Hey all,
It’s only a few weeks til Christmas and I’ve been trying to spend the least amount of money and scouring Pinterest for ideas on homemade Christmas gifts that I can make without having to buy anything.
Yep, I’m cheap.
Mostly just poor. 🙂
I’m really enjoying stretching the few dollars we have for Christmas money- I used my Swagbucks points to buy $25 dollars worth of amazon gift cards and got the kiddos some stamp sets and “The Gruffalo” DVD. (if you’re wondering, “A gruffalo? What’s a gruffalo?” you should read the book. Its darling. One of our favorites.
For other gifts, we’re doing homemade jammy pants (look for a post on those coming soon!) and possibly homemade angry birds stuffed animals.
So. Homemade bean bags.
They’re pretty simple and quick and fun. My kinda project.
First, find some scrap fabric. Cut out some squares or rectangles.
I did 25 square/rectangles depending on how much of each scrap of fabric I had.
With the right sides facing each other, sew 3 sides and leave the 4th open so you can turn it right side out and then fill it with beans or rice or whatever you have lying around.
Before you turn it right side out, clip off the excess fabric and clip the corners to a 45 degree angle to make the corners more crisp.
Then, once your squares are all turned right side out, fill them up.
Use a highly technical device like a paper funnel to get the rice/beans/whatever into the bags.
You will have a mess on your hands. Just count on it.
There is rice all over my bedroom floor right now.
Then, sew the bags up, carefully so you don’t spill any more rice.
And then you have bean bags!
Use them for playing hopscotch, throwing at each other, tossing into a hole, for doing math when homeschooling or whatever else you can think of. 🙂
Live Simple Natural 
Those bean bags can also serve a good purpose for a heat pad.:)
ooh, good idea!
Yeah if you have lavender oil you can add a few drops in the rice and put bags in microwave or in the oven covered in something to protect them so that it wouldn’t catch fire in the oven (or find a safe way to warm them up if you don’t want to use the microwave), and when they’re warm enough you can apply them onto anywhere you might ache. You can also use them for neck warmers to soothe any tension around your shoulders or neck. I love these homemade heating pads, I make them similar to the way you made the bean bags just a little larger.:)
That’s awesome. I’ll have to try it! We used to have an old sock filled with rice that we kept in the freezer for the same reason, but we threw it away after awhile (it got kinda icky) and I haven’t made another one. Bean bags are much prettier- I’m gonna make a nice big one for aches and pains.
Great idea for kids gifts! Thanks for sharing on Wildcrafting Wednesday!
Thanks for sharing your info. I truly appreciate your efforts and I am waiting for your
further write ups thanks once again.
What a gorgeous idea!
Thanks! I hope the kids like them 🙂