Consignment Conquest

I almost never buy anything for my children in retail stores. It is just not necessary or cost efficient!! (If I do, I probably have some amazing coupon or Black Friday deal.) Besides, at this age, children don't know or care if anything is second, third, or fourth-hand. I try to save money any way I can. My hubbie works hard to earn it, and I work hard to save it.

This is the first year, that I have been a seller in the consignment sale process. I got rid of a lot of Henry's baby stuff to friends, charities, and in the sale this year. Good to get rid of some of the clutter...although I did bring home quite a bit of stuff....

If you have never been to a consignment sale, please consider it!

1) You will save a lot of money. (As a consignment Daddy told me, he tells his wife the savings they get from this can buy her more purses. LOL)

2) There is a rush you get from scoring a super awesome deal.

3) I think that the community benefits from coming together to share each other's goods. A lot of prices are better than Goodwill!!!

4) Church consignment sales benefit good causes. At JCUMC Methodist Church 70% of the proceeds go to the seller, and 30% of the proceeds go to women and children's ministries.

5) If you are a seller, you can make a bit of money to help support your consignment habit. ;)

Here is what I got so far!!!

The deals I got on clothes!!! :) 

Cute Spring button down Georges $2.00

Shark T-shirt Gymboree $1.00

Button down Kite Strings $3.50 

Dinosaur Shorts Children's Place $2.50

Striped button down dress shirt Ralph Lauren Polo $4.00

Navy blue pants Chaps $3.00

Rash Guard and swimsuit Carter's $2.00

Dress Shirt and matching vest for Easter next year 5T (too big this year) Janie and Jack $11.00 

Janie and Jack $11.00

Janie and Jack

Janie and Jack white drawstring pants with tag still on

Shirt and pant combo was $6.50

Crocs $4.00 

Crocs $1.00 

Educo Discovery Spaceship $20.00 

Spaceship retails for $180 at Sears. Check it out here.

Pack and Play bumper pad. (Thought this would be cool for daytime playing.)

Crib rail cover for my teething little buddy. $1.00

Portable highchair $6.00

A ton of books!!! All between a dollar and the most expensive one was $2.50.

Dragon Cool Mist Humidifier $5.00

Leapfrog Play stand thingy $6.00

Me taking a picture into a mirror toy for Henry. $1.50

I also got Jack a Spiderman mask.
$2.00 for the mask

 Little Tykes Garden $5.00!!!!!! I don't have a picture because it is in my mom's car. LOL


 Bumble Bee Transformer $3.00 (In my mom's car too.)


All in all, this was one heck of a sale!!!! I did spend a hair over $100.00, but I have Easter presents, and birthday presents, and some super cute outfits!!

Check out The Bargain Watcher website for sales in your area. Happy hunting!!!

Easter Paper Banner

After making my Easter Egg Art using burlap and scrapbook paper, I decided to exchange some other paper that I had decided not to use and get more of the same paper I used for the eggs. Calling myself a beginner at sewing would be a huge exaggeration. What does come before beginner? Anyway, I need to practice the very basics, for example, threading the needle and pulling up the bobbin! I decided to sew a paper banner. Not too hard since it is one straight line all the way across. (Thanks for the idea, Amanda!) If it hadn't taken me about 20 minutes to get the sewing machine plugged in, threaded, and ready to go, this project would have taken me about 45 minutes start to finish.

What you need:
scrap book paper ($2.40)
straight edge or ruler
bias tape ($1.99)

This cost about $5.00. :)

What you do:

Cut out the triangles or whatever shape you want and sew them to the bias tape. TA DA! Easy

I decided to use a fancy pair of scissors that will make a zig zag edge on the paper triangles. I also wasn't too concerned about if they were all a little off or about the spacing between them on the bias tape. It doesn't need to be perfect to be pretty. I sewed them together while Henry and Jack were playing together in the same room as me. I did have to stop and pick up Henry and plop him back in front of his toys a couple of times. He loves the sound of the sewing machine. :)

This is how it turned out. I even had a little bit of extra paper, so I made flowers/pin-wheel looking things to stick out of a galvanized bucket I had.

Here's how it turned out.

Jack's puzzle is sitting there too. Meh! Forgot to move it. Oh well! I think it looks pretty festive for a super budget. 

Easter Egg Upcycle Art

As much as I like doing art with my kiddos, I decided to get my own craftiness on today. I tried to consign these pictures I got at IKEA a while ago. They used to be in Jack's nursery. Kid to Kid didn't want them so they sat in the closet for a long time.... Glad they did. Today, I decided to make some Easter art using these old pictures. 

Henry is busy eating his green beans and shredded cheese. Nom nom nom...

I found this burlap "paper" in the scrap booking aisle with all of the other fun paper. 

I just traced around the paper onto the sheet of burlap. I cut it out and used spray glue adhesive to stick the burlap to the back of the origianl IKEA print. I trimmed the extra off the edges when I was through. It worked great. Make sure you use the spray adhesive outside. :) 

 

My cat, Lily, decided to join us.  I found a template for an egg here.

I used spray adhesive on the back of the scrap book paper and stuck it onto the framed burlap. I threw away the scratched up plastic that used to lay over the frame. 

Henry is still enjoying himself. Potter, our dog, came over and is licking the cheese off his lap and toes. :) 

Here's what it looks like when finished. Obviously you can do whatever you want. This was a quick project. 

Can't decide if I want to overlay some other patterns.... I'll have to think about it.

Detail shot... Yellow gingham egg

Could do this... not sure... I only glued down the big egg.

Maybe this... I don't know... I'll leave it out and play with it until I decide. Until then, they are still pretty with just the one big egg one them.

What did it cost? 

I already had the spray adhesive and frames.

Each piece of burlap cost, $1.99 x 3

Scrap book paper $.59 x 3

about $8.00 for three frames Easter eggs. :)

How long did it take?

about 45 minutes from start to clean up (including vacuuming burlap fuzz and cheese and green beans off the baby) 

Okay, I finally decided on these three arrangements.  There is no going back. I glued them. Doug is my muse. He very haphazardly shifted one of them, and then the other two fell into place. I am quite happy with the results. :)

\