Cheap Pore Cleansing Strips!

 

My younger sister saw the Biore Pore Cleansing Strips in a magazine and decided she wanted some.  She ended up buying them (and I ended up using one, but don't tell her!) but they are crazy expensive!



This is what they look like, and they cost at least $8.00, sometimes more, which makes each strip over $1.00 each.  This is madness!

I was on Pinterest (as always) and found out how to make my own here.  It didn't cost me much at all either!  All you need is:

1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatin
3/4 teaspoon water
1 small microwave safe container
1 q-tip

My box of geletin was $0.86 and I am able to make at least three mixtures with it.  I just saved the extra powder until I am ready to use it.  Each (strip) or in this case more of an entire face mask only costs about $0.29.  It is much cheaper than buying the box!

Directions:

1. Mix the water and gelatin in the microwave container
2. Microwave for 10 seconds, or until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
3. Using Q-tip apply mixture to a clean face, make sure not to make it too thin on your skin or it will be hard to pull off.  The mixture does start to harden really quickly, so make sure to put it on your face right away.
4. Wait at least 20 minutes, the mixture will harden on you face, then peel off.
5. Wash face again to get rid of any remnants
 of the mixture still on there.
6. Wa-lah! Beautiful, clean pored, skin!


Note: This mixture does not smell that great, so if you want you could add some essential oils to it.  I didn't put mine directly under my nose and it didn't bother me at all.  It does hurt when pulling it off, so make sure to do it gently.  My eyes even started to water a little bit when I pulled off the mixture that was under my eyes.  You can put it on your entire face, of just your nose and chin.  It is up to you!

Cheap, Easy, Homemade Detangling Spray

I have crazy curly hair and brushing it is a nightmare, actually I never brush it but only comb it with a wide tooth comb when it is wet, but even that is still hard!  I usually use detangling spray from either Target or Walmart and always buy the store brand.  While that works and is fairly cheap I wanted to try to make my own so it wouldn't have chemicals in it.  It only uses two ingredients, and I'm positive all of you have these at home.  Just use a spray bottle ( I just reused an old one) some hair conditioner and water.  I learned how to make it here, all they (and I did) was mix 5 parts water to 1 part conditioner.  I shook mine up a bit and usually do every time I use it.  It is super easy to make and can actually save you money.  Have fun brushing your now easy to brush hair!

 I only had a tiny bit left in the back two bottles and wanted to use them up, that is why there are three bottles there!

Free Confetti

There are many ways to make confetti but this one is my favorite! You only need a few supplies too.  You will need a hole punch in whatever shape you want, a small container to put the confetti in, and a handful of paint sample chips.

All you have to do is use the hole punch to punch out holes in the paint chips.  Once you have punched some, empty the punch of the paper into your container.  Now you have free confetti.  When you are ready to use it, just put double stick tape where ever you want your confetti and sprinkle it on top.  It is   as easy as that!

Beautify Plastic Drawers

Many people have drawers like this, they are cheap, functional, and a good way to organize things, but they can really put a damper on the style of your home.  I decided to make mine a little bit prettier!  

Here are the supplies you will need:

Wax paper

Scissors

Pen

Scrapbook paper

Scrapbook paper cutter (unless you have a steady hand)

Mod Podge and sponge brush (optional, there is a way to do it without this)

Scotch Tape

either craft roller used with Mod Podge or credit card ( I don't have either so I used a Pizza Hut gift card)

and of course the plastic drawers

First take the drawers out and clean everything really well.  Then take the first drawer and sit it up on its end, so the handle is pointing to the ceiling.  Then lay the wax paper on top of the part of the drawer with the handle.  Line it up with one of  the short sides and one of the long sides, then tape it on. 

Looking at the picture, I lined up the wax paper on the right side and the back side, it is  a little hard to tell though. 

Once you have done that cut off the excess wax paper hanging off the other two sides.  It should look like this: 

It is hard to tell that there is wax paper on the top, but if you look at the handle you can see it a little bit better.


