Okay... NOT a craft, but still a GREAT deal!

I know, I know... I said I would only post crafts that are cheap. But... it's for a good reason that I'm breaking my rule. I PROMISE!

Have kids? Have family? Have yourself? Now rephrased: Have kids, family, or yourself with bad vision? Although my rephrasing totally SUCKED, this deal doesn't:

Zenni Optical is having a buy two, get one free for glasses!!!!!! Now, the prescription eye glasses are already starting out at $6.95 a pair! Now you get one pair free for every two pairs you buy? SHOOT!!! Looks like I'm getting more glasses! Plus, if I read the terms and conditions correctly, any additions you get to the glasses are applied to the free ones (like polycarbonate lenses, or scratch resistance)!!!!!! Talk about a SWEET DEAL!!!

As ALWAYS, here are my tips:
1. Buy everyone's glasses TOGETHER! Shipping is only $5 PER ORDER!!!! So, that will already save you some money.
2. If you decide to tint your glasses, know that they are not DARK colors, but BRIGHT ones! I'm talking friggin neon blue, green, and amber is actually pretty much yellow. Now, gray in 80% is almost black. That is the color I ALWAYS get now. If you're all for neon colors, go for it! Otherwise, you can always just tint it a lower percentage. I thought higher meant darker, not brighter. :D
3. Make sure you have your Pupillary Distance (PD) BEFORE you go online. If you got a prescription, they measure that for you, and you PAID for it! You just need to ask for it! Otherwise, I will load a document that you can download, print, and cut out which measures your pd.
4. Go to the glasses store and try glasses on. When you find a pair you like, write down the numbers on the inside of the arm thingy or the bridge of the nose. This will give you the size of the lenses. The frames add a few centimeters. You can always ask the vision center associate how wide the frames are. What I also did was traced the shape of the glasses onto an index card. Sounds silly, but certain shapes just DON'T look good on me! :D
5. HURRY THE HECK UP!!! The deal ends in the beginning of March! If that date has already passed, still check out the website. It's totally worth it!

Here are some pictures of my favorite glasses, but, to start, the opening page at Zenni! 

 I think these ones are just SOOOO cute! :D

 I think I'll order these ones!

 I HAVE these ones, and they are AWESOME!!!!

Christmas Leftovers.....

Okay, so I know Christmas was a few months ago, but some stores are still trying to get rid of their Christmas stuff. Right? Okay, so here are some tips, suggestions, or alternative uses I have for you:

1. Ribbon-- Most of the ribbon doesn't look like it's Christmas ribbon, it's PACKAGE is just Christmas-ish. There are MANY uses for ribbon, a few of which are: Details in crochet/knit blankets, bookmarks & chokers (you can buy ribbon clamps off eBay), hair accessories, etc.
2. Artificial Snow Sheets-- I got bags of this stuff for only $0.50 each, and all it is is sheets of batting. I've been using it for quilts, pillows, etc. I spent HALF of what I'd spend on ONE bag of batting, except I got SIX bags! Talk about a deal!
3. Tubs-- You know, the plastic Rubbermaid storage tubs? Well, they have them color coded for seasons, so this really works after each season. I find that Christmas has the biggest clearance price, though, since red and green are so OBVIOUSLY Christmas!!!
4. Food-- Yeah, as surprising as this may be, there is ALWAYS food that is packaged in Christmas packaging for the season. The expiration date is usually MONTHS out (cereal and such), but it goes on clearance due to the out-dated packaging.This tip is ALSO great for any other holiday. Different holidays have different food items that go on clearance. Like, for example, Gingerbread, Eggnog, or Pumpkin coffee creamer during the Christmas season. Mine STILL isn't bad that I got after Christmas. Has another two weeks left on it! :D
5. Tupperware-- Yup, tupperware. Well, actually, probably not that BRAND, but leftover food storage containers. They overstock on these items, and, of course, a lot of them have Christmas designs on the packaging. Some of them are red and green, or gold and red. Who cares, though, right?
6. Material-- Okay, so the BEST holiday for cheap material always seems to be Halloween, but Christmas has some GREAT leftover material as well. I'm not sure why, but I always find that the panels go on clearance right after the holiday.

I'll leave my tips to that... for now! If you have any additions, let me know! :D

Cheap Trick!

