or shift over time.

Mason Jar Goodies

I know I've done these homemade bath salts on a few occasions, but they are just such an easy and affordable "go to" present.  When I found these cute chalkboard labelled mason jars for $ 1.50 at Michael's in October, I snatched up just over a dozen of them and stashed them away with Christmas give away's in mind.

Bath Salts Recipe:

• 1 cup of rock/sea salt (kosher salt usually only contains sea salt, check the ingredients list)
• 1 cup of Epsom salt
• 2 Tbsp baking soda
• 15 drops of essential oil (I used doTerra "Wild Orange" & NOW "Orange"
• the rind of half an orange

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together the sea salt and Epsom salt. Add the baking soda and stir with a metal spoon until combined. Add the essential oil and orange rind.  Break up any clumps of rind with the spoon and package as desired.

Due to the the organic component of the orange rind, I put an expiry date of 3 months on my bath salt labels. 

Candy Jars:

I placed a strip of card stock in the centre of the jar and held it in place with a large cutlery spoon, then filled each side with sorted candies (Christmas Smarties & jelly beans).  

Once full, I pulled out the card stock.  I wish I had bought candies with more contrast, the effect would really pop. Oh well, next year.

I sprayed my chalk writing with hairspray, let's hope they travel well.

Keep Cheaping On

Make Your Own Decor Pillows

I am so surprised how these pillows turned out.  They look like faded denim.  This would be a perfect method if you were trying to achieve the “old coffee bag” effect using a vintage printable.

Again in my attempt to whip up some cheap inexpensive Christmas ornament, I found a recipe to make your own fabric paint.  Incredibly enough, I had ALL the ingredients already on hand, which almost never happens.

Keep reading for tutorial on this project.

Now you may ask, why buy Liquidex Medium when it’s just as much to purchase fabric paint?  I have Liquidex on hand for Art Journaling, but now I can make ANY COLOUR fabric paint.  I don’t have to purchase individual colours.  That’s a bonus.

Here’s what you need for these adorable pillows:

• Painters drop cloth (from your local hardware store) – sewn into an envelope pillow case cover
• Liquidex Medium (or any Acrylic Medium) - I used transparent, it doesn’t change the colour
• Craft paint – colour of your choice
• Pencil
• Paintbrush
• Printer & regular printer paper

1. Sew pillow case covers from pre-washed painter’s drop cloth (hardware store purchase – paint aisle)
2. Print the image on regular printer paper
3. To increase the size of the image beyond the 8.5 x 11 paper, in Word I “cropped” the deer image into two: deer top half and deer bottom half, than overlapped them once printed.  The J-snowflake-Y were each printed on their own pages.*Subsequently you can use the "tile" function on one whole image so it is printed largely over several 8.5x11 sheets of paper
4. Cut out the image and then lay flat on your fabric
5. Outline or trace the image onto the pillow case cover in pencil
6. Mix Liquidex Medium and craft paint.  I used half and half (red did look pink when adding medium, but dried accurately)
7. Let dry

*To remove the pencil markings, I washed my pillow case covers after they dried.  This MAY be how I got the lightened denim effect. 

I wonder if I IRONED the paint after it dried to heat set it before washing, if it would fade less.

I’m going to try this on test piece just to see what happens.

Envelope pillow case cover tutorial found here @ Instructables.com:

DIY fabric paint tutorial here @ Instructables.com:

Deer silhouette found here @ 11 Magnolia Lane.com:

I'm Dreaming of a CHEAP Christmas!

Let's Do Christmas on the Cheap, shall we.  

I decided I wanted to change up some of my Christmas decor, so I bagged up any "countrified" decorations and sent them away to a good home.  Since we are in the midst of some kitchen renovating, I can't quite justify replacing things THIS year.  Here's how I filled in some of the gaps of my decor, but on a dime.

Wrapping paper art:  I wrapped my large canvas art in Dollar Store paper and glitter ribbon.  I can't take credit for this project, I saw it online.  That person must have shopped at the Dollar Store too, I found the same paper there.

Rolled wrapping paper tree cones.  These can be seen all over the Internet.  You can cover styrofoam forms with fabric, or do it the CHEAP way like I did.  I made a cone out of cardboard then covered it in... you guessed it Dollar Store wrapping paper.  Here is a good cone tree making tutorial @ Sand & Sisal.com.

BTW, did you notice I flipped my pallet wood shelving?  It holds things better this way.  I added some drawer pulls that were saved from my daughter's old IKEA dresser that fell apart.  The dresser went in the trash, and the pulls have become part of the decor.  I REALLY prefer the look of the shelf this way.

I painted the pants of the Nutcracker seen here to make it fit the colour scheme better.  I have a few larger Nutcrackers (*insert joke here) that still need to be painted, and one that I am making a new felt cape for.  

I filled a shadow box frame I already had on hand with Dollar Store Christmas baubles, (snowflakes, jingle bells, and pom poms).  Glued some scapbook paper to the backing and cut out a slogan in vinyl. You can purchase pre-cut vinyl lettering at your local Staples store if you don't have a cutting machine.  A tutorial to make a holiday shadowbox frame can be found @ To Simple to Inspire.com.

I threw together some "scrap" scrapbooking paper and coordinating stickers to use with my "new" holiday clipboards.  I bought it on sale at Michael's for 60% off, OKAY, so I'm not perfect and bought something ;D

I have one other inexpensive project in the works, but with sanding and painting the kitchen cabinets this weekend, I ran out of time and steam.