Quick, Cheap, & Easy DIY Patriotic Decor & Entertaining Tips

Hey all!! So, this year I'll be decorating vicariously through these patriotic photos... our Independence Day decor is all packed in boxes (from our PCS last July!) in the storage unit- boo! Anyways, so here I've gathered up photos from our previous years' celebrations to share with everyone! Included are some tips for decorating & entertaining on the cheap- hope you enjoy!

A few tips & ideas for quick, cheap, and easy patriotic decor...

(1) Medallion stars- 

Just 1-2 pieces of scrapbook paper, some adhesive and string to hang with, and you've got yourself instant big decor pieces! A simple tutorial is: {here} (in between steps 3&4, snip the one end on an angle to get the more "star" appearance instead of smooth circle edge )

(2) Patriotic candle display- 

Just a mason jar, some colored pebbles or rocks, and a patriotic colored candle! This neat huge mason jar even has an eagle on the front, bought at Michael's a few years back. 

(3) Patriotic signage- 

Print out your favorite patriotic phrase onto vellum paper, attach to some patriotic scrapbook paper and frame. Being a military family, this is a common phrase for us, and perfect for a patriotic mantle: "Keep calm and soldier on!"  

(4) Patriotic yarn balls- 

Wrap up some patriotic-colored yarn into balls! Easy to whip up some of these balls whilst watching your favorite show or while chatting with a friend. 

(5) Star dishes- 

Dishes are great not only for serving with (of course!) but also for mantles! After Independence Day, decor goes on sale super cheap- one of the best times to grab next year's decor pieces! 

(6) Framed banner-  

So easy to change up for different seasons! Simply frame a piece of fabric or patriotic scrapbook paper and adhere a cute banner! Check out my tutorial: {here}

(7) Flag collection- 

It doesn't get much easier and cheaper than this! Pick your favorite pretty bowl and pour in a bag of toothpick flags :)

(8) Patriotic decorative branches- 

Easy to change out decor pieces with each season. For Independence Day, I added some flags, tied on bits of patriotic ribbon and added a tiny wooden sign (from Christmas Tree Shoppe). 

(9) Patriotic wreath (not pictured)- 

Create a wreath where you can change out the decor with each season. You can view my free Wreath Tutorial: {here}

A few tips & ideas for quick, cheap, and easy patriotic hosting and entertaining...

(1) Patriotic utensils- 

Easy way to add a little more patriotism to your cutlery- set them out in a patriotic container! Here I'm using a mug from Disney World's "Liberty Tree Tavern" (featuring Mickey and the gang waving Old Glory).

(2) Patriotic buffet decor- 

Fabric placemats or table runners and a few plastic colored stars strewn about add some patriotic color to your buffet. Again, after Independence Day, decor goes on sale super cheap- one of the best times to grab next year's decor bits & pieces! 

(3) Patriotic buffet signage- 

Add some color to your buffet- layer some colored paper, put a patriotic stamp or sticker on the edge, then write out the name of each dish!   

(4) Drink signage- 

Tie the name signage onto the end of  a wooden spoon and put the spoon in drink pitchers. It's also great if you need to stir up the drinks periodically, like homemade lemonade!

(5) Patriotic drinks- 

An cheap alternative to the cute (but expensive!) paper straws- most standard plastic straw packages include red and blue straws. Just cut them down to size of your cups (if need be) and tie on a bit of ribbon. 

(6) Dessert banner-  

Dress up your cake or pies with a simple banner strung between two skewers. For instructions, check out Step #16 in my Wreath Tutorial: {here}

(7) Patriotic dessert- 

Decorate the top of your cakes or other dessert with colored sprinkles or sugar to get in the Independence Day mood! Blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries also add the perfect red, white, & blue touch!

(8) Fancy dessert dishes- 

If you don't have fancy dessert dishes, improvise! Wine glasses, mason jars, or just standard clear water glasses work just as well to serve up your yummy parfaits or ice cream. 

(9) Patriotic tiered buffet dishes- 

For a great tiered look to your buffet line, purchase some clear box photo frames, cut some scrapbook paper to size and place inside the frame. Stack the frames to create different layers to set out your dishes on! 

linking up here...

Favorite Projects of 2013 @ The CSI Project

Frugal Fridays @ Life As Mom

yummy frugal gifts for foodies

Here are three great gifts for the foodies on your list! Not only are they themselves frugal homemade gift ideas, but they also feature some great frugal gift wrapping ideas! Here we go...

.: gift :.