I was shopping at a certain craft store, which I won't name, when I realized how EXPENSIVE craft supplies are! Granted, I used to think the prices were just fine. What changed? eBay is what changed my opinion. See, you can get the same products at a FRACTION of the cost. Seriously! Below are a few pictures of craft items I got off eBay, which are at least 5 TIMES as much at the craft stores in my area! I made some really nice bookmarks, and total cost amounted to about $0.50 each, and I gave them as gifts. No complaints, since everyone loves to read. At least in my family they do! :D

***Important Note: I will have the approximate price I paid for each piece. I posted links to the search pages for each of the items. I purchased in bulk, because I was able to then sell the leftovers and get my money back. A few additional tips for purchasing on eBay is to look at the cost of shipping, look at seller rating (VERY important), and if you don't get your item by three and a half weeks out, contact the seller. eBay has a 45 day time-frame where, if you don't start an "Item Not Received Case", you lose your money and may NEVER get your item. If the seller says something like, oh, I'm having issues with PayPal, still open a case no later than day 40 (happened to me, and I lost $32!) Online, in general, gets you better prices. You just have to be careful... and wait for the items!!! (From China, it's about 3 weeks to a month that you'll have to wait. Planning is key here!)***

Bookmark I made for approx $0.50 each. Dolphin bookmarks (search for this term, though I included the best deal I could find in the link), and the stones are Apatite (or something like that).

 Next picture is of a bracelet I made. Stones cost a little bit more, about $0.10 each (Wood Jasper), and the beads in between cost approx $0.01 each (Tibetan Silver Tube Spacer Beads, Tibetan Silver Bead Caps). The Memory Wire generally costs about $0.02 each loop.

The next picture is of some feathers I got off Eskay. It's a small company, but they shipped fairly quickly, and the feathers were in excellent shape! I paid approx $0.35 each feather, and they sell at the craft stores for about $8 for three.

Crescent Rolls--Accessorized!

I buy the cheapest container of crescent rolls, which here runs about $2.99 per pack of 8. Not too bad, considering this can be a multi-functional treat!

The ones I ATTEMPTED to take pictures of are lasagna-ish crescent rolls. They surprisingly turned out really well! I caution, though, to pay attention to the stars--they tell you what I found out as I was trying out this recipe.

What you will need:

1 pack of crescent rolls (or more)
Spaghetti Sauce (I like mine chunky, so I do a huge pot. That recipe will be coming on here next.)
Cottage Cheese (I used Fat Free. Also, it was on clearance--****Important clearance tip: Make sure you only get as much as you'll use, or else you aren't really saving money. You're wasting it.****)

Yes, that's all you really need. I turned the oven on to 350 degrees first, to preheat the oven. Then, I opened the crescent rolls. It's better if you roll them all out first, because as they warm up, they tend to stick together. Next, lay out a sheet of wax paper (won't stick to the rolls, and makes it easy to cleanup after). I did NOT do this step, as you'll see in the pictures. This helps cut costs lower, and helps the environment. But, do whichever you want. Now, you'll spread a thin layer of cottage cheese on the rolls (****Make sure you do a VERY thin layer, no curds should be on top of each-other. Otherwise, it will make the rolls too thick, and they won't bake in the center!!!). After the cottage cheese is on all the rolls, spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on top of the cottage cheese (****Same thing as the cottage cheese, keep layer as thin as possible, since it will not close and won't bake all the way through.****). That's it, relish if you want to, then line them about half an inch apart. My pan was fairly small, and I tested a few different types of crescent rolls, failed a few times, so I only had two in  my pan. That's okay. Fit however many you can. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, give or take a few minutes. Check on the rolls every few minutes AFTER 10 minutes has passed. Once the rolls are a dark golden color, they should be cooked all the way through, unless you made them too thick. Than you'll have to figure that out. :D (The ones that I made that were too thick were just popped into the microwave, though they weren't very pretty anymore.)

Some variations I tried:
Cheddar Cheese
Peanut Butter and Chocolate. (My FAVORITE!!!!)

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

I'm having issues loading pictures. I will attempt again tomorrow... I hope. :D

Jell-O Whips

My mom used to have us make these, to make money in our neighborhood. We grew up fairly poor, and these were VERY cheap to make. I'm not entirely sure where she got the recipe from, but it's VERY simple, and yields about four cups worth of drink (more or less, depending on how thick you like it). Two things we learned about this drink: 1. You can alter the recipe to include ANY fruit, really, and it will still taste delicious. 2. You must drink it fairly fast, as it does tend to separate as it thaws.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 Box of diet Jell-o in Strawberry-Banana flavor  (Gellatin, whatever... we always get the sugar-free, cheap brand that's about $0.50 or less. Brand does NOT matter!)
1 Cup boiling water
1 Banana
1-2 Trays of Ice  (More ice equals thicker)

Equipment you will need:
Blender

In a blender, combine boiling water and Jell-O. Turn on lowest setting for about 5 seconds. Drop in banana, and turn onto the highest setting. As soon as banana is pureed, and there are no more big chunks, start dropping in ice cubes, one at a time. Don't put them in too fast, as it will cause the blender to freeze up (hehe... nice way to put it, eh?). If you already did this, simply put a little bit of water into the blender, turn it off, and then press pulse button a few times. This will loosen it up, again. Simply drop in ice until it is as thick as you want it to be.

Pour into cups, and enjoy! Trust me, DELICIOUS!!!!!