Then carefully remove the wax paper.  Turn the drawer upside down, so the handle is on the floor.  Then place  the wax paper cutout inside the drawer to make sure it fits.  You will probably have to trim a little bit off, if so carefully trim it, it helps to tape it down with a couple pieces of tape.  Then you will need to cut the paper into four different pieces:  On either side of the handle (right where there is a curve in the plastic) make a vertical cut, so you have three pieces that will look like this: 

Then for the middle piece of wax paper, make  horizontal cut right where the curve in the drawer stops and the indent of the handle starts.  It should look like this:

Then place the wax paper on top of your scrapbook paper and trace it, then cut out the paper.  If you want a straight line use a scrapbook paper cutter, if you have a steady hand you can just scissors.

Once you have cut out all four pieces of paper you should have something like this: 

I didn't feel like cutting off the extra on the top in the middle piece of paper, i knew the height of the other pieces were a little tall so I was just going to trim it all off later.  It is your choice though weather to do it know or later.

Then turn the drawer so the handle is on the floor.  The paper was cut into four pieces so attaching it into the drawer would be easier.  Put a layer of Mod Podge on the inside of the drawer where you are going to attach the first piece of paper, then put a layer on the front side of the paper.  Stick them together and use the roller, credit card, or gift card to smooth out and wrinkles or bubbles you get.  Then put another layer of Mod Podge on the back side of the paper.  Repeat for the rest of your drawers.

Let it dry, trim the excess, the add another layer of Mod Podge, let dry add another layer.  Then spray with a layer of finishing spray. That's it, you are done.  Put the drawers back in and fill it with whatever you want!

Note: If you do not have Mod Podge you can make some, here is an easy way to do so, or you can just  use scotch tape.  Take your pick.  I've seen both done and you can't really tell a difference.

Perfect Activity for Young Boys

Yesterday I babysat a little 3 year old boy.  It was on short notice and didn't have any idea what we were going to do.  I hate just sticking kids in front of the television to occupy them, so I looked on Pinterest and found a really great idea!  I had to adapt it a little bit from the one shown here  because I could not find a dropper anywhere in my house.  We just used a little baby spoon, but it didn't end up working so well, so I would strongly recommend using a dropper of some sort.  All you need to do is put some baking soda in a glass baking dish and then put some white vinegar in some cups ( I used Dixie bathroom cups because I thought they were the perfect size) and add a couple drops of food coloring.  Then let kids use the dropper to get the vinegar out and drop it into the pan.  We did this for a couple of minutes, but the spoon really wasn't working at all, so I decided to change things up a little bit.  We took the baking soda (magic powder) and put it in some Dixie cups (then placed the entire cup into the glass dish so we wouldn't make a mess on the counter).  Then I added some white vinegar (magic juice) into a different Dixie cup, that way he could pour it into the cup with the baking soda himself.  We added a little food coloring into the baking soda (but it would work to add it to the vinegar instead, it doesn't matter just whatever you prefer).  Then I let him pour it in, and you should have seen the look on his face! I tried to get some pictures, but he was really squirmy, as any 3 year old would be.  Here are a couple of pictures I took during the making of volcanoes!

As you can see by his facial expressions, he loved doing this!  He did get a little messy though, and unfortunately he was wearing a white shirt.  Eventually I put a an apron on him, and it helped because the food coloring does splatter a little bit, that is also why we put newspaper down on the table.  Enjoy making volcanoes with your little boys!

What to do with the hated Lazy Susan!

Lazy Susan Cabinets can be a curse, but they can also be a blessing!  They can be clunky, awkward, and hard to put things in.  Mine used to be like that, but today I decided to clean it out and put it to good use!  It is finally functional and will be used more than the pantry!  Here is what it looked like before I pulled everything out.

I took more before pictures but my computer said it was a bad file, so unfortunately I cannot add them on here.  It was pretty much a mess in there, with things we never use and unlabeled food that no one knew what it was!

First I took everything out and cleaned it out.  Then I went through everything and got rid of the stuff that is old or that we have not eaten in a while and will probably never eat again.  Then I put stuff in plastic containers so it would stay fresher longer.  Then I added some labels so we know what is in each container.  I then proceeded to put things back in, it took a while because like I said it Lazy Suzans are awkward and it is hard to put stuff in it.  I finally got things in the spot I wanted them to be.  I decided to put all of our  breakfast items on the top shelf...this includes granola, cereal, breakfast drink mixes.  Once I did that the entire bottom shelf was empty so I had to decide what to put into it.  I chose to put all of our snack items.  I figured those are the things we use the most and the entire family will be getting in and out of the cabinet.  I decided that the Lazy Susan is a lot easier to clean out that the entire pantry, and no doubt it will get cluttered again, especially with the whole family getting into the cabinet.  I'm hoping it will decrease the amount of times we will get into the pantry which should help keep it somewhat clean.  In the dead space in the middle I put the unopened box of garham crackers and things like that.  Here is the after, like I said it somewhat looks a little cluttered, but it really doesn't seem like it is in person, and it is very functional now, and opens without things falling off the ledge!

