Retirement Money Tree

My Uncle recently had a retirement party and I wanted to give him a fun, unique gift that didn't cost me a fortune. Here's what I made:

I was inspired by this money plant idea on Creativity Portal.

Here's what you'll need:

(I got all my items in a trip to the Dollar Tree, the dollars were bought off a nice server at a restaurant nearby.)

1 new clean toilet plunger

1 basket that will fit the toilet plunger

20 crisp dollar bills (give or take, you can change the denominations too)

2 bags of River rocks

rubber bands (not pictured)

decorations for the basket like embellishments, ribbon etc. (optional)

coins (optional)

Place the plunger in the basket.

Cover with 2 bags of river rocks

Then start folding the bills. Start with a dollar bill face down so that the green side is up.

Fold in half with the green side on the inside. Crease and unfold.

Turn the bill over and fold one corner to the center crease line.

Fold again to the center.

Repeat on all four corners.

Turn over and zig zag fold one side like shown. Crease.

You should now have this.

Repeat for all 20 bills. This can be a bit time consuming. You should now have 20 dollar bill leaves.

Wrap the plunger handle with five rubber bands evenly spaced. Wrap the band at the top of the handle and roll down to where you want it.

Slip the unfolded end of the dollar bill leaf into the rubber band as shown.

Place five leaves in the bottom 3 rubber bands each. Then three leaves in the next rubber band and two leaves in the top rubber band.

Stagger the second rung of leaves to be over the gaps in the previous level like in the photo.

The bills are small so I decided, with the help of my kitty there, to slide the leaves to the top to make a tree instead of a plant like in my inspiration.

I decorated the basket by hot gluing a strip of moss roll to the edge. I took a wide roll of wired ribbon and tied a pretty bow. I cut the bow ends into V's and attached it to the pole by looping a rubber band over one bow loop, then around the pole and over the other bow loop.

Then I hot glued on another scrap of moss roll and a sheriff badge (leftover from Charlie's badge's) to honor my Uncle's cowboy nature.

DONE!

I included a card with a note along the lines of: "May this prosperity tree bring you wealth in your retirement. Feel free to pluck a leaf whenever you need it. When the leaves are all gone, you will find another useful surprise." Then I let him try to figure out what the surprise is. It took him a while to guess a the plunger was fairly disguised but it made for a good laugh when I pushed aside some of the rocks as a hint.

This would be a great gift idea for anytime you want to give the gift of money such as a milestone birthday (1 bill for every year old), a graduation or even a new home which especially appropriate when you use all the dollars on your new home you will have another useful home tool ; ) !

It was a fairly fast project. he bill folding took the most time. I thought it would be fun to make this with those giant dollar bills in the toy section of the dollar store or from costume and party stores.

Of course you can always by the e-book on Creativity Portal for another design. This one also comes with a cute printable for a seed packet to go along with the plant that you can put pennies in.

Harry Potter Halloween: Charlie's Badges

These badges are a part of Charlie's Dragon Researcher's Desk (to follow).

Supplies Needed:

Clear Packing Tape

Pack of toy badges

A sheet of cardstock

Scissors

Clear tape

Total Cost: $1 and up

I bought these play badges at the Dollar Tree:

Then I found that Charlie Weasley, Ron's big brother who studies dragons in Romania, was, in his time, a Gryffindor Prefect, A Quidditch Seeker and later Captain of the Quidditch team. (He was also a member of the Order of the Phoenix.)

To represent these things on the table I decided to make these badges as if Charlie kept them with him as a memento of his Hogwarts days.

First print out these badges here on cardstock.

Then place a piece of clear packing tape over each image and cut them out. You will need to cut out the extra stuff on the Quidditch captain badge to get it to fit.

Match the images to the badges like the in the photos below.

Attach the images to the badges with a loop of clear tape or two and you're done!

In retrospect, I would have purchased the gold badges instead of the silver ones but I think they turned out nice anyways.

Enjoy!

Inspiring Halloween Candy Buffets

More is More Mom

Elengant! Love the draped fabric background!