Here's some homemade trailmix that I made for my dad- any local bulk food store makes this a real economical gift as you can make a huge bag of this mix and get quite a few gifts out of it {or keep some for yourself!}. Many grocery stores these days even have a section where you can buy dried fruit and nuts in bulk. In our mix we used- coconut, raisins, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds and walnuts. I frequently also add craisins and peanut M&Ms.

.: wrapping :.

For the wrapping I simply cut a piece of an old paper bag, stamped it, crumpled up then inked the edges, and then wrapped with twine!

.: gift :.

Here's a simple 16 Bean Soup mix... what's included is just the beans {less than $1} and a bay leaf. Not pictured here is the recipe card I made up and tucked on top underneath the wrapping. The plastic container was leftover from some candies we'd bought.

.: wrapping :.

To wrap it I cut a strip from an old paper bag, then cut some tulle and wrapped it around. I used this same fabric for making ornaments {photos coming soon!} and had this frayed edge of the fabric left over. I thought it was perfect for this, so I wrapped that around the tulle layer!

.: gift :.

Here is your standard cookies-in-a-jar gift. Not gonna lie- I always love these!! Here's a link to the recipe I used {Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies}. This gift is going to my MIL and I already know she loves these cookies but doesn't have the recipe {until now!}. I left out all of the wet ingredients {of course!} and I packaged the brown sugar {well I used sucanat} in a little baggie right at the top of the mix, since that needs to be mixed separately. I know the recipe calls for adding the chips and craisins in last, but it's ok if they get mixed in with the rest of the dry ingredients.

.: wrapping :.

Another super simple one- I cut out a rough circle from some felt scraps, tied some twine and raffia around, added a snowflake button, and stamped a few snowflakes on the top of the felt. Done! :)

.: linking up at :.

Handmade Tuesdays @ Ladybug Blessings

Holly Bloggy Christmas Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Show & Tell Saturdays @ be different act normal

Weekend Wrap Up @ Tatertots and Jello

Handmade Christmas @ Someday Crafts

Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

Simple Frugal Sports Gift

My mom is a HUGE Yankees fan- seasons tickets, all the paraphernalia, the whole bit. So when I found these great vintage stamps on eBay, I knew I had to make something with them for her! So this is a great gift that you could easily customize for many sports, teams, or causes- the Post Office seems to have a few special stamps each month, and you can find vintage ones at a variety of places.

This is quick, frugal, and totally DIY! So I started with the stamps which were ~$1 each. I got this frame on sale for $5. Then I just added some scrapbooking paper and ribbon in Yankees colors, and bam! Instant sports memorabilia gift for under $10! After I photographed it I put the glass back in the frame- I just didn't want any glare ;)
.: linking up at :.

Handmade Tuesdays @ Ladybug Blessings

Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Holly Bloggy Christmas Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Handmade Christmas @ Someday Crafts

Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

frugal DIY Christmas wreath

So here's our Christmas wreath! It's probably the decor item that I'm most pleased with this holiday :) It was not only super simple, but pretty cheap too! Here's a lil DIY breakdown for ya...

.: materials :.

ribbon

ornaments

wire

branches

.: how to :.

(1) start off by trimming and arranging the branches how you'd like them.

(2) take some wire and wrap it in and around the top of the branches. You don't have to worry too much about whether the wire shows since the ribbon and ornaments will cover it!

(3) string your choice of ornaments on individual wires and wrap around branches. Some wires I wrapped around the top and some wires I actually weaved into the middle area of the branches in order to get the ornaments to lay how I wanted them.

(4) Top off your branches with a big bow!

(5) String some extra wire to the back of your arrangement and use this to attach to a hook for hanging.

(6) Step back and enjoy your beautiful wreath!

See! Super simple! And cheap too... the ornaments were left over from other arrangements I had done, but I got the big ones in a larger set for $5 and the smaller ones in a big set also for $5. The ribbon was left over from other bows I bought, but that roll was $5 at most. The branches were free {yay}... call them a "gift" with purchase of our Christmas tree ;) So for the amount of each product I used, the whole wreath couldn't have cost more than $10... and you'd pay at least twice that in most stores!

.: Frugal Tip of the Day :.

Most Christmas tree shops or nurseries have tons of extra branches lying around. If you ask nicely, they will likely be more than happy to let you take a few off their hands ;)

.: linked up at :.

