DIY Life

You shop the sales. You've already reduced your holiday spending budget. But let's face it: the holidays are still going to cost you. Really smart budgeters contribute small amounts all year round to holiday savings accounts. For the rest of us, it's not too late! Here are some last minute ways to put money aside for holiday gifts.

1. Open a holiday account. No, it's not too late. Do you have any free funds sitting in your checking account? If so, transfer them immediately to your holiday fund. It's a start.

2. Cut the lattes. Yes, it's annoying when budgeting experts keep reminding us not to fritter money away on expensive little luxuries. If you like to indulge in little treats for yourself, however, now's the time to go cold turkey. Not forever. Just for the next few weeks, and put that money aside. It will add up over the next few weeks.

OK, I usually don't go for the "household item" craft projects... oftentimes, they look just like what they are. The pasta necklaces? They're nothing but macaroni on a string.

Better Homes and Gardens has changed my mind, though, with their pasta tree centerpiece project. This fancy little number is hip and funky, and doesn't look like old pasta at all.

All you need are a few simple materials; BHG promises that the project will cost less than ten dollars.

I realize it is only July, but it is never too early to think about Christmas, or at least to get a head start on your decorating this year. If you are into recycling items some people would rather just throw away, then release the artist in you, and paint yourself some one-of-a-kind ornaments.

Since you probably throw away your old burned out light bulbs, I invite you to recycle them into handpainted Christmas ornaments, courtesy of Kraftykristen over on Craftster. Kristen cleans the bulbs with rubbing alcohol, uses acrylic paint to make a snowman, gingerbread man, or a Santa onto the bulb, and finishes up with an acrylic sealer.

I think most people would agree that bath products make a nice gift. Unfortunately, they're a little over-gifted, if you know what I mean. But, if you take some effort to make your own products and to personalize them, what was old-hat suddenly becomes new again. Whipup's bath bomb surprises are a perfect gift idea that you can personalize for anyone.

You'll need baking soda, citric acid, your choice of essential oil, a spray bottle with witch hazel, and your choice of trinkets to insert in the bath bombs. You'll also need a large bowl, a whisk, an ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, and a tray covered with wax paper.

To make the bath bombs, combine the baking soda and citric acid. Then slowly spray in the essential oils. Adding the witch hazel can be a bit tricky as you need just the right amount of moisture. Once the consistency is right, you'll be able to use the ice cream scoop to create the halves of the bath bomb. Then insert the trinket and put the two halves together. Whipup has the details.

Keep reading for different gift ideas with these "surprise inside" bath bombs.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Michaels Stores, Inc., has issued a voluntary recall of about 310,000 seasonal writing pens. The surface coating on each of the Flower Writers, Christmas Writers, Easter Writers, and Spooky Writers pens, contain high levels of lead which violates the federal lead paint standard.

Manufactured in China and sold exclusively at Michaels retail stores from August 2007 through March 2008 for about $1, the recalled pens were sold individually as part of a series of four pens. Each pen has decorative ornamentation. Please check the CPSC press release for more information.

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled pens and return them to any Michaels store for a full refund. For more information on the product recall, contact (800) 642-4235 / (800) MICHAELS, or visit their website; www.michaels.com.

For (insert event here, such as Christmas), you received gift cards for books, electronics, coffee shops, etc., and while you did use most of them, you are still wondering what to do with the other 50 cards you were lucky enough to receive, right? Whatever you do, don't throw them away, cause remember; one man's trash is another man's treasure!

Wisebread has a wonderful article telling us what to do with our accumulated, unwanted gift cards that we know we will never use. Gift your unwanted cards to people that you know can use them. You can sell them online or donate them to charitable organizations.

I try to use the gift cards I receive right away, but I must admit that I still carry cards from years ago that I know are no longer valid. For that time period, I only keep them for sentimental value, otherwise I was just throwing my unwanted cards away. Leave us a comment, and let us know what you do with your unwanted gift cards.

You should have eaten all those Christmas cookies by now, save the round cookie tin for this candle carousel. These things are always fun but cost a leg if you buy them from the German Christmas stores. Candles heat the air which rises and spins the propeller and attached ornaments.

This project uses:

• A round cookie tin
• Two coat hangers
• A cork
• A piece of scrap wood
• Two screws
• Four tea candles
• Spray paint and Christmas ornaments to jazz it up.

Tools used:

• Needle nosed pliers
• Drill and small bit
• File or Grinder
• Tin Snips
• Screw Driver

Gallery: Candle Carousel

When the deer Christmas light forms start to rust, and the wires and bulbs wear out, spray paint that thing brown and prop it into the garden. Add a bush or vine (plus several months) and you have affordable topiary. This is a good way to recycle and save money; if you shop for topiary forms, they can cost several hundred dollars.

Add the right topiary plants for your area. Typical topiary plants yew and boxwood take a long time to grow into form, for faster results (not years) use English ivy or something similar.

Now that Christmas is over and the new year has begun, it is time to face the most daunting task of the holiday season. It is time to unstring the house and take down the outdoor decorations. (If you are one of those infidels who leave up their lights all year a la' Homer Simpson you can stop here, log out and go ahead and beat yourself with a 2x4 now.)

Chances are that when the lights and decorations went up, you had "help" in the form of on lookers and back seat decorators to make sure that everything went yup just right, and that you didn't do anything silly with ladders, tree branches, etc. Now that it time to go out into weather that has become pretty nasty all across the U.S. to take them down, you are going to be flying solo out there in the wind, snow, ice, rain, and unfulfilled Christmas wishes while everyone else is inside warm, toasty, and playing with their newest acquisitions.

