How to Make Your Own Coupon Binder

(I know, this had nothing to do with Free Clip Art or Images, but anything that saves me money so that we can have more disposable income for our craft ispertinent! :) Not to mention, it's not just food that I save on, a lot of times I get free tape, pens, markers, glue, misc. office supplies, paper, and great deals on ink, etc!) Still not interested.. don't read. There will be free images up tomorrow for you! :) I am not selling you anything! Promise! :) These are just my personal lessons learned and shared!

Hi, my name is Abbie and I am a closet coupon queen!! Seriously, last year I saved thousands? with couponing! There are so many great resource sites out there, I'm not going to recreate the wheel, but what works for me is different than anything I have found elsewhere so I thought it worthy to share.

There are so many options out there for organizing your coupons, envelopes, pockets, boxes, binders, etc.. If you are serious about truly saving money and stockpiling when prices are rock bottom then you'll need a serious system to keep yourself organized.

My personal recommendation is a coupon binder. You can assemble your own a lot cheaper, and we are here to save money aren't we? Having spent months tweeking mine, (I started by making my own pockets.. not the greatest idea when I have dozens and dozens of pages!) I have finally developed a system that is working. For me. Yours will grow and change as you figure out what works and what doesn't for you. What categories you need and which don't apply. No pets? Leave that section out.

A few recommendations:

1. Get a three ring binder and have it zip! Having dropped mine on numerous occasions trying to juggle it, a purse and two wee ones, a zipper is a lifesaver!
2. Make sure it has extra outside pockets! I use these to store my calculator and small scissors. I also tuck my coupons in them as I travel through the store, then when I am done shopping, all my coupons are in one place, waiting for me to hand them to the cashier.
3. Use baseball card protector sleeves to sort your coupons. They are perfectly sized for most coupons and are easy to find. I tried making my own and I needed too many. Just buy them, they will pay you back. Promise. You can find them at Walmart or online.

4. Use the Avery 31 day page dividers. That gives you 31 categories for your coupons.
I purchased mine at Staples. They weren't cheap, but they are sturdy and should last a long time. And the rainbow colors are pretty! :) They make me happy to sort my coupons.

Coupon Binder Categories

Here is a list of the categories that I use for my binder. Feel free to adjust them as needed! I have set these up for the Avery 31 Page Dividers.

1. Salty Snacks
2. Sweet Snacks
3. Bread/ PB & J
4. Fruit/Vegetables
5. Pasta/Sauce
6. Soup/Canned Goods
7. Baking/Spices
8. Breakfast
9. Rice/Prepared Sides
10. Condiments/Salad Dressing
11. Drinks
12. Refrigerator
13. Freezer
14. Candy/Gum
15. Food Packaging (ie. plastic bags, foil)
16. Paper Products
17. Laundry
18. Household Cleaners
19. Dish Washing
20. Candles/Air Fresheners
21. Medicine/Allergy/Colds
22. Vitamins
23. Oral Care
24. First Aid/Eye care
25. Beauty/Make-Up
26. Soap/Body Wash
27. Hair
28. Lotion
29. Shaving/Deodorant
30. Feminine Products
31. Pets

Other Items to personalize your own list:

• Baby
• Home
• Office
• Clothing
• Restaurants

Do you have any coupon organizing ideas that really work of you? We'd love to hear!

Feel free to 'PIN' this post. I am trying to figure out the code to add a PIN button to my posts but it's not working very well. lol! there is always something!

(Note: this is my post with my images, if you have seen them before but can't recall where, I started a coupon blog a while back and this is as far as I got!)

Enjoy!

xoxo~

Abbie

DIY Reusable Fabric Softner Dryer Sheets

Have you grown tired of buying, buying, buying? It seems like all I do is run out of this, run out of that, and am constantly in a state of using and throwing away. Using and throwing away. It's the little things that are adding up, costly and wasteful. (and that takes money and time away from my crafting and creating!!) This post is in direct response to the mound of dryer sheets I used to toss in the trash (I would use them twice, also to dust with, etc.. but at the end of their life they ended up in the garbage and I had to buy more.) At two loads of laundry a day (approx.) that is a lot of dryer sheets!

I tried using the idea on Pinterest of soaking a washclothe in fabric softner, ringing it out, letting it dry. Supposedly it would be good for 30+ loads. Nahhh... it worked for about 2, and I found myself constantly refreshing it, and it was hard to find sometimes in my laundry as the static was horrid and the washclothe would disappear into the nether world of a pantleg or sleeve.

I also tried adding vinegar to the wash.. that didn't work either! I hate static! :)

Here is my solution. It works. I've used it.

 You'll need:

A bottle of liquid softner.. I really like the fragrance of the Purex brand above. (no, I have not received anything for this post!) :)

A spray bottle

An old towel or some washclothes, preferably in a color that is bold and bright and is easy to remember as a 'fabric softner' sheet.

First, cut up your towel if need be. I used a bright old coral colored one so that I could easily find it in my load and would remember to set it aside and not stick it in the closet with the washclothes.

