easy gift idea from a muffin mix and a dish towel

I was shopping at Sam's club and I saw that they were clearancing out the Krusteaz Mimosa mix.  It sounded good so I bought it and took it home to try.  I made a big batch of muffins to take to my seminary class.  Just to be clear, I used water instead of champagne and I referred to them as orange muffins.  The next time I went back to Sam's Club they were even cheaper  That's when the thought occurred to me that I could give them out at Christmas with my home grown oranges.  

I was going to sew little bags to put them in.  But let's be honest, who wants to sew and who would even use a little bag?  That's when it occurred to me to wrap them in a dish towel.  Since mine are Christmas gifts I got red dish towels.  

Place the mix to one side of the center of the towel.

Fold the two sides over.

Fold it in half from the middle so that the two ends of the towel meet at the top.

Scrunch up the towel tightly just above the top of the mix.  Tie on a ribbon.

Make sure to include directions for the mix.  I called mine "Orange you glad it's Christmas muffins".  If you are doing a different occasion give it a name to fit the occasion.  For example "Newly Wed Nibble Muffins"  or "Chocolate Bunny Bake-mix Muffins" etc.

I attached my recipe with a safety pin hidden underneath the ribbon.  These were a big hit, and something that the recipient could actually reuse.

Since I bought my towels at the dollar store and the mixes were sooooo cheap, these ended up costing under $2 a piece! 

Wow!  That is a frugal gift idea!

You could also use cookie mix, cake mix, hot cocoa mix etc.

Forget the Glass Slippers This Princess Wears Flip Flops, Cowboy Boots, Vans or Converse Printouts

I made these printouts for myself, my daughter and granddaughter.  I thought they would love the saying.  If you would like a copy just click on the picture to make it larger.  Then save it into your pictures, or copy and save it into your printing program.  I have mine printed professionally.

Forget the glass slippers

this princess wears flip flops.

Forget the glass slippers

this princess wears

cowboy boots.

Forget the glass slippers

this princess wears

converse

Forget the glass slipper 

this princess wears Vans

Make a Cute Turkey Bow for Thanksgiving

I picked up these cute Halloween bows for fifty cents at a Halloween clearance sale. 

My challenge:
Make Halloween bows into Thanksgiving bows for my granddaughters with the craft supplies that I had on hand.

Here is what I used:
brown ribbon
green ribbon
a yellow plastic star
a wood button
2 tiny googly eyes
a small black puff ball



I hot glued the brown ribbon to the top of the bow to make it look more like a Thanksgiving bow and less like a Halloween bow.

If you do not have a premade bow you can just glue the ribbon onto a barret.  Add as many layers as you like.

When I went on line to see what others had done, the turkeys on the bows seemed too big for little girls to be wearing.  I was determined to make mine smaller, so I used a wooden button for the body of my turkey.

On the back of the button I hot glued five small ribbons to form the feathers.

On the front of the button hot glue a small puff ball.
Then glue on the two googly eyes.

For the beaks I cut off a piece of a small plastic graffiti star.

Hot glue the turkey on top of the ribbon.

Now I can send the bows off to my granddaughters for their Thanksgiving. 

To see all of my other Thanksgiving Ideas click here.

FREE BINGO BOARDS FOR EVERY OCCASION

I love to celebrate the Holidays by playing BINGO in my class. So over the years I've designed many different Bingo Boards to fit the occasion.

Here are the types BINGO boards:

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Grinch

Frozen

New Years

Valentines

St. Patrick's Day

Easter

Fourth of July

Alice in Wonderland

STAR WARS 

Dinosaur 

Harry Potter

Birthday 

Cowboy 

Pioneer  

Gnome

and just plain BINGO.  

SCROLL DOWN -  to the occasion that you are looking for.  I have the students fill in the empty spaces with words of the subjects that we are studying.  

TWO DIFFERENT SIZED BOARDS - There's a board with 24 spaces (one free space) or a board with 16 spaces.

CUSTOM FOR EVERYONE - Each person fills in his/her own card so that no two people have the same card.   I intentionally left them blank for this reason.  This is especially helpful in a large group.

WORDS -  Have the people fill it in from a list of words.  You can custom make it for whatever you are studying or celebrating.  

STICKERS - You could also use stickers instead of writing words to fill in the spaces.  Hand each person a sheet of the same stickers and have them put the stickers in the blank spots, or you can do it ahead of time.

PRINTING-  To print these out, right click your mouse and save them into your pictures.  Or your can copy and paste them into your printing program. Print it on colored paper or card-stock to make it even more fun!

MARKERS - For each holiday I love to use something for markers that relates to the holiday.  For example below is a card filled with candy corn markers.  Valentine's Day use candy valentines, etc. Another idea that I love to use is holiday cereal.  A favorite cereal for a holiday is Lucky Charms for St. Patrick's Day.

BINGO CALL LETTERS AND NUMBERS - Here is an easy way to call simple letters and numbers.  Just write the numbers and letters (from the sheet below) out on each Bingo board.  Write them in a different order, using different letters and numbers, on each board.  Then print out the page below and cut up the squares.  Pull out squares and call the letter or number until someone has BINGO.  This is great idea for young kids, or a nursing home.

BINGO BOARDS

Halloween

Example with treat markers:

Printing:  To print these out, right click your mouse and save them into your pictures.  Or your can copy and paste them into your printing program.

Thanksgiving

Example with treat markers:

Printing:  To print these out, right click your mouse and save them into your pictures.  Or your can copy and paste them into your printing program.

Christmas Bingo

Example with treat markers:

The Grinch Bingo

Frozen BINGO

New Year's Bingo

Printing:  To print these out, right click your mouse and save them into your pictures.  Or your can copy and paste them into your printing program.

Valentine's Day Bingo

Example with treats:

Printing:  To print these out, right click your mouse and save them into your pictures.  Or your can copy and paste them into your printing program.

St. Patrick's Day

Printing:  To print these out, right click your mouse and save them into your pictures.  Or your can copy and paste them into your printing program.

Easter Bingo:

Example with treat markers:

Printing:  To print these out, right click your mouse and save them into your pictures.  Or your can copy and paste them into your printing program.

FOURTH OF JULY

STAR WARS BINGO

DINOSAUR BINGO

Harry Potter BINGO

Alice in Wonderland BINGO

BIRTHDAY BINGO

Cowboy BINGO

Pioneer BINGO

GNOME BINGO

JUST PLAIN BINGO

For markers I like to use things like candy , or cereal.  Since I am teaching an early morning class, I got a bunch of Monster Cereal for Halloween.  My favorite is Lucky Charms for St. Patrick's Day.

Print it on colored paper or card-stock to make it even more fun!

Another fun game to use at a party or for learning in called Education Man.  Check it out here:

Here's the Harry Potter version:

I have so many other holiday ideas.  

Just click on the pictures below to take  you to see the links.