{Homemade Christmas} 10% discount at Spunky Junky Etsy Shop!

Hasn't SJ's Homemade Christmas been so much fun! I love the amazing giveaways, guests, and tutorials that we have seen over that last few weeks!

I think it is only fair that during this time I also offer at discount at Spunky Junky's Etsy Shop.

Between working on custom orders I have managed to find some spare time to work on a few more items for my shop!

Soooo, from now until December 19th I will be offering 10% off of all orders!!!

use promocode: SPUNKYJUNKY

Hope you are all enjoying this fabulous Holiday season, and make sure to come back tomorrow for a wonderful {Tutorial Tuesday} I will be providing you will LOTS of ideas for easy homemade gifts--best part--I will be using my fabric posies on every gift!!!!

{Homemade Christmas} I Kissed a Toad gift-away....

I just love this time of year. I love the lights, music, treats, and the sweet acts of gift giving. I love that during this time of year many giveaways are centered around items that could potentially be given as a gift to a loved one, and this giveaway is no exception.

Let me just say that the merchandise from I Kissed a Toad rocks, and I guess Kelzee (the brains behind the store) rocks too ;)  Her handbags, clutches, belts, and hats are so unique and eye-catching.

See, I told you her stuff was adorable!

Isn't this clutch awesome too?! And the best part about it is that she is GIVING IT AWAY!!!! Wouldn't this make a cool stocking stuffer?

So how could you win this clutch:

Required:

*Become a fan of the I Kissed a Toad facebook page (1 entry)

*Become a fan of the Spunky Junky facebook page (1 entry)

*Become a follower of the Spunky Junky blog (1 entry)

Extra entries:

*Visit the I Kissed a Toad etsy shop and tell me what you looove

(1 entry)

*Place an order at Kezlee's etsy shop and tell me what you bought (1 entry)

And don't forget!!!

If you place an order on the I Kissed a Toad Etsy Shop now through the 18th you will get 15% off your entire order.

used the coupon code: SPUNK

{Homemade Christmas} JewelryByGK Gift-away....

My Dear friend  Kiley from JewelryByGK is so talented and creative. She and her husband make the most amazing jewelry. And the best part? The jewelry is made out of reclaimed vehicles and exotic woods. Isn't that awesome and totally thrifty?!

Now control your excitement because Kiley is going to giveaway TWO necklaces. YEAHHHHH!!!! Not only do you get one of her amazing Cobalt necklaces, but you also get to pick the color!

So how could YOU become the winner:

*Become a follower of the Spunky Junky blog (1 entry)

*Become a fan of the Spunky Junky facebook page (1 entry)

*Become a fan of the JewelryByGK facebook page (1 entry)

*Check out JewelryByGK etsy page and tell me what piece you love the most (1 entry)

Kiley is also offering 20% off your entire purchase at JewelryByGK for this week only!

use promocode: SPUNKY1JUNKY

Grab this button for your site: <a href="http://jewelrybygk.blogspot.com/"> < img src=" http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh446/chong5/adbutton-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

{Featured Guest} Michelle from Its a Handmade Life....

Michelle is here today from Its a Handmade Life. This girl is so cool and her ideas are amazing! 

So lets all find a comfy chair (in my case I need to remove three piles of clean laundry to sit down) and see what this chicka is going to surprise us with today!

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Hi there...my name's Michelle. And I come from a little far away blog called

 It's a Handmade Life. I'm a wifey and a mommy to a pretty, pretty princess. Around here, it really is a handmade life. It's just funner that way, isn't it?

Stop by my blog and take a looksy! I'm really itching to start giveaways!

Where do I start?!?!  I love to save MONEY and I love to be cReAtIvE. I'm gonna jump out on a limb here and guess that you like to save money and be creative too. To the typical person, a simple gift bag from the store is just fine. But you and I are a different kind, my dear! We are not satisfied with boring! We want unique!

So let's have some fun!  

The first order of business: embellish!! I try not to buy wrapping paper, but when I do, I buy the cheap solid colored ones. That way I get to have all the fun I want with it. You can seriously glue/tape ANYTHING to a gift to spruce it up.

Wrap and embellish with paper flowers!

OR

Pinwheel Rosettes

paper doilies

I love putting a picture of myself and the gift-ee!

(yes thats me and my hunk-a-man!)

