Paperless Gift Wrapping

Rated: Easy, embarrassingly easy.

Materials: Any scrap fabric that suits you

I don’t purchase wrapping paper at any retail store, ever. I find wrapping paper at yard sales or just use last weeks sale ads and dress it up with a pretty ribbon. It works for me, but my mother in law, Melody has come up with a winning idea. She didn’t use paper at all this Christmas. She found heaps of different sized, unique fabric laying around her house and wrapped all gifts in them. She secured each package with yarn that she had. The result was a soft, warm gift wrap that can be reused. Simple, yet very unique. For those who don’t have fabric and yarn in their household, swing by your Grandmas. She has a closet full.

Merry Christmas!!
Carie

Laundry Intervention

Rated: Simple and Difficult
Materials Needed: None

In our family is 4 people. Stewart, me, and our two girls. I was doing about 3 loads of laundry every other day without question. My husband pointed out that I was doing a ton of laundry and besides that, most of what I was washing was not dirty. I was in shock that he would question my thoroughness (and a little mad). The next morning, getting ready to do a load of laundry, I took the time to do a smell and look test of every item in the bucket (Well, not every item, I’m not going to get that personal with yesterdays socks). I put away the clothes that passed the test and the results were interesting. I cut the pile down by 50%.
It was difficult for me to fold and put away clothes that I knew had been worn and not washed. Why is that though? I guess you have to change your thinking. I know I’m not the only one in America who gets accustomed to the availability of clean water and a functioning washer machine. So what would happen if you and I didn’t have that? If we had to wash all our families clothes by hand with a limited amount of clean water? The answer would be wash the stinky and dirty. On the flip side, I felt like my family needed to have CLEAN, freshly washed clothes. It was definitely a struggle to choose clothes to wash.
The bottom line though is this: I just cut my laundry bill by 50%. I’m consuming 50% less water, I’m making my detergent last twice as long and my family is still clean and nice smelling. Stewart, you were right. Just this once!

Fall Welcome Mat

Rated: Easy! Materials: Leaves, an ugly used door mat, spray paint colors of your choice

So your once colorful welcome mat is now a sad looking rectangle. It happens to everyone. Your first thoughts may be to go buy a pretty new one and spend $20 or you might just hold onto it as is because even though it’s ugly, it still serves it’s purpose well.


Did you know though that with just a few minutes of your time, you can turn your tired mat into a one of a kind welcome mat?

Step one is clean your old mat well. Smack it around, turn it upside down and jump on it. Do that until your not seeing dirt come off it anymore.

Step two is find a variety of fall leaves and arrange on your mat.

Step three is to start spray painting, being careful not to blow your leaves away. You’ll want to keep the leaves exactly in the same spot until you are done with all the spray painting. I used 3 almost empty spray paint cans in a rust red, brown and a teeny bit of yellow. I used an enamel kind, it should be water proof and last.

So that’s all that’s to it. Let it dry and use.

Acorn Cap Necklace

Rated: Easy to Moderate (because of running a drill)
Materials Needed: Acorn caps, a drill with drill bit, wire or string, beads (optional), spray paint (optional), necklace clasp (optional)

No need to spend money on new jewelry, look outside under your local oak tree. Free and biodegradable 🙂

Gather the acorn caps, more than you think you need. Next, Prepare to drill every cap, choose a drill bit that will work well with your choice of necklace wire or string. Find center and drill away. Drilling the holes took some time but man oh man does my daughter love her necklace. She wore hers all day, and the day after.

Now that you have a bunch of acorn caps with holes, it’s time to create the necklace. Tie one cap to the end of your wire or string (or use your necklace clasp) and then begin to bead them. I thought open end to open end would look awesome, like wooden beads, but what do I know. My craft volunteers like to mix things up.

When all the string/wire is filled, save some room and create a loop to go over the opposite end of the necklace. Or, if you have a professional clasp, use that.

And here we have the finished product. Yay!

Even though we kept the original look to the acorn caps, you could always spray paint the caps to any color.

What’s it all about?

Creating Carie is about pulling out the gifts in us. Where ideas are tried and shared, using the objects around us to create solutions for life’s opportunities.

On this site, you’ll find fresh ideas and old ideas with new life breathed into it. Remember that guy who said “there’s nothing new under the sun.”? I totally can relate to what he’s talking about. However, just because the fall season comes every year at around the same time, is it ever boring? Heck no. There’s always creativity to be sought out even in the most repetitive looking projects and ideas.

Carie