This is the cabinet empty, as you can see there is quite a bit of space in there to put things, you just have to organize it right so you can actually make it functional.

Everything is labeled, and everything in there is stuff that we actually eat! Since there is no extra room, unnecessary snacks cannot be purchased because there will be no room for them, which helps save a little money!

I  have read other opinions on Lazy Susans and many people seem to hate them.  We have two (but only really use the one).  The one I cleaned out today is the one we use everyday.  It is right under the cabinet where we keep our bowls so that is why I decided to put our cereal in it.  My family happens to like the lazy susan, and like I said earlier since we will all be getting in it, it is at a high risk to get unorganized very quickly.  Since it is such a small space though it doesn't talk long to clean.  It would also be perfect for little children, on the bottom stuff put food that they are allowed to have as snacks (but make sure it is portioned already for them) that way when they are hungry you don't even have to lift a finger, when they ask for a snack just say "yes, you can pick one thing out of the cabinet."  It is easy to get into and at a good height for small children.  

The Perfect Gift For Anyone!

My friend's birthday was a couple of days ago, and my soccer coach just got married.  I needed a present, and since I waited until the last minute I didn't have much time to come up with a gift.  I hate buying gifts because I feel like making gifts for someone is more personal.  It just so happens that my other friend (the one who helps me with all of my projects) was at Michael's with me.  We were walking around looking for supplies for upcoming crafts we wanted to do and found some terra cotta pots.  We bought the pot, and the dish for it as well.  Then we found some glass bowls that looked similar to a fish bowl and bought those too.  We went to the wood aisle and found a package that had two little knob like things in it and decided that they would work for the lid.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of what they looked like before we assemble them, but I do have a picture of the finished product!

 This is the type of pot I was talking about, make sure to make a quick assembly in the store to make sure that you are buying the right size glass bowl for the size of pot that you picked out.

The first thing we did was clean both the pot, dish, and glass bowl.  Then we waited until they dried then painted the pot and base with red paint, we used acrylic paint and a sponge brush (mainly because we couldn't find any other kinds of brushes).   We also painted the wooden knob too.   I would suggest using spray paint though, I think it would be easier and the coverage of the paint might be better.  We had trouble with the pot soaking up a lot of the paint and it took a couple of coats to finally look red and not a burnt orange.  Then we let those dry for a while, once they were dried we used a permanent marker to write the name of the person who the gift was for.  After that we sprayed them with matte finishing spray and let that dry as well.  Then we turned the pot upside down and tried to use hot glue to glue the glass bowl to the pot, but it didn't stay.  We tried a lot of different things but the thing that finally ended up working was tacky glue.  Make sure the glass bowl is right side up to allow easy access to the candy inside! We also turned the dish upside down and glued the wooden knob in the middle of it.  Once the glue was all dried we tied a ribbon around the space between the glass bowl and the pot because we could still see some of the glue.  We then filled the glass bowl up with peanut butter M&M's because we didn't want to use gum balls and we knew that they liked the peanut butter M&M's, but really any candy will do.  Then we wrapped up the gift and gave it to the birthday girl and newlyweds! They loved them!

This is the finished product!

Here is a list of the supplies we used
      - 2 terra cotta pots $1.19 each
      - 2 clay saucers ( I called them dishes) $0.89 each
      - 2 glass bowls $1.00 each
      - X-Large bag of Peanut Butter  M&M's $8.00
      - package of wooden knobs $1.49
      - sponge brush (already had)
      - red acrylic paint (already had)
      - matte finishing spray (already had)
      - ribbon (already had)


Total: $15.65, and if you divide that in half (in the case that you are only making one and not two) the total cost is only $7.80.  One way to keep the cost down would be to buy a cheaper candy, as you can see that was the most expensive thing.  Without that the price for one would only be $3.80!  This is a great cheap gift and super easy to make, as well as the perfect gift that anyone will love.

