How I Pinch A Penny

My daughter wanted a pinta for her birthday party.  There was NO WAY  I was going to pay $20+ (plus the cost for items to fill it) for a pinta that will be busted up.  That is just not my style.  So I hit the internet once again for ideas and came up with the following tutorial on how I made her pinta.

Combine equal parts flour and water.  I used my food processors
to get rid of lumps quickly.  You can also use a hand whisk.

This is what it looks like once I have whirled it for about 30 seconds.

This is my form.  It is what I call a ‘punch ball’.  I found a pack of 4 at my dollar store for $1.  I blew it up most of the way and tied a knot in the end.  You can also use a traditional balloon if you can’t find a ‘punch balloon’.

Next cut up newspaper.  For this size project I cut a newspaper in thirds and then those strips in thirds again.  There is no rhyme or reason or right or wrong.

I found the best method was placing the paper on the surface of the paste and pressing lightly.

Then scrape it along the edge of the bowl to get rid of the excess.  You are looking for a light coating of paste.

Place the paper on your balloon.

Smooth the paper out. I found this to be less messy and faster drying time as compared to dipping the entire piece in the paste.

This is the end where I will fill the pinta.  Make it big enough so you can put in your biggest item.

This is how I dried the pinta ( this is the newspaper layer… there were 4 newspaper layers… be sure to dry COMPLETELY in between layers.)

The final layer was printer paper.  This way if you want to paint it a light color you don’t have to do a base coat to block out the newspaper print.

Once THIS layer is dried (preferably over night) untie the balloon.  It is SO COOL to hear the balloon release from the shell.

Because I had the rubber band at one end and the knot of the balloon at the other end I now have an opening at the top ( for filling ) and a small one at the bottom.  I threaded a rope from the bottom (small hole) out the top (large hole) and tied a largish knot at the bottom.  The extra rope will be used to tie it to her swing set for her party.

We painted it blue with a bright red 5 on it.  She will be five, you know.  Here is the birthday girl and her Aunt filling the pinta with treats and shredded paper from our paper shredder.

I hope you have learned something and hope you are able to pinch your own pennies by building your own pinta!

This was something that I discovered after Christmas this past year.  I know this recipe/procedure is as old as the hills but it is pretty new to me.  So here is my step by step on how I did it.

Start with Sweetened condensed milk.  NOT evaporated milk.  Be sure to use a coupon when you but it!

Remove the label.  I used an exact-o knife.

Put in a large pot. (really needed a picture for this one, right?)

Cover with water.  Be sure to keep the cans submerged in water.  Boil for 1 1/2 hours.  (The water will not come to a rolling boil…just a rumbling simmer)  Add more water if the water drops below the top of the cans.  What is happening is the sugars and the milk are caramelizing in the can as the water boils.  Remove from the water and cool completely.  I have to rinse off the cans once cooled because my water is so hard it leaves mineral deposits on the cans.  I think it looks bad so I wash it off.  If you are lucky this won’t happen to you.

Print out a label and give as a gift.  If you like this label download it HERE.  This label is NOT for commercial use.

Give the can with a couple of apples and you have a great teacher gift or thank you gift.

My DD’s are in need of summer sleep wear. I thought I would make them some cute breezy nightgowns.  I had seen pillowcase dresses on line and thought they would make simple easy nightgowns.  After some searching this is my interpretation of the pillow case dress/nightgown.

Traditionally you are suppose to use a standard size pillow case but I didn’t want to buy a pack of them  I got fabric from Wal mart for $2 a yard.  For each nightgown I got 3/4 of a yard of 45′ wide fabric.  I have 2 girls so I got 1 1/2 yards of fabric and cut it in 1/2.  It worked out to $1.50 per nightgown.  I already had the ribbon on hand.  So that is not factored into the price.  I know I would pay $20+ for these in a boutique.

3/4 yard of fabric.

I flipped it right sides together  and sewed up the raw edges at 1/4″.                                       You now have your Pillow case.

If you bought a pillow case START HERE.

Cut open the crease/bottom of the pillow case.

Cut arm holes using a “J” cut. I cut this one 4″ down and 3″ across.

Fold over the raw edge 1/4″ at the top raw edge and stitch.

Fold over the raw edge around the arm holes 1/4″ and then again 1/4″ and stitch

Fold the top edge over approximately 1″.  This is a 5/8″ piece of ribbon to show you the fold over.  This will accommodate your ribbon.  Stitch 1/4″ from the top. (decorative. not necessary)  Stitch 1/4″ from the bottom of the fold over. 

Hem the bottom edge. (This is the selvedge edge if you used fabric) I hemmed it 1/4″.  If you used a pillow case it is already hemmed!!

This is 1 1/2″ satin ribbon.  The neck of this nightgown was 20″.  I used 40″ of ribbon PER side.  If you would like our bows or ties to be smaller… use less!!

This is my 4 1/2 year old.  She did NOT want me to take her picture.  Can you tell?  She is wearing the same size as the 2 year old.  I can lengthen it by tying the ribbons longer.

The 2 year old. She wanted to have her picture taken.

If I have inspired you to make something like this let me know!! I love to see what you so with your pennies.

For Christmas my parents got our family Family Fun Magazine.  It is a wonderful magazine full of wonderful crafts, recipes and ideas for you to do with your family.  MANY of the ideas are Penny Pinching friendly.  We all love that!  Here is our interpretation of the Easter Lily craft.