Next, I used a recycled Shout spray bottle. But any spray bottle would do. Mines not pretty but it's functional, and to me that is most important. (If it is small in size, cut down the amount of liquid fabric softner you put in it.)

Put one cup of the fabric softner in the spray bottle and fill the rest of it up with water. Shake gently to mix it.

My stack of 'dryer sheets' is in a small hanging basket shelf right above my dryer. When I toss in a load of laundry, I grab a sheet, spritz it 3-4 times with the watered down fabric softner and toss it in the dryer with the laundry.

That's it! I get hundreds of sprays per bottle (or per 1 cup of softner) instead of using a 1/4 cup per load in the wash. If I use it the wash, it washes out (duh..) and I find that it doesn't work well enough for the amount of product I use.  You may need to add a few more spritzes or a few less depending on your preferences.

Do you have any tips that REALLY work? I'd love to hear and I'm sure others would too!

Hope you find it helpful! Please feel free to Pin this post.. just be sure to link back to it!

Thank you!

xoxo~

Abbie

DIY Homemade Body Wash ~ Lavender Wisteria

  

My mom and I made our own body wash this week! I had seen an easy tutorial on Pinterest (yes.. I know. I have a problem. I am hooked. Can't help myself!) to make hand soap so we thought we'd try it on body wash. (something that I was desperately in need of as I had been using my husbands bar soap for days now..) 'Manly' is not quite the fragrance I go for most days.

Anyways... we used Yardley's Lavender Wisteria bar soap although any, all natural soap would work great. (I'm not sure how the deodorants would melt in soaps such as Irish Spring)

 You will need:

• About 8 oz of an all natural bar soap (we used two 4 oz. bars at $4.99 each)
• Grater (I used our kitchen grater.. it is just soap after all!)
• 2 Tbsp of Glycerin (I found mine at CVS near the skin lotions and Vitamin E) $5.79 for the bottle but we barely used any of it. A one time cost for gallons and gallons of liquid soap.
• Large stock pot (again, just out of my kitchen)
• A gallon of water
• Funnels of different sizes (see below.. we made our own!)
• Large metal spoon (we used a wooden one that I'll keep just for soap now)
• Electric beater
• Containers to put your finished body wash in (we upcycled some from our recycle bin.)

 How to:

Step One, grate your soap! This is the hardest part of the whole process! It's a 'grate' arm workout! *groan*

We grated ours onto parchment paper.

Next, put your soap shavings, the gallon of water and the 2 Tbsps gylercin into the stock pot. Put it on the stove and set the heat to medium. We didn't boil ours, just let it heat up. It smells so wonderful when it's warming up!

Stir your soap mixture gently until all the soap shavings dissolve/melt. You will have a nice cloudy soft mess in about 5 minutes.

Take your pot off the heat and let your soap sit. It'll start to thicken in a few hours but needs 8-12 hours to completely set and cool. Once set, it'll be the strange consistency of goop. Part solid, part snot. Sorry, there is no other way to describe it. You'll understand.

Next, stir it up as best as you can to loosen it, then use your mixer with beaters to mix it. this breaks apart most of the globs and smoothes it out.

Lastly, use some creative funnel mojo to pour your newly made bodywash into your recycled containers. I used an old J&J baby shampoo bottle for what I'll use in my shower and the rest I poured into a cranberry juice container to refill from later. My mom took half a gallon in a half gallon milk carton.

That's it! You're all set to use your body wash! An entire gallon of it! The only thing a bit strange, (not bad, just strange) is it's a bit slimey? I guess is the word. I smoosh it into my washcloth and it works perfectly and smells wonderful! That's the only thing 'wierd' about it.

When my husband got home the other night and asked "Why? why make it when you can buy it?" Well, Because.. because it keeps ten? plastic bottles out of landfills or from needing to be recycled. Because, now I know EXACTLY what is in my soap. Because it saves money! A lot of money! you can buy 20 oz of all natural, organic body wash for about $10. My mom and I made 128 oz for $15 which includes the full price of the glycerin. Next time it'll be only $10! Six times the product, for the same price and no waste. You can't beat that! It makes sense for EVERYONE, even if you can afford to buy it.

Oh, wait. there was a bit of waste. The two soap boxes. Here is an idea for upcycling them, too.

Open your box carefully along the seam. Flatten it out. Flip it inside out and close the seam with a bit of glue or clear tape. Fold the tabs in and voila! A pretty little box just the perfect size for giftcards, jewelry, etc.. (and it smells lovely!)

THERE. Now there is NO waste.

Feel free to Pin any of the images from this post, just please make sure they link back here!

