CVS

I started out with $5.00 ECB from a previous week.

Then I received $5.00 ECB for the Beauty Club Spending (Spend $50, get $5, if I remember rightly.)
Then I received a $4/$20 purchase coupon, which I added to my ExtraCare card. 

$4.99 Maxwell House K-cups
(Makes it 42¢ per cup. They are 49¢ per cup at Sam's, and even more at Walmart, so this is a good price even without coupons.)

$5.99 PediaCare Children's Meds
- 1.00 Pediacare IP
= 4.99

$2.37 CVS Body Wash
-2.37 Free Minute Clinic IP coupon (No longer available)
= Free

= $19.96
- $4/20
- $5.00 Beauty ECB
- $5.00 ECB

= $5.96 + tax = $6.50 oop

Received $5.00 ECB for Pedicare

Total Cost $1.50

Scrabble Tile Ornaments

I visited the Garage Sale thrift store, Half-off Sale again last week.
I didn't really want to, but I was hoping the Vintage glass Christmas Tree Toppers that I'd passed over two weeks ago might still be there (they weren't, natch).

I didn't buy much, a baggie of Cookie cutters.

I saw this bin full of Playmobil toys, marked $5.00, so on sale for $2.50, but I talked myself out of buying it.
Even though I love Playmobil as much as I love Lego.
Even though Playmobil toys are about as expensive as Lego.

But then I took my son on home and dropped him off, and on my way back, I couldn't stand it, I had to stop back in and get them (if they were still there).

What I didn't know until I brought it home and started digging through it was there was some other odd 'n ends toys in the bin, too.

Including a handful of Scrabble tiles.

Awhile back I had bought a couple of Scrabble games at a thrift store for 50¢ each to make ornaments out of, but hadn't gotten around to doing it yet.

While I had these right here, and my Christmas ribbons and such at hand, I went ahead and figured out what I could spell with them.

I tried to do the Family one, with our last name and first names intertwined, but was missing a few letters, so these were what I was able to come up with, with what I had:

I did some embellishing, but I'm not sure I really like them. I may end up re-doing them. Pretty sure the "Santa" one needs a Santa Hat, instead of the...whatever it is...part of a ribbon, hanging from it.

The others, I'm "Meh" about, but don't really have any other ideas.

They were colorful on my silver Tinsel tree, though.

Applesauce-Cinnamon Christmas Tree Ornaments

So last year I was looking for a little prezzie for my son, R's, co-workers at 911 Dispatch.
I ended up coming up with these Snow(wo)men Ornament Ball dispatchers.

I didn't think I was going to be able to come up with anything this year, but eventually an/some idea(s) came together, and I created these Applesauce-Cinnamon Gingerbread 911 Dispatcher.

I started out using 1 cup of cinnamon, 1 cup of applesauce, and 2 tablespoons of white glue. My mixture was too dry, so I added another tablespoon-glallup of applesauce.

I used homemade applesauce I had made and canned from apples my Dad gave me from his orchard, but you can get a jar of applesauce at the Dollar Tree, along with the container of Ground Cinnamon.
The glue also came from the Dollar Tree.

Mixed the cinnamon, applesauce and glue in a bowl. Used a spoon at first, but when it became a 'dough' I ended up having to use my hands and knead it.

Which is why there's no picture of me rolling and cutting the gingerbread men out.

I put the gingerbread men ornaments on wire racks on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven on 200* for an hour. Then I flipped them over and let them dry for another hour.

*If you want to make holes in the ornaments for a hanging ribbon, use a toothpick or straw while they're still wet. I decided to just glue a loop on the backside.
(Because I forgot to make the hole first, lol!)

I "iced" it with puffy paint, and hot glued the "head set" on.

For the head set I used some miniature wire candy canes and mini pom-poms I had in my craft stash.

I had some "gingerbread dough" leftover so I cut out some other shapes from other cookie cutters,

And hung them on my little red tinsel tree.

Putz/Glitter House: Church & Fire Station

Generally, I make one Putz/Glitter house/building at a time, but when I made the Putz/Glitter church, I had decided to make three at one time.

I think I might have had an idea of making extras to sell in my Etsy shop, but then I didn't love the way they turned out, or something.

Anyway, I ended up gifting them to my Aunts for Christmas.

I held onto these as pictured for a long time, because I couldn't find, or didn't really know what I wanted to embellish them with.

Eventually I decided on a Tree and some People figurines from the Dollar Tree Village sets.

The small Trees I had were a Tree-Green, a suitable color for Trees, but didn't really seem to go with the White and Pink of the Church too well IMO.

I had read that you could Bleach the Trees, so I gave that a try.
I just poured Bleach into a jar and swished the tree around with tongs until the Green disappeared.

Bleached Tree.

Then I used Food Coloring to dye the Trees (what is supposed to be) Turquoise and Pink.
They look more green and orange. But oh well, better than the dark Green they were previously.
My Aunts (said they) Loved them.

I had been wanting to make a Putz/Glitter Firehouse, but had trouble locating a pattern (I can't make the patterns myself...no good with measurements).
I had been working on converting another building into a firehouse, but it wasn't going too well, so finally I decided to take a chance and email the gentleman at the Glitter House site, even though there hadn't been any new patterns posted in a couple of years.

Very awesomely, he answered right back, and soon after that emailed me his pattern for the firehouse he'd created.

Instead of paint, for this one I printed out a Brick pattern and glued it on.

I was afraid Glittering it wouldn't look right, kind of like the Log Cabin, where the glitter hid a lot of the "log siding" detail, so I decided to use "Snow" instead.
I think I should have used a smaller sized Snow, but oh well, it doesn't look too bad.

The Beginning of my 'Cereal Box Village'...