Children's Party Network

Great display idea!

Awesome details and ways of making unique displays!

The Hollywood Candy Girls

I like the floating pumpkins!

Nothing Bakes Like a Parrot

A simple buffet. Love the candy corn trees!

Oh Nuts! Sweet and Crunchy Talk

My all time favorite

Sweet Things Candy Buffets

Picture this with Halloween colors

JenaD Events

Awesome Colors! Small Buffet Idea!

Social Images

Printable Witch Politician Costume

Here's a simple way to put a fun spin on a traditional witch costume. I was inspired by this yard sign that can be bought at Party Cheap.

I knew I wanted to be a witch but wanted to do something unique so I went with a Witch Politician. Running or President no less!!

First, buy this yard sign and stick it in the yard. You can also carry it around if you prefer. Then you can print several of this same image out smaller for political postcard to hand out. I printed a few on 4x6 photo paper I got at the Dollar Tree for a bright, clean, semi gloss finish.

Then I printed out a few campaign buttons. Here's the three images I used. There's two ways to do this. If you have a Badge-a-minit button maker, then print them on paper and turn them into nice buttons. Or simply print them onto more photo paper and cut them out. I taped a small safety pin to the back of each and they looked great!

That's it! Too simple but really fun. I'm throwing a Harry Potter inspired Halloween party this year so I'm thinking of writing "I will no tell lies" on the back of one hand as a wink to the books. I think it's fitting for a political candidate ; ) (That's my little kitten in the photo trying to get my buttons.)

There is also "Wolfman for Sheriff" at Party Cheap and I think other sites have a few other designs. You could do a group thang. What a great idea for those Halloween pub crawls and such.

Zombie Dessert Buffet Ideas

Remember my previous post on a Simple Dollar Store Dessert Buffet? Here's how to use cheap Amazon.com finds to turn it into a Zombie Dessert Buffet! This is cute enough for all ages and gross enough for adults too!

TABLECLOTH:

This "Blood stained tablecloth is excellent (and cheap!)

BACKGROUND:

For a simple background, stretch a few strips of this caution tape back and forth behind the dessert table.

TABLE WARE: I love these "I Love Zombies" table wares. There's cups, plates and napkins. Don't forget to order a few plastic cutlery in lime green or red.

DESSERTS :

*PUDDING CUPS- Simply open cups of pre-packaged chocolate or tapioca pudding. Pop in a plastic spoon, top with crushed Oreo style cookies and top with one of these zombie hands picks

*GELATIN- Using dollar store Jell-O and this awesome brain mold, make a giant brain Jell-O mold. Display on a few leaves of salad on a silver tray or similar. Make sure to leave cups, spoons and a knife nearby for serving.

*SUCKERS- These brain candy mold suckers can be really neatly displayed. One idea is to fill a lipped tray with floral foam. Cover foam in cling wrap. Neatly line up suckers by poking them in the foam. Cover exposed foam with loose candy like red hots. Another idea is a sucker tree. Grab a floral cone this time and cover with suckers. Then wrap from top to bottom in red ribbon, going between the sucker sticks and covering the exposed foam.

*LOOSE CANDY- Loose candy, popcorn or salty treats work well stuffed into these monster hands treat bags. Line them up, fingers up, in a tray of more crushed Oreos or line the tray with a scrap of astro turf for the zombie hands coming out of the ground look.

*CUPCAKES- you can make your own using dollar store cake mix and frosting, but to save time, just get some plain ones from the grocery store. frost lightly with red tinted frosting then pipe pink brain pattern on top with a pastry bag or a plastic baggie with one corner snipped. I love these skull cupcake holders!

*ICE- serve these brain ice cubes in an insulated ice bucket next to the soda or punch bowl. Make sure to leave out plenty of red or lime green straws and glasses.

Harry Potter Halloween: Miniature Village

Inspired by this post on Dollar Store Crafts that shows how to spray paint the Dollar Tree miniature village all one color, I went out right after Christmas and bought a bunch on sale.