Ok, quick confession: I throw cards away. Especially the bazillion Christmas cards I get. I know it's absolutely terrible and thoughtless. But I throw everything away. I hate keeping stuff that's not useful. The exceptions are handmade cards or if something very meaningful was written in it. So with that, before I throw cards away, I cut off any cute little embellishments it has...ha! Hence why I have a little felt reindeer for this gift. I yanked him off a card last Christmas before I chucked it. So if you are like me, make sure you recycle any embellishments you can and reuse them!!

You can make a beautiful gift bag from a grocery paper bag:

Tutorial Here!

This kind of gift bag is PERFECT for the green person in your life!!

How about some fabric?

You can make all kinds of fabric flowers Don't go out and buy fabric! This grey one I made from an old sweater! Feels good to reuse and repurpose!

tip: glue pins on the backs of the flowers and make them reusable to the gift-ee!

Or some Japanese Furoshiki!

Tutorial Here!!

Wrap some pretty lace around and attach a tag:

Have some solid, plain, boring bags?

How about hanging an old ornament you don't want anymore?

I wrote to and from on the actual ornament...no tag needed!

The tag hanging on this bag was blank. I quickly spruced it up by stamping "Hope" on it.

This is another ornament I had laying around...so cute...but it doesn't match my perfectly coordinated tree darn it! It's ok! It makes my gift look beautimus! I just printed the tag and punched it out with a scallop punch.  

Here I just glued an old snowflake ornament I had laying around. You can find these at the Dollar Store :) 

Have a teeny-tiny gift or gift card to wrap?

How about this baby! Made from a toilet paper roll!

Tutorial Here!

So! No more buying those $4 gift bags anymore! What a rip-off!!! Sometimes we pay so much care to the actual gift, why not the wrapping to?!?! Remember, choose styles and colors according to what you think that person would love to make it even more special for them!

Happy wrapping!!

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Aren't Michelle's ideas thrifty?! I love these presents and I can't wait to wrap my own.

Let's all thank Michelle for stopping by and to show our gratitude head on over to her cute blog and give her some love!

 I am so excited to welcome our next featured guest. Candice, from Meal Makin Momma, is here today to teach us how to make bread in canning jars! Yes, I said it...canning jars! You can say, "Get out of here, that is fa-reaking awesome!"

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This is my Great Grandmothers' banana bread recipe that I've spiked with orange flavoring... I was a little worried about this experiment but I am SO happy I tried it... It is DELISH!  And for a twist on  "Plane Jane" bread loaves I decided to bake it in canning jars for a fun way to gift them, this also allows you to bake more at a time if you'd like.

You will need:

• 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• 3 medium ripe bananas
• 4-5 teaspoons orange zest
• 4-5 wide mouth pint canning jars

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  

Cream the shortening, sugar, and brown sugar.  Then add the eggs one at a time and mix well.

Measure in baking powder, baking soda, & salt.  Slowly add the flour while mixing.

Mix well.

 Next peel and break up the bananas into a bowl.

With a fork mash the bananas well.

Wash and zest an orange with micro grater or the smallest holes on your cheese grater.  I like my micro grater! 

 Dump bananas and zest into mixture and mix again.

Spray your clean canning jars with Pam or Crisco spray.  You will need 4-5 jars for this recipe.

Fill them 1/2 full with the batter...DO NOT FILL FULLER!  Wipe off the threads and top of the jar so they are clean.

Now place in your preheated oven directly on the oven racks.  They may not bake evenly if you bake them on a cookie sheet.  Just make sure there is space between them.  Bake for about 40 -45 minutes.  Be sure to use a toothpick to check them.  While baking, start simmering the canning jar rings and lids.

I am not taking any other pictures of the inside of my oven... It's as clean as I could get it, I promise and it's probably twenty years old.

Once your bread is cooked take them out of the oven and immediately place lids and rings on the hot bottles.  This should seal them as they cool. 

Once cooled complelty decorate till your little hearts desire.  (Mod Podge cute paper around them, wrap with a ribbon and put a bow on top,... whatever you can imagine.) 

Stick a gift tag on it and gift it away.

But don't forget to keep one for yourself!!!

They will slip right out of the jar with no problem.

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Isn't Candice amazing?!

I can't believe how simple this idea is, and how wonderful it would be to gift these to my friends and neighbors for Christmas!

So ya'll need to go over to Candice's blog and give her some love.

