Get Your Shopping List Started!

 We here at Life in Rehab have been watching you.

Oh yes, we have. 

And according to our traffic reports, you guys are starting to shuffle through old projects to make ready for the season.

Since we did a lot of crafts that we felt would be great, cheap gifts, we thought that starting this week, we'd pepper some new stuff with some older offerings so you could have everything glued, wrapped and ready in record time.

We'll include an approximate price tag to make budgeting a cinch.

And to help you discern the old from the new, we present our mascot for this venture:

The Ghost of Non-Denominational, Non-Specific Holiday Gift Giving Past!

We're going to start with the most popular project EVER at 40,000 hits.

I kid you not.

There's a lot of cheap school glue and water mixed in pickled okra jars out there.

I'm including our Homemade Decoupage Medium in this mess not only because you'll need it to do a few of the upcoming goodies, but because...well...wouldn't this make a great little present for a creative friend with the recipe card attached?

Cost: depending on your shopping skills, $0.10 and up.

 It doesn't matter how you use them, silver shells are chic and elegant.

At a boutique, they're also an arm and a leg.

We made up some quick ornaments with this batch, but you can use them as scatters, embellishments, or anything else your imagination cooks up for pennies each.

This concoction with the bowl and a few drops of cinnamon in the sphagnum moss still rang up under $3.

 At about $7, this pair of hurricanes was an easy project that had great, nearly fool proof results.

Not a fan of the nautical hues?

Grab some of these pebbles in gold or red and green and glitz up the finish.

Your buffet or your favorite teacher will thank you.

 Cheap gold plastic chargers got a new lease on life with a couple of coats of chalkboard paint, and since you can custom scribble a message of a name, these get used all year. Let the kids create a border with seasonal motifs and chalkboard pens for a charmer that will take your in-laws' attention away from the burnt sweet potatoes. At about $1.25 each, they could save your life.

Okay, time to scurry off and get busy! We have a lot to do starting this week; so much, that maybe you'll stay home with us on Friday!

No?

Didn't think so.