Now I am finally able to use them. I wanted to pick a color that was both cheap and that could be used for Halloween and Christmas. I choose a bright navy blue. The cans of spray paint cost about a dollar at Menards or Walmart.

At first I was going to go with a simple abstract design but got so into it that it turned out rather detailed. This year's Halloween theme is Harry Potter so I decided to do a Harry Potter themed Miniature Halloween Village. I almost got everything I needed at the dollar store.

First I divided all the houses by shape. The flat roofed ones I used for Diagon Alley. The pointy roofed ones for Hogsmead. The church with the biggest steeple became Hogwarts and for Hagrid's hut. I used one of the small white ceramic houses with light.

Then I laid them out where I thought they looked best. I chose a random few to paint black for variety and painted the others blue. On the black ones, I wanted to use rubber cement and superfine black glitter to sparkle up the roofs and eaves. I kept a few unpainted for the Christmas set. I'll remove the black ones and replace them with the unpainted ones which I'll color in a more festive color like white, baby blue or bright pink.

For the base and levels I used disposable pie and baking tins inverted. I covered the large oval pan with brown fleece for Diagon Alley. For the double leveled area that Hogwarts and Hagrid's sits on, I used rubber cement to cover the sides with decorative sand. I cut moss sheets to fit the tops. The lake is a square mirror with the frame removed. I covered three sides if the mirror with a cutout of sandpaper to build the banks of the lake. Then added black electrical tape on the raw edge to prevent injury.

Hagrid's garden is a piece of mass with bits of flowers and tiny pumpkins from a craft store floral pick hot glued on.

The forbidden forest is green pine trees from the same Christmas Village set and a large fuzzy black spider from the Halloween section.

Then I just had fun adding to it with a bag of pebbles, more sandpaper cutouts, moss sheet, spanish moss, "mossy rocks", etc. (The gravestones in Godric's Hallow are from Michaels.)

I made the cobblestones of Diagon Alley with a permanent marker on a strip of sandpaper. I later replaced it with a printout of cobblestones but either will work.

The final touches were printables of the hippogriff, moon, Durmsrang ship, the Hogwarts Express and ribbon banners. I made the cutouts stand by taping cardstock triangle to the backs of the pieces. I made the cobblestones of Diagon Alley with a permanent marker on a strip of sandpaper. I later replaced it with a printout of cobblestones on cardstock and taped together. Either method will work.

I labeled it all with printed ribbon banners.

Finally I printed this map on two sheets of paper and stuck it behind the village with ticky tack.

Unfortunately I had the finished photos on a phone that died so you'll have to image how they looked painted.

I can't wait to see how I can convert it for Christmas. I already bought a sheet of white flannel "snow" that I plan to lay over these same baking tin risers.

Cheap DIY Kitty Playhouses and Beds

One of my goals this year is to make our home into a kitty fun playland while keeping a modern style. Our cat Sushi loves his soft sided carrier and sleeps in it often. I wanted to make some fun play houses like this cardboard one from Martha Stewart. It's clean, simple and elegant.

Martha Stewart

I also like the design, and price tag of this tube playhouse from Modern Cat. The carpet sample bed below is also their design and would be a great addition to the tops of the radiators, and speakers as extra cat perches.

both from Modern Cat

For those who like to sew, Simplicity has (had?) this pattern #9004 for a 2 tent patterns and this adorable fish house. I think it could be very elegant with jeweled eyes and in all blue/green or natural tones.

I also thought of slipcovering a dining room chair with a box slipcover and cutting a hole for the cat to climb in.

Simplicity

And finally, I want to pick up more carpet sample and doormats from the dollar store and use then to designate a cubby in the bookshelf and a cupboard in the kitchen just for the cat.

If I wasn't renting, I would for sure add wall shelves as cat stairs and fit them with carpet squares or tiles or rubber grip mats. I know cats like to be up high, so we're trying to think of ways to let hime use that space like on top of the TV (we have a big boxy one) and the refridgerator.

Any other ideas that you can think of?