Valentines is right around the corner, and I’ve got a great roundup of 60 free Valentines Day printables for you!  I’ve found Valentines, boxes, bag toppers, scratch offs, chocolate bar wrappers, lollipop decorations and more!

I’m trying something new with this roundup-I’ve collected all the relevant links on a site called Pinterest-then used that service to link up the photos.  This made it much, much easier on me to include all the photos! When you click on any of the pictures below, it will take you to a page on Pinterest showing the image and a very brief description.  Just click on that image and it will take you right to the website with the printable.

I’m interested to hear what you all think of this format-if you love it, hate it or don’t mind it but aren’t thrilled   Please leave a comment and let me know!

Now, on to the 60 fantastic frugal printables!

Source: inktreepress.typepad.com

I hope you enjoy all these great free printables!

I don’t suppose it has escaped your notice that there is a lot going on at this time of year!  We always have tons going on in the last few weeks before Christmas-2 school parties for the kids, a work party for Yankee Bill, concerts for each of the kids, church pageant rehearsal and pageant, neighborhood party. . . the list goes on and on. It’s almost too much.

I still wanted to have a get together with a few of my friends, but I didn’t want to spend a fortune doing it (after all, there are presents to be bought) and I didn’t want to get all stressed out.  So I decided to host my first, hopefully annual, cookie swap.

Now you can do really neat things with a cookie swap.  The basic premise is everyone bakes a whole bunch of one type of cookie, then you all exchange cookies & go home with a variety!

My friend Denise over at Wholesome Mommy put together a lovely cookie swap with a pretty winter wonderland theme.  She had food, flower arrangements, prizes for different cookie categories (most original, prettiest etc) and even a wrapping station with different decorated containers for taking the cookies home.  She is such a great hostess!

I decided to go a slightly different, more casual route.

I live in the country (well, in a small town in the middle of country) and things are very informal here.  I just wanted an excuse to get together with friends.  The idea of the cookie swap was to LESSEN all our work around the holiday, not to stress me out with planning.  Hence the “low stress” cookies swap!

I invited 5 of my friends over to the house both by Facebook messaging and good old telephone.  I would have loved cute invitations, but then I would have had to either deliver them or mail them-and that was more stress, not less.  I just told everyone to bring 6 dozen cookies to my house and come prepared to hang out, chat and swap cookies.

First, of course, I went shopping at Walmart to gather all my supplies then baked 6 dozen of my no chill gingerbread cookies.  I made four batches and almost ran out of molasses-which was a first.  Instead of my typical icing I made some royal icing and did a quick “snowflake” design on them all. (note: you can buy “meringue powder” with the cake decorating stuff at Walmart.  It’s dried pasteurized egg whites, so you don’t have to worry about having raw eggs in your icing)

Please, ignore my girl beer in the photo

The house was already all decorated up for Christmas, so I didn’t have to do any decorating.  I did run around and straighten up-to include (*gasp*) vacuuming & sweeping.  However the mop stayed in the corner-I had intended to mop but there just wasn’t enough time.

I spent a few minutes clearing the ever present “stuff” off the dining room table and laying out a pretty Christmas tablecloth and lighting some big candles in the center of my Advent wreath.

I got creative and decided to write the beverage choices on one of my plates with dry erase pen.  I was just so impressed with myself for this idea!

Then I moved a bunch of chairs into the living room so we’d all have a place to sit, pulled out my pretty dishes and a gold tray I purchased last year after Christmas on discount at Walmart, turned up the heat, turned the “Sounds of the Season” station on the TV on and called it good.

Folks started showing up at 10 (that’s a.m.) with lots of delicious cookies.

There was a good variety of cookies.  My gingerbread, two different kinds of thumbprints (apple & raspberry), chocolate chip, chocolate no bake, and even linzer cookies!

We all sat down in the living room to drink some coffee and chat.  This was sort of a “mid morning coffee break” party, so I didn’t really plan a bunch of food.  Instead I had a few of my “extra” gingerbread cookies on a plate, along with some little key lime cookies I had gotten from the Walmart World Table brand.  I purchased a box of the “Holiday” themed Green Mountain coffees for my Keurig at Walmart, so I was able to offer everyone their choice of coffee or tea types.

Then we sat around, talked, drank coffee, talked, held my girlfriend’s 3 month old, talked, ate a few cookies, talked. . .well you get the idea.

Three hours later. . . we realized it was almost time for the kids to start arriving home from school and maybe we better actually divvy out the cookies!

Again, to keep it low stress I just threw a box of gallon sized zipper baggies on the table and we all dove in dividing them up.   As we divided them we put them in plastic Walmart bags to take home (I swear, those things reproduce in my basement).