Thank you! Enjoy!
xoxo~

Abbie

Handpainted Wooden Sign Tutorial

Have you ever stumbled across something on the web and said "They want how much for that?? I could make one myself!" Most often I do just that, but alas, very rarely do I ever get down to work and actually 'make' what ever 'it' happens to be. Painted name signs are one of those things...I love them! Have been browsing through Etsy looking at different styles, etc.. and finally decided to take the plunge. Here is a quick tutorial on how to make your own, custom, hand painted wall plaque, wall art, sign, whatever.. :)

First, you need a board or canvas. I prefer wood. We have a ton of scrap lumber in the basement left over from our home construction. I found a tongue and groove piece, maybe 12" by 28". I'm not exactly sure how big it is, it's hanging up above my sink and I don't want to climb up there and measure. But size doesn't matter.. you'll see.. I wanted black letters on a white background, so, dah, I painted the entire thing white. With acrylics. Again, what I had on hand.

Now, to the computer! :) I typed our name into Microsoft Office and adjusted the font BIG. The size of your font is not limited to the numbers that pop down, you can click on the font size box and type in any number you choose. Did you know that?? Really slick for making fonts BIG. I guesstimated the size I wanted the letters, (if you scale your word processing screen view to be the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper you can see the font at the exact size it'll print. I think the font size I used was 130. Only three letters would print per line.. MOO and then below that was NEY. I changed fonts for the 'est. 2003' just, well, I like that look.

HINT: Print your letters in light grey!! That way you use way less black ink than if they were solid black. You just need to see the edge clearly.. grey works fine. Trim out your letters/words and place them on your board the way you'd like them. Make sure they fit and that you have centered them. Nothing will peeve you more than going through this whole process to find that your work isn't centered.

Next, old school it. Flip your papers over and scribble with the edge of a pencil all over the back making sure to cover where the letters are on the other side. (If you have tracing paper you can use that instead). Place them back on position on your board and tape them down. (they won't slide around on you that way.)

Trace over all the edges of the letters and transfer their outline to the painted surface.

Now comes the harder part for most.. take your time, use a small, well made paint brush with a fine point (crappy cheap doesn't cut it here AT ALL!) When you have a nicely made paint brush in your hand you'll be amazed at the quality of painting you can do!! Fill in all of the letters/numbers as best as possible. Hold your hand steady, water down your paint (acrylics work fine) just slightly to help the paint flow if needed. Don't sweat the waggles and jogs, the next steps can take care of that.

Now, step back and let it dry. OVER NIGHT at least. Nothing will make you swear faster than trying to sand wet paint. It ain't purrrty, I tell ya.

Ok, now you need a sanding block or sandpaper. Go at it!! distress those corners and take off paint! It'll smooth out the surface and you really can't hurt it. It all just adds character.

Wipe with a slightly damp paper towel or a tack cloth to remove the dust. (I used paper towel.. it's what I had on hand) You can choose to leave your piece like that or you can stain it.. which I chose, just to age it a bit more.

Again, using acrylic paint I mixed brown paint and water to the thickness of milky coffee. You want a deeper color? Use less water or a darker brown... I dobbed (technical term) a paper towel in the watery mix and wiped it on the sign and then wiped it off... I did this several times until I reached the effect I was going for. Just a little bit of color in the corners and on the surface to take away the glare of the pure white.

That's it! Attach a hanger to the back or prop it up on a table or shelf . the nice thing about making it? when I get tired of it, I can trash it. Hey, you make the art, you have the right to toss it out! Or change it, or give it away, or break it, or paint over it..

Enjoy!

xoxo~

Abbie

Update on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 6:31PM by Abigail Mooney

One of our visitors, Janet, had the BEST idea for transfer images!! Here is her comment,

"I love it! Another tip is to trace your letters on to tissue paper, then lay the tissue on your sign board and use a fine Sharpie pen to trace over the letters. The Sharpie bleeds through the tissue paper, leaving easy lines to follow for painting."

Thank you for sharing Janet! that is definitely the way I'll do it next time!

xoxo~

Bat Lampshade Tutorial ~ Halloween Decor

Here is a super quick, and very inexpensive way to dress up your lamps for Halloween. All you'll need standard black construction paper, scissors, tape and the template below.

 Just click on the image below to download and print out the template. (or instead of printing, open the PDF, size it 100% on the screen and lay a thin white piece of paper on your computer screen and trace around the template lightly with a soft pencil... saves ink!)

This design fits a standard small lampshade with a top diameter of 3" and a bottom diameter of 5".

First, place the open bat side of the template (see the arrow above) on the fold of a large sheet of paper (you can make one by taping two 8.5"x11" white sheets together.)  cut around the template but don't cut the folded side! Cut the half bat silhoutte out.  Place the template onto a black piece of standad construction paper.  (9" x 12").  cut around the outside, I used pinking shears to give the bottom edge a jagged look.  Wrap them in a circle and tape closed. Slide over your lampshade.

(Hint: and easy way to cut out the bat is to fold the black shade in half and then cut it out.)

These would be cute with spider images or pumpkins! (You can tape small face pieces to the shade after cutting out the pumpkin shape). Just a thought! You can also use this as a jumping off point for larger shades too.. just need larger paper or fabric.

Enjoy!
xoxo~

Abbie