Make Your Own Mod Podge!

Mod Podge is expensive, so I decided to make my own.  I went to the dollar store and bought a bottle of school glue.  I choose Rose Art instead of Crayola because it was cheaper and I figured they would work the same.  I bought a 5 oz bottle that also came with a glue stick for $2.00.  When I got home I cleaned out a mason jar, but actually any glass or plastic container would work.  I poured the glue into the jar and propped it up so it would drain in there to get as much glue out that I could, then I went to the sink and filled the empty glue bottle with water and dumped it into the jar.  I then screwed the lid on (WARNING: make sure the lid is on very tight!) Then I shook the jar for a little bit so the glue and water would mix. That was all I had to do! Use it just like you would any other Mod Podge, if you want to to be less runny don't put in as much water.   I just realized that when I took this picture the mod podge was still on the sides of the container, but it will settle quickly.  I haven't decided what color label I want to put on it, so I guess that will have to wait for now and I will just have to remember what is in the jar...and with my memory that might turn out bad.

Note:  If you are wanting to do a long term or pernmant project make sure you use the original Mod Podge, the homemade mixture may turn things yellow over time.  The original Mod Podge has ingredients that keep prevent this.  It is your choice weather or not to use the homemade version!

Tackling That Junk Drawer

A couple months ago, yes months, my mother dumped everything from the drawer into a box and put it on the dinning room table, and that was the extent of her cleaning. I was tired of looking for a pen or scissors or something else usually in the drawer only to be disappointed every time I opened it to find out that once again nothing was in there.  Somehow I kept forgetting that my mom dumped everything out, even though it had been that way for a while.  So, I decided to finally clean it and be able to use it again.

(I don't have a "before" picture on account of my mom dumping the drawer, but here is the "after"!)

The first thing I did was to clean out the drawer, and frankly I'm not sure I really want to know what was hiding in the corners!  I even used a toothpick to get whatever was hiding out because a rag was just not cutting it. Then I got the empty cereal boxes that I had been saving, because I knew I could find a use for them, and I'm glad I did, because I organized the whole drawer without spending any money.  I cut off the bottom of the boxes so they were 2 3/4 inches tall.  I also used some other sizes of boxes to get the sizes that I wanted.  It took me a little bit to find the desired location for each box but I think I finally found it.  Here are the different boxes I have...
     -pens
     -pencils
     -paperclips/rubber bands/paper flip fasteners
     -twist ties
     -box tops
     -Cambell's soup labels
     -pop tabs
     -tape
     -nails/screws plus a tiny screw driver
     -old batteries- because we never know which batteries are good and which ones are bad

Once I cut all of the boxes I found some rubber mat stuff in our laundry room and cut it to the size of the drawer.  Then I put all of the boxes back in there.  I'm still debating weather or not I want to cover the boxes in wrapping paper like she did  here , but I don't really want to waste the wrapping paper in the drawer that really won't be seen all that often.  Plus it would be hard to move the boxes around if I need to change the layout to accommodate other things.  But maybe in the future I will cover the boxes with something.

Here is the rubber matting I was talking about, I'm not sure what the real name of it is though.

Cleaning out and organizing the drawer didn't cost me anything but a little bit of my time, which in my opinion was definitely worth it!  If you decide to do this in your home, just pick boxes that fit your drawer and the things that you need to put into them. Happy organizing!

How the Name Came About

First I want to tell you a little bit about me, and what I want this blog to be!  I'm a senior in high school and I love to clean, organize, and do crafts.  My best friend and I have been looking up different projects on Pinterest, and we are excited to do some of them and share them with you!  We are also working on organizing my house, because my parents are too busy to do it themselves and so if I want it to look nice I have to be the one to do it.  I want this blog to be something where I can share all of the things I am inspired by, dream up, and then create...hence the name Inspire-Dream-Create! This may be food, organizing projects, craft projects, or anything else I might decide to put up here!  I also love to shop, but I HATE to spend money, that is why I love to look for deals on great things, and now you can too! It is fun to organize and create things with little to no money, and they still look fabulous!