BTW her blog is brand spankin' new but she already has some amazing ideas and recipes up that I am sure she would looooove to share with all of you!

So what are you waiting for?! Go find an amazing recipe to impress you hubby, punks....and your mother-in-law ;)

{Featured Guest} Apple Loves Orange and a GIVEAWAY!!!

I am so happy to introduce  our next SJ Homemade Christmas guest, April from Apple Loves Oranges has this amazingly cute blog with great tutorials and fantastic pictures. She is a doll--check her out.

Now say it with me, "Hello, April"...good you got it!

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Howdy y'all! No...I don't really talk like that, but I do live in Texas, so I thought it might be fun! My name is April, but feel free to call me Apple. I am super excited to be guest posting here at Spunky Junky. Today I'm going to share with you the ornaments I'm making this year. This is something that you can totally put your own spin on based on what "junk" you have around the house. It was important to me not to have to go out and purchase anything to make these. My inspiration for these came when I decided that my boring, t-shirt material covered dress form (I used to sell vintage clothes on Etsy) needed a make over. I came across a pack of vintage sheet music in the closet and thought it would make for a much more interesting dress form. Here's what you need to gather up - card board or poster board (a cereal box would be great) - torn up paper (sheet music, book pages, scrapbook paper) - Mod Podge (or thinned out glue) - paint - embellishments (lace, ribbon, buttons, etc) First you need to find an image to use as your template.  Mine is a dress form, but the sky is the limit here folks.

I found this one here!  This is the BEST place to find just about any image (especially vintage)!

I used the copy function on my printer to shrink the image to the size I wanted, then I cut it out (minus the stand) and traced it onto the cardboard.

Cut your shapes out and use the Mod Podge to attach the strips of paper to the cardboard.  Make sure you get the whole surface covered.  It's ok if you go over the edges, you can trim the excess when it dries.

Now it's time to add some color.  I mixed some acrylic paint with a little bit of water to make a color wash, because I didn't want to cover up the music notes.  If you're using colorful scrapbook paper, you can skip this step (obviously!).  Punch holes in the top to add ribbon/string to hang from your tree.

Now grab your "junk" and get decorating.  I used craft glue to attach lace, string, buttons and little birds and heart punches.  This is another area where you have free reign.  Be creative!!  

Hang your pretties on your tree and marvel at your craftiness!  Give some as gifts and amaze your friends and family!  You could even tie these onto the fronts of your packages to dress them up!  

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Isn't April amazing?!

Not only has she graced us with her amazing (and thrifty ideas) but she is also going to be giving away two custom flower flowers to TWO Spunky Junky readers...Wow, that was a lot of "to's" in one sentence!

Soooo, here is how you can win some of April's amazing goods:

*Become of follow of the  Apple Loves Orange Blog (1 entry)

*Check out April's etsy shop and tell me what you love most

(1 entry)

*Become a fan of Spunky Junky facebook page (1 entry)

*Become a follower of the Spunky Junky blog (1 entry)

Annnnd, if you purchase any products from April's shop THIS WEEK you will receive FREEEEE shipping.

(for free shipping write "SPUNKY" in the message to the seller).

{Homemade Christmas} Find out how you can be a part of this event!!!

Here's the deal. Money is tight for everyone these days. If it is not tight for you, I certainly would not object if you passed a little my way ;)

So I decided that everything I buy this year for my family will be handmade. Yes, yes, there are a few exceptions. I will not be making chocolate oranges or andes mints. Somethings are best left to the experts.

I am, however, going to be making some cool fabulous gifts that I will be sharing with you over the next few weeks.

I will also be having guests come by to show you their homemade gifts and ideas too!

AND WAIT!!!

I will also be having LOTS and LOTS of giveaways, from some amazing blogs and stores! So even if you decide not to make your own gifts at least you have a chance to buy or win some that come from other homes ;)

There is still room available if you would like to be a part of the Spunky Junky Homemade Christmas.

Here is what I am looking for:

**guest posts for homemade christmas gifts

**blogs or stores interested in doing giveaways

**individuals interested in sharing ideas on how to be more thrifty during the Holidays!

If you are interested in joining The Homemade Christmas send me an email
spunkyjunkyblog@gmail.com

I would love all of you to be a part of this wonderful event and to help make the Holidays amazing {and less expensive} for everyone!!!