When the trays were empty and the bags were full, folks started gearing back up in boots, coats and gloves to head off.

Everyone had a good time, my house only took a few minutes to straighten up, I didn’t wind up totally stressed and I have 6 dozen different cookies to freeze for Christmas morning!

I’d say that was a success!

See, you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a great holiday party!

Disclosure: This post is part of a campaign I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with  compensation and product for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own. 

****This is a sponsored post****

Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to start thinking about the next holiday in the chute-Thanksgiving!

I am all about food (maybe you’ve noticed!) so I love Thanksgiving as a holiday.  It is nice to have a holiday that is lower stress than the gift giving holidays like Christmas, and since it is all about spending time with your family and having gratitude for what you have it just seems calmer all the way around.

Photo by Teribitiha 4

Every family seems to have it’s own traditions for thanksgiving food.  Yes-the mainstays are the same country wide-a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes. . . but every family seems to have their special side dishes that are only brought to the table for Thanksgiving.

In my family it wouldn’t have been thanksgiving growing up if there weren’t creamed onions on the table.  It was the only time of year my mom ever made this dish, which made it all the more special.  We also were big fans of Grandma’s Sausage Stuffing, the standard green bean casserole, winter squash (cooked with maple syrup & butter) and you just better have a dish of green and black olives on the table. Oh-and my mom always made a mincemeat pie alongside the pumpkin-which is weird because I don’t actually remember anyone particularly liking it.

My husband’s family has their own traditions.  Thanksgiving wouldn’t be thanksgiving at his house without shrimp cocktail served about a half hour before the meal in pretty little crystal cups with a bed of lettuce, and scalloped oysters alongside all the typical family favorites.

So what are your family’s favorite thanksgiving side dishes?

If you have a special thanksgiving recipe, I’d love to hear it!  You can go on over to my recipe submission form and tell me all about it!

Has Halloween snuck up on you? Do you need a few last minute holiday decorating ideas? Well I’m here to help with links to a few free Halloween printables.

Photo by Dave (aka Riptheskull)

Do you need some quick Halloween table decor for your party?  Just print out these cute Halloween labels to wrap around some tin cans and viola! Cute and classy!

These Vintage Halloween Card Graphics would be adorable (and super fast & easy) in a series of frames-or you could print them out and use them as last minute Halloween cards.

I can think of tons of uses for these free printable vintage poison labels.  You can turn almost any bottle or jar into a spooky decoration, or use them over the lables on your beer or soda cans.

Of course Martha Stewart (whose favorite holiday is Halloween) has tons of free Halloween printable templates on her site including stairway shillouettes, creepy mice, ghosts in the mirror and more. I especially like her spooky candy labels, the printable vellum lanterns and the printable Halloween wine labels.

Enjoy!

Well Halloween is almost upon us!   Walmart asked me to share with all of  you some ways that I keep Halloween frugal for my family.

The major Halloween costs can be broken down into 3 parts: candy, costumes, and decorations.

1.  Candy

Yum. Candy.

Candy is one of the biggest expenses for us at Halloween each year.

No, really.

We live on a 2 mile loop in the village with nice sidewalks and streetlights.  Families in the surrounding farmland (read-lousy trick ‘o treating) drive into town, park at the grocery store parking lot about 1/4 mile up the street from us and take their kids through town.

We get around 150 kids.  That’s a lot of candy!

So I like to mix some of the nicer brand name candy with some of the old classics-like lollipops-to make our money go farther.  I also comparison shop to see which bags give me the most “bang” for my buck.  I usually purchase those huge “mix” bags of candy at Walmart.

I wish that I could give out homemade treats-bags of caramel corn or my Halloween Hands. . .but in today’s environment I think that most parents would err on the side of safety and just throw it out.

Plus then we’d be the folks who gave out the cruddy homemade snacks instead of Snickers bars.

Oh, I did buy a new plastic Halloween bucket/bowl to put the candy in-it was about $2.  That will be saved and used for years, of course!

2.  Costumes

I am very lucky.  Buddy & Princess love coming up with their own costume ideas and making them from things around the house.  Last year Buddy decided he wanted to be an eyeball, and Princess wanted to be a rock star! Talk about easy costumes!  Princess wore her “coolest” clothes along with makeup (ooohhh, ahhhh), and old boom style phone headset as a pretend microphone, some of my jewelry and glitter hairspray we bought at Walmart.  Buddy and I made a sandwich board style eyeball for him out of foam board.

Rock Star & Eyeball. That's variety!