Weekend Wrap-up Party @ tatertots and jello

Show and Tell Saturdays @ be different act normal

Christmas Tour of Home- the tree

So here's our quaint little tree- our first tree! Last year was our first Christmas together, but DH was deployed so I didn't have a tree. In person it looks much more full of ornaments- it's hard to tell from the photo, but because of the way the branches are, we have many layers of ornaments as you get further in towards the trunk of the tree. I really like it, we both do! :) It's a blue spruce, which both of us love.

So a little bit about our tree's decorations....

Theme:: one vintage Christmas combo is teal & silver, and I just happen to love teal so that's what I went with! Added a few pops of big black bulbs for accent- there's only 5 of them, but they definitely add a lil elegance in my opinion ;) the rest of the ornaments are muted rustic colors that blend nicely, as they don't detract color-wise from the general theme colors

Lights:: only bought one strand and used another short strand I already had- I could have used another strand to make the lights more full, but didn't want to have to buy yet another strand

DIY Topper:: so I didn't like any of the ones I saw in stores over the past year, so I just made two big bows for the top, with a few short ribbons streaming down... this upcoming year I plan to make a star topper for next Christmas :) I wish I could find the video where I learned how to make my bows, but this is essentially the same thing {here}

Frugal Ornaments:: most of them I got at 50% off after last Christmas, so they were mega cheap! The horses were all gifts from my mom, the only thing we splurged on were the Disney ornaments which we got during our second honeymoon at DisneyWorld

Tree Blanket:: so I realized after getting all the ornaments on that we had no blanket for under the tree! our local fabric shop isn't too good, so I decided to check my current stash of fabric first- I found this light teal fabric, cut it in half, and though not too large, at least for this year it covers up the ugly green plastic tree holder! :)

.: Frugal Tip of the Day :.

Many of you already know this, but buying Christmas decorations {or any holiday decorations} are the cheapest right after the holiday! You may not get the selection that you're looking for, but you'll save anywhere from 50-80%!! So plan ahead, and check out the selection at your local stores just after the holidays this year ;)

Here are a few close ups of some of my favorite ornaments...

.: linking up at :.
All Things Merry & Bright @ All Things Heart and Home

Holiday Open House @ A Glimpse Inside

how to negotiate with your cable provider

So, I just received my bill for this month's cable and internet, provided by a major national cable company. For those of you who do not know our family, my husband serves in the United States Army, and thus we are a proud Army family. So we moved to our current post about a year ago.

Moral of the story, we've been here for a year, thus we've had all our utilities for about a year. Well for those of you who have gotten a great deal on cable may have had the same experience that I had today. I open my cable bill, and it's about $45 dollars more than what we usually pay! I am perplexed, call our cable provider, only to find out that our "great deal" was only a 12 month deal. Ugg, now I sware that they never told us that it was a 12 month-only deal, and I told the nice lady on the other end of the phone as such. I also told her that if I HAD known that, I would have looked at other providers. Thinking back on it now, there's a small chance they did mention it, or put it in tiny writing somewhere, but I have the memory of a goldfish {and for those of you who don't know, that's a whopping 3 seconds}. Anyhoo, I ask the lady, "well, is there any way I can get back our 'great deal' or do you have any other discounts available?!" I might have been a bit brusk, but she went ahead and there was indeed two discounts available to us. Whoohoo! Now it only saves us $15 a month over what we would have been expected to pay, but it also means our cable/internet bill only went up $30 as opposed to $45. So it's certainly better than it could have been.

My thought process through this whole thing was, "now just a month ago I was paying X dollars, and the cable company was doing just fine. Thus there is no reason I should be now paying X + 45 dollars, because obviously they can still provide the service without the extra $45." Am I wrong? Ridiculous. Oh yes, and I may have told the lady on the other end of the phone at some point that this was indeed ridiculous... maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that, but, well, I was heated at the time.

So what can you learn from my experience? What can you do if your rates for a particular utility go up unexpectedly? Well, let me share!

• wait a while to cool down before you make any phone calls, you get more flies with sugar than vinegar
• do your homework, look at other potential providers you could switch to that have better rates
• do your homework, check if your OWN provider has a discount or promotion currently going on
• ask if there are any new discounts available that you can take advantage of
• mention that there are indeed other providers you could switch to, but that it would certainly be easier to keep your business with them

Now these are just a few things that can help you if your rates suddenly jump, and all because a promotional period has expired on your current contract. Hey, it's worth a shot, right? And hey, we're now saving $180 a year just by making a 15 minute phone call. It may not seem like all that much, but that's money we can instead put toward tithing, missions trips, or other disasters, such as Haiti.

participating in

>> Frugal Friday @ life as mom

>> Super Savings Saturday @ Money Saving Mom