As you undertake this onerous task I wish you luck, and a lack of trips to the local emergency room. I have a friend who was taking down his decoration a week or so ago who ended up taking that ride to the ER and is now recovering at home with enough metal in his arm to give the TSA guys at the airport a run for their money!

I am a big fan of recycled decorations. Re-using household things will save the item from the recycle or trash bin. It also lets you make something for cheap without all the materials and energy that go into new products. This pop bottle snow man is a great recycled Christmas decoration.

It isn't your typical pop bottle project. You know the ones, they look like something more suitable for the craft table at preschool than for your living room. This snowman decoration is simple, attractive, and resourceful. There are two designs, each with full instructions. I prefer the look of the second one, pictured here. You have lots of flexibility with this one, so bring in some of your own style, adding accessories and make it a unique character. Here's what you'll need:

1. 1 L pop bottle
2. sand, rocks or other weight
3. 2-3" Styrofoam ball
4. White and black acrylic paint
5. Sponge brush
6. Sand paper
7. Black felt
8. Black buttons
9. Craft glue
10. Spray can lid
11. Accessories

If you've lined your window sill with snowmen and still have pop bottles overflowing the recycle bin, try some of these projects and put them to good use.

If your computer recently puked on you, I sure hope you didn't throw it away. There are so many things to do with retired, puked out pc's, all of us should have salvaged every part of our computers and been able to make something wonderfully geeky.

Instructables user albetcha took the magnets out of some ancient hard drives, was left with some platters, and decided to turn those hard drive platters into a clock. His instructions and pictures are clear, concise and easy to follow. Using those ancient hard drives, some epoxy glue, and other items you should have laying around the house, you can easily salvage your computer hard drives and turn them into nerdy clocks too.

If you need a clock kit, check out Gary's post on how to build a clock out of almost anything. If you are really eager to get going on this outstanding fab project, you can purchase a clock kit at your local craft store. You could even take apart an ugly clock and use the nice mechanisms that clock had. Either way, there is only four days to Christmas, so if you are looking to give your new hard drive clock as a Christmas gift, you'll need to get busy this weekend.

Spotted on the Snopes messageboards: instructions on how to fireproof your Christmas tree. Say the authors of the instructions, "traditionally we take a dead tree not properly prepared, set it in our homes and wrap it with electric wires. What an invitation for a fire!" Hmm, I thought, making sense so far... Sounds interesting. So I did a few searches and found that this "recipe" is up on a bunch of other websites. Like this one, for instance.

Here's what you do:
1) Fill a two gallon bucket with hot water to within one inch of the top.
2) Add the following ingredients: two cups Karo syrup, two ounces of liquid chlorine bleach, two pinches of Epsom salt, half a teaspoon of Borax, and one teaspoon of chelated iron (found at gardening supply stores). Stir the mixture thoroughly.
3) Saw at least an inch off the base of the tree and stand it in the bucket of solution. At which point, I'm guessing, the bucket totally overflows, spilling bleachy syrup goop all over the floor, so probably best to do this outside! Leave for twenty-four hours.
4) Set your tree up in its stand as usual and fill the well with some of the solution. Top up as necessary.

Frankly, I'm dubious. Yet curious, too. Does it work? I mean, I can't imagine it being much help in stopping the tree from burning. Fact of nature: when flame meets needle, burning happens, right? But, you know, testing it out would make a great science experiment!

Playing Santa is a huge privilege and a huge responsibility. Done well, you could make a child believe in magic and become part of their fondest memories. Done poorly, you could shatter a childhood, and scare them for life.

If you've been invited to play Santa, there are some important tricks of the trade. This clever video from the ministry of fun gives you a schooling in Santa impersonation. Here are the 7 skills to master.

• Jolly demeanor, quick thinking, Spirit
• HO HO HO
  
• Work with your eyes
• Be welcoming
• Don't disappoint
• Field difficult questions
• Do your research
• Know what's hip
  

While Santa is busy with his Christmas preparations at the North Pole, he'll need competent helpers. If you are one of the lucky ones doing the job this year, spend some time mastering that HO HO HO, expressing with your eyes and learning about the trendy toys. You'll bring magic to the children and have a great time too!

I loved Maureen's post about making your own hair bows. With balloons and curling ribbon, she showed us how to make fun hair clips that any girl would adore. Here's the seasonal twist on homemade hair bows: The Christmas tree clip.

This little Christmas bow is one of the cutest things ever. I can just imagine how precious it would look in a little girl's hair. You can work together making it, she'll love to be the crafter and have even more fun showing it off to her friends. The instructions clearly illustrate how to make the Christmas clip. You'll attach it onto an alligator clip. I'm sure that you could modify it for any size clip depending on what you're looking for.

If you're looking to add a little extra flair this Christmas, or have a little girl on your Christmas list, make one of these sweet little pieces.

I just packaged up some gifts to send my in-laws and couldn't find a shoe box. We usually keep shoe boxes handy for packages, but without one I tore apart the house looking for a suitable alternative. Finally I decided to use a cereal box. Our little gifts slid inside perfectly, I wrapped it up and sent it off. Using the cereal box made me think of all the other things in the recycling bin or garbage that could be re-purposed as wrapping material.

I found these instructions for making a gift box out of a cereal box. Along with the gift and box, you'll need a cutting mat, craft knife, straight edge, large spoon, pencil and glue. You can add a bow or gift tag, but there is no need for wrapping paper. Most cereal boxes are bright and colorful, so leave this funky resourceful look and you'll have a great wrapping solution. You could use a cracker box or any other food box in place of the cereal box. Get creative, pull from your recycling bin and have fun with it.

If you're interested in more thrifty and inventive wrapping ideas, check out some of Anna's suggestions.