This year they both want to be vampires.  Big surprise there-vampires are the “in thing” and you see them everywhere right now.  Princess choose to be a “teenage” vampire-which means wearing her coolest clothes and makeup.  Buddy wants to go the traditional vampire route, like those he’s seen on old Scooby Doo episodes, so he is wearing black pants, white shirt, and a red vest we already had (the boy loves vests so I pick them up when I see them at the thrift store).

Buddy really wanted a cape as well-but the only ones I could find were fairly expensive-$10 for a one use item.  And those were in adult sizes. Instead I headed to Walmart’s trusty fabric department and found a bolt of black felt for $2.97 a yard.  I bought 2 yards (in case Princess opts for a cape last minute) and am going to whip up a quick no sew cape.  Basically a rectangle with slits cut along the top to run a strip of the felt through as a tie.  That’s the great thing about felt (or even polar fleece). . . it doesn’t unravel.  If I hadn’t found the felt I probably would have rigged up a quick cape out of a black plastic lawn sized trashbag.

Of course both kids will use makeup and fangs to complete their costumes.  It is so easy to pick up costume makeup at this time of year for just a few dollars.

What am I dressing up as?  Well, I don’t really dress up, but if I felt moved to I have a real Indian Sari from my trip around the world in college, or I could easily whip up a Gypsy costume from a skirt and blouse with hoop earrings & my copious collection of scarves.

Yankee Bill has a super creepy mask he bought on sale a few years back that he pairs with a vampire cape I purchased in the post Halloween bargain basement sales 2 years ago that he wears when answering the door to scare the bejesus out of kids. . .

3.  Decorations

I love decorating for the holidays!  We have a gorgeous wide wrap around porch that I am very vain about.  I love the front of the house to look lovely for all season.  Of course, I don’t want to spend a fortune doing it!  So when I choose decorations I do so with an eye to reuse.  I tend to go for items that I feel are classy and add a few things each year until I have the look I want.

Two years ago I purchased fall “leaf” garlands for the porch.  This was a major expense-I needed to buy 6 of them, and they don’t quite stretch all the way around!  You don’t want to know how much I spent.  Actually I don’t even remember-I think I’ve subconsciously blocked it out due to frugal guilt.

This year I added a lot to the decor, thanks to Walmart!  First I purchase some cool “Freaky Fabric” to hang from the porch columns.

I bought the white cup hooks to install them with. Those will stay up all year.

These panels were more expensive than the stretchy white spiderweb-$4 as opposed to $1-but that stuff is shot after one use, and I should get several years of use from the freaky fabric.

See those black panels up there? Cool eh?

Then Yankee Bill made me a cool “spooky tree” from an old dead Hawthorn tree set into a bucket filled with quick setting concrete.   The bucket looked pretty lame, so I bought a yard of burlap at Walmart for about $2, begged some hay bale twine off a girlfriend with horses and fixed it up.

Admit it, this is uber cool right!

Of course I made one of my Halloween Trashbag Wreaths to go on the front door.

This was so fun & easy to make.

Tada-the Frugal Upstate Halloween Porch:

A Classy Halloween Porch

But wait, there is more!

Yes, I had a brilliant, monumental idea.  I sent Yankee Bill back to Walmart to pick up a green floodlight bulb-less than $4-and installed that in the porch light.  Now when you drive by my house at night you see. . .

Creepy isn't it?

The tree looks even more twisted & alien in the green glow

The way the fabric blows in the wind adds to the spooky charm.

So there you have it, my frugal Halloween plans.  I spent less than $70 on everything.  Next year I’ll be able to spend even less, since I won’t have to buy anything at all for the front porch.

Honestly, I think the only way we could save any more money would be to be extremely stingy about the candy we hand out-and who wants to do that?

So how do you keep your Halloween costs down?  I’d love to hear about it!

Disclosure: This post is part of a campaign I am participating in with Walmart to share budget conscious Halloween ideas.  Walmart has provided me with compensation for this posts. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own. 

****This is a sponsored post****

Photo by Hint of Plum

This year Princess is turning 9. For many years we had princess themed parties-there is just something about little girls and princesses! I even made a Barbie Cake without an expensive mold!

Then she decided that she was just too old for that, but that Hannah Montana was THE thing. So we hosted a Hannah Montana Rock Star birthday party.

Last year Hannah ‘s music was cool, but we weren’t all about the star anymore, so we went with an Arts & Crafts themed party.

This year she wasn’t really sure what she wanted. At 9 she is a curious mix of child and pre teen. Yes-I know she is several years away from her teen years (thank goodness). . . but she doesn’t seem to know that. She loves clothes and makeup, as well as her stuffed animals and toys. She’s a little girl who wants to be grown up~even though we talk frequently about the fun of enjoying the age you are at and not wishing it away.