Here is the Original pictures and directions with our interpretation to follow.

CRAFT MATERIALS:

1. Have your child trace his hand onto a piece of white card stock (regular paper works too but isn’t as durable) and cut out the shape. Cut two double leaves from green card stock and punch holes in the centers where the leaves meet, as shown. 

2. Curl the paper fingers and leaves by wrapping them around a pencil. 

3. Wrap the hand around the top of a green plastic straw and secure it with tape. Slide the leaves onto the straw and tape them in place. For the flower’s stamen, fold half of a yellow pipe cleaner in half and curl down the ends. Insert the folded end in the straw. 

Card stock with her handprints drawn on it.

Cut out the hands.

Use a pen or pencil to curl the fingers.

Instead of yellow pipe cleaners we just colored some yellow on the palm of the hand.  We also used green drinking straws instead of green pipe cleaners.

Finished  product.

We took it one step further and spritzed some body spray on them to make they smell as pretty as they looked.

How sweet is she!?  Be sure to write her name and date on them.  Be sure to make enough for all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and special people in your life.

I needed to take a dessert to a funeral luncheon yesterday.  In my penny pinching I didn’t want to go out an buy a whole bunch of extra ingredients.  The TODAY show had mini cupcakes on the other day and I thought I would google mini cup cakes and see what popped up.  Some how I found Bakerella.  She makes lots and lots of yummy goodies that look too good to eat.  The cupcake pop looked like fun so I gave it a try.  When I went searching for this link for this post I was perusing through her site.  It is awesome!!!  So much inspiration and instructions.  Turns out she was on the Martha Stewart show at some point.  Good for her and her blog.

Here is my  interpretation of her instructions.  I had my daughters birthday cake left over from the day before.  It was cake and icing…so I just pureed it up and away we went!  No need to bake another cake and ad a can of icing… it was already done!  Penny pinching and it kept me from eating the rest of the birthday cake myself!  Wooot!

This is what a 2 year olds birthday cake looks like once it meets up with a food processor. This was the consistency of extra soft play dough.

Bakerella had hand rolled her cake mixture into balls. I found the small Pampered Chef scoop worked out well for me. In the next step you are rolling them into a cylinder and stuffing them in a cuter anyway. (this step not pictured but go to the bakerella blog to see it.) One less rolling step this way!

Here are the mini cup cakes with their chocolate coating on. I have them flipped upside down.

Here they are all done. I did use a toothpick instead of a lollipop stick. I didn’t have any so I improvised. I have them stuck in a piece of floral foam covered in foil. I have the foam stuck to the tray with corn syrup. Just a smear keeps the block from sliding on the tray.

So there you go. How I recycled my daughters birthday cake, kept from eating the cake myself and pinched some pennies in a dessert donation. It was good all around.

My daughter was signed up to bring preschool today.  There was a note on the sign up board that the snack that the snack needed to be  a snack ‘to go’.   The group was going to the Y for a field trip for gymnastics.  In case time did not allow the kids were going to take their snack with them.

This is my interpretation of a snack to go.  I did a rice crispy-type treat and cut them in rectangles.  A 9×13 cut into 3 bars by 6 bars.  I wrapped then in plastic wrap.  I used a select-a-size type paper towel and folded 1 section in 1/2 length wise and then width wise.  I wrapped the paper towel around the short width of the treat.  I then secured the whole thing with a paper band.

The band is a printed digital paper. I printed out a 8 1/2 x 11 and cut 1 x81/2″ strips to make the paper bands.  I think they turned out pretty cute.  My 4 year old got to pick the paper and she thought this paisley paper looked like sea shells.

There you go.  A treat to go!

I was talking with a friend last night and she was saying how her shoulder was just aching her.  It was keeping her up at night and it was well….a pain in the neck.  I had asked her if she had a rice bag for it and she looked at me like I was crazy.  Rice bags are awesome!  It is a cotton bag filled 1/2 way with rice and you heat it in the microwave.  

My girls were given THESE bath paints for Christmas.  They are tons of fun and they have easy clean up.  But I am looking at these tiny tubes wondering what is in and can I make it?  It seemed silly to be buying tub paints at $1 per tube.  Talk about money going down the drain!

I have a large slider door in my kitchen and I have noticed that I call feel cold air leaking in at the bottom. The air is coming from the trough where the door slides back. So what do i do about it!? Block it! Or as Martha would say “Dodge it!” Here is a video that inspired my draft dodger. For my fabric I used cream flannel. Cream because it ‘blended’ with the framework of the door but you can use what ever you have on hand. I was fortunate to have fabric on hand. I come from a sewing family so finding scrap fabric never seems to be a problem.

Now Martha uses some sort of expensive earth friendly kitty litter. I am all for earth friendly thing but these are penny pinching times and I am not going out to buy kitty litter when I don’t have a cat! So I filled my draft dodger with rice. Dry rice that is! I have a huge 25 pound bag of rice from Bj’s and I just scooped enough to fill my tube about 3/4 full. I am sure you could get creative and add essential oils like lavender or cinnamon but as I said before these are penny pinching times and I don’t have those in stock right now.

You can make these for any door or window that has a draft. I don’t know if it will make a huge difference in our gas bill but at least my tooties won’t be cold when I walk by the slider!