After a bit of browsing around on the internet (a favorite pastime as I am sure you can imagine) I suggested to Princess that we have a “Spa Birthday Party”. She thought it was a fun idea!

Our plan is to invite over 8 or 9 friends and have a couple of hours of spa-like fun. We’ll do their fingernails with polish & little nail jewels purchased at the dollar store, braid their hair, maybe have them put on a facial mask and cucumber slices for fun. There will be music, and cake, a themed craft (maybe make bath salts to take home?) and of course a goody bag.

I know that I am going to knit each girl a little headband to keep their hair out of their face during any spa activities-I’ve got 4 or 5 skiens of great baby blue fluffy“polar fleece” yarn that I purchased for a buck a piece several years back that will be great for that.

I have a girlfriend who sells Mary Kay who volunteered to come over and use some samples with the girls.  If we are really lucky her Aunt, who is a professional Massage Therapist, will give each of the girls a quick massage. I plan on hiring a few teens to help with the hair and nails at my typical babysitting rates.

The details are a little fuzzy right now, but will be solidifying over the next few weeks.

I know all of you are creative-so what ideas do you have for a great “Spa party” aimed at the 8-10yr old crowd? I could use ideas for invitations, cakes, inexpensive decorations, games and goody bag items.

We’ve got a little over a week left until Easter-Do you have your Easter Baskets yet?  If not, never fear here are 36 ideas for Easter Baskets you can make.  Although some of the baskets are specifically Easter themed, many of them could be used in multiple ways as gifts or home decor!  Go DIY your heart out.

Photo by Betz White

Crocheters could also make this Crocheted Margarine Tub Easter Basket.

Photo by Chica and Jo

Dig into your recycle bin for some boxes and create this Woven Cardboard Easter Basket.

Photo by Dot D

So now the question is-what do you fill it with?

After seeing several pictures online, I decided to create a Hamburger birthday cake for Buddy’s 6th birthday party. Well, we had already had a small immediate family cake for him~this was for the “friends are invited BBQ Birthday Party”.

This cake came out so cute!  It would be perfect for any BBQ or even say a 50′s drive thru theme party etc.

To see the full tutorial, check out my Whrrl story “Tutorial: How to Make a Hamburger Birthday Cake”.  Just click on the “See the Story” bar and it will take you to an interactive slide show where you can see the tutorial and make comments. (note: you don’t have to create a free account unless you want to make comments)

Some other great cakes I’ve made over the years are shown in this post: Homemade Domino Birthday Cake.

Those of you who’ve been readers for a while know that I like to do it up with theme parties for the kids on their birthdays. Well, at least Princess gets a big to do. Buddy has his birthday in the middle of the summer, so the poor kiddo usually gets a standard backyard BBQ with a theme cake.

Being the Frugal gal I am, I hate spending a ton of money on a party. There are folks out there who spend 100′s of dollars on kids birthday parties. That would NOT be me.

In the past Princess has had a Princess Party (or Two!) and a Hannah Montana Birthday party. When I asked her this year what kind of party she wanted for her 8th Birthday, she decided on a “Craft” party.

This turned out to be a fun and fairly easy party to run. I don’t have a lot of table space at my house for doing crafts, so I asked at my church if they let folks use the hall for parties. Turns out they do, and it was even free of charge!

When I looked around at the Dollar Store for inexpensive craft items, I happened upon a brand new shipment of white cotton kids T-shirts for, of course, a dollar each. That decided me-we were going to tie dye shirts! I bought 9 t-shirts, picked up 2 big bags of rubberbands there, some quart plastic zippered baggies to put the finished products in, and a disposable plastic painting tarp to protect the floor. Total cost: $13

When I told my best girlfriend about the tie dye, she dug around in her basement and found all the tie dye supplies she had left over from a girlscout project-6 squirt bottles, 2 funnels and even 3 packages of RIT dye. They were all mine for the taking. Total cost: $0

Our dollar store also had a brand new display of beading and jewelery supplies, so I decided another good craft would be to make beaded bracelets. I bought memory wire, 7 bags of beads and some crimp beads. We rounded up all the miscellaneous beads we had hanging around the house as well. I also bought a package of super glue-I figured if I couldn’t make the crimp beads work I could just glue a bead on each end of the wire to keep everything on. Turns out I know myself pretty well-we wound up using the super glue! Total cost: $9

While cruising through the local craft store (always a dangerous proposition-too much fun stuff in there!) I found a big set of those paintable sun catchers-12 for $4. Kids always seem to love those, so I picked them up as well. Total cost: $4

I decided to make decorating the cake into one of the “crafts” for the party. I bought 2 boxes of strawberry cake mix for $.89, and a bag of powdered sugar to make my icing recipe. I bought a 4pk of those little tube icing writers and a package of red licorice. I have plenty of sprinkles, marshmallows etc in my cupboard for the additional decorations. I also bought 3 boxes of icecream-there is plenty left over for the family, but I’ll add in the whole cost here. Total cost: $13

To decorate I bought a blue plastic table drape, napkins, plates & cups at the dollar store. I forgot to buy my streamers there and had to purchase them at Walmart. Total cost: $6

Lastly I made some quick invitations on the computer. They aren’t particularly craft themed, but they are blue, which is her new favorite color. On the invitation I stressed that we would be using dye and the girls were to wear clothing that could be permanently stained. I also put my usual disclaimer on there: “Please keep your gifts for Princess to $10 or less”. Total Cost: $0

The party itself was a big success. I set up the church hall before everyone arrived-one area had all the tie dye stuff, then I had 5 eight foot tables, one set up as a bracelet making station, another covered with paper for the suncatcher painting, a general craft table (with supplies from home) a cake decorating table and then the table all set for them to eat at. As kids arrived they could dive in to whatever craft (other than tie dye or cake) that looked good to them.

For the bracelet table I precut the memory wire, used a pair of needlenose pliers to bend a loop on one end, then used the superglue to glue a bead on it. The beads were placed in a muffin tin for easy access, and I used trays from the church kitchen for the girls to work on-that way if some beads were spilled they didn’t go everywhere. When the girls were done they left the bracelets and I came along and bent the end & glued a bead on.

The tie dye was as much mess, and fun, as expected:

It turns out that RIT Dye isn’t the best thing for tie dying with, the colors are likely to fade, but heck, the price was right, the girls had fun and they will probably grow out of the shirts before it’s a major problem. Each shirt was placed wet in a baggie and sent home with a direction sheet stapled to it telling their parents to let it sit overnight, rinse in cold water then wash.

Cake decorating was another big hit. I froze the 2 sheet cakes I baked, then cut them into pieces and frosted them. Each girl decorated her own piece and then they were all placed together to make the cake. It may not have been what I would have designed, but they all thought it was beautiful! Added bonus-I sent the remainder of their own piece home with them. Less tempting cake at my house!

Princess was thrilled with her party.

I didn’t do any kind of traditional goody bag-each girl went home with a t-shirt, the remainder of their cake, a bracelet, a suncatcher and any other art they had created at the general art table.

It was a good day.

For more birthday fun, check out our episode of Frugal Coast2Coast about Birthdays on a Budget, or these articles!

Birthday Fun and Games
Throwing a Birthday Party Fit for a Princess
Hosting a Frugal Hannah Montana Birthday Party
Tutorial: Making a Barbie Cake Part I & Making a Barbie Cake Part II
Tutorial: How to Make a Lego Cake
Frosting Recipe
Tutorial: Just Hit It (Making a Pinata)
Birthday Decorating on a Dime
Tutorial: Making Birthday Invitations in Word
It’s the Thought that Counts: Birthday Present Philosophy
Keeping a Gift Box
Keeping a Card Box

This month is a huge birthday month in the Frugal Upstate house. Not only do Princess & I both have our birthdays, but there are 2 nephews, an aunt and an uncle all in the month of April. It keeps it busy!

So you can see where I tend to think a lot about birthdays and how to celebrate them during this month. We even chose to do tonight’s radio show on the topic of Birthdays on a Budget* (tune in tonight at 8:30pm EST or listen later on demand!)

In the past I’ve written in a lot of detail about the parties we’ve thrown for Princess & Buddy. I thought I’d provide you with the definitive Frugal Upstate Family Birthday Roundup:

Birthday Fun and Games
Throwing a Birthday Party Fit for a Princess
Hosting a Frugal Hannah Montana Birthday Party
Tutorial: Making a Barbie Cake Part I & Making a Barbie Cake Part II
Tutorial: How to Make a Lego Cake
Frosting Recipe
Tutorial: Just Hit It (Making a Pinata)
Birthday Decorating on a Dime
Tutorial: Making Birthday Invitations in Word
It’s the Thought that Counts: Birthday Present Philosophy
Keeping a Gift Box
Keeping a Card Box

So what are some of your favorite frugal birthday ideas? Please share! Either tell us in the comments or add a link in this Mr. Linky:

Photo by Rob J Brooks

*Don’t forget-you can always see the most recent shows, as well as sign up for email reminders on the Frugal Coast2Coast show website! That’s also where we post any links or sites mentioned during the show.