Free Personalizable Valentine's Day Photo Cards: Family Time

If you're on the hunt for Valentine's Day photo cards for your family, look no further! The next installment in my personalizable Valentine's Day card series is perfect for photos of families. My photo happens to be in black and white but you can use a color picture for this layout, too.

It features a generously sized area for your photo, a red finger paint texture on the bottom and personalizable text. The font I used for the names is called Janda Elegant Handwriting and it is available for free.

Download the free personalizable photo card here. (4x6 size)

Name font (Janda Elegant Handwriting) available here

If this is your first time downloading one of my cards, note that you will need to register (it's free and takes literally 10 seconds) first to download the card. Then scroll down and click the download button below the file (circled in red).

Free Personalizable Valentine's Day Photo Cards: The Girly Girl

Everyone is on the hunt for adorable Valentine's Day cards...we've got just one month left! I've got a special series of personalizable photo cards I'll be posting over the next couple weeks so be sure to keep checking back!

Our first card would be perfect for the girly girl in your life. It's got a modern damask print and pretty pink text and polka dots. You can personalize both the photo and the text on the card. The font used to write the name on the card is called "odstmeplik" can can be downloaded for free.

Download the free personalizable photo card here. (4x6 size)

Name font (Odstemplik) available here

If this is your first time downloading one of my cards, note that you will need to register (it's free and takes literally 10 seconds) first to download the card. Then scroll down and click the download button below the file (circled in pink).

Organize Your Pantry with Glass Jars and Contact Paper (plus free printable!)

Has your pantry taken on a life of its own? Do you fear spaghetti night because you know as soon as you open the door to your pantry, bags and boxes will threaten to avalanche and leave you buried alive? Are you putting off organizing your pantry because you just can't afford the fancy do-dads you want to make it perfect? Make excuses no more, friends because I tamed my pantry beast for a paltry $1.

I had tons of different bags of bulk foods, boxes open and half full crammed onto my shelves and precariously perched on top of each other. It. was. ugly. No, there are no before shots (you don't really want to see them anyway).

But the after is so nice. Everything has a place and most things have a label:

My favorite labels, of course are the pretty, swirly ones on the top shelf (which is actually the second shelf...the top shelf just has cereal boxes and a large jar of oatmeal). All I had to do was trace the template shapes onto the back of some white contact paper from the dollar store, cut them out and label them with a permanent marker.

Where'd I get all the jars?

I started using just extra quart size canning jars. Anything that was in a bag in the pantry but could fit in the quart jars went in. I also saved all of my glass jars from store bought foods for several months to build my collection. I just soaked off the label, gave it a good scrub and gave it a new home in my pantry. I did eventually purchase some large 1.5 gallon and half gallon jars but most of the jars are re-purposed food jars.

Why not chalkboard labels?

With chalkboard stuff everywhere, there was a temptation to try and make these chalkboard style. I'd seen a tutorial online of someone who had just painted contact paper with chalkboard paint to make chalkboard labels. And I thought about it. But at the end of the day, it was just a lot more work than I wanted to put into this project. 

What if I change what's in the jars?

That's the beauty of contact paper! The contact paper just peels right off. I actually cut out a small stack of extra labels so if I switch out the contents of a jar, I can just peel the old label off and put a new one on. Tracing and cutting out the extra labels was way less work than painting a whole roll of contact paper with chalkboard paint (plus, no need to worry if it will flake or chip off later).

(if there was extra contact paper not big enough to make a label, I cut it into a square or rectangle to copy down things like cooking times or instructions and put it on the back of the jar)

If you're itching to organize your pantry, too, save some time and download my free printable label template instead of having to find the shapes yourself. There are a whole range of sizes so you can pick one that's the right size for your jar.

Download the FREE Printable Label Templates Here

(if you are reading this via e-mail or RSS feed, you may need to click through to the post on my blog in order to download the labels)

For my Portland Peeps: Einstein Bros Bagels Pumpkin Promos

Portlanders: Get a free Pumpkin from Kruger’s Farm Market, and a Free Pumpkin Baked Treat with Purchase at Einstein Bros!

We all know that fall is here and with that comes the return of the beloved pumpkin! Pumpkin pumpkin everywhere. Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin bagels. The list goes on. What better way to welcome the season than with TWO pumpkin-centric promos from Einstein Bros Bagels?

#1: The Pumpkin Baked-Good Promotion 

When? October 17th --November 13th

Einstein Bros Bagels has eight delicious, seasonal pumpkin offerings to roll in the holiday season. From October 17th to November 13th, Einstein Bros. Bagels celebrates pumpkin season by offering patrons a free Pumpkin Baked Good with any purchase. 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~    ~   ~   ~   ~   ~ 

#2: The Pumpkin Giveaway Promotion

When? October 17th --October 31st

Until October 31st, stop by your local Einstein Bros Bagels and ask for a coupon for a free pumpkin of up to 10 pounds from all Kruger’s Farm Markets. 

(Coupons are available only while supplies last.)

 Kruger’s Farm Market has been a long-standing beacon of sustainability and farm-to-table freshness. With the expansive farm (including the pumpkin patch and corn maze!) on Sauvie Island, and two urban farm stands in the city, Kruger’s Farm Markets brings local and fresh to Portland.

To redeem your coupon, visit any of the three Kruger’s Farm Market Locations:

Sauvie Island Farm

17100 NW Sauvie Island Rd., Portland, OR 97231

503.621.3489. 

Open daily from 9 am-Sunset

Hawthorne Farm Stand

Under the tent at 22nd & SE Hawthorne, Portland, OR 97214

503.235.0314. 

Open daily from 9 am-8 pm

St. Johns Farm Stand

7316 N. Lombard St., Portland, OR 97203

503.289.2535. 

Open daily from 10 am-8 pm

To learn more about Einstein Bros Bagels visit here. For a list of their 13 Portland-area locations, visit their store locator. For more information about Kruger’s Farm Market, visit their website here.

Portlanders, it’s time to put on those layers and seize the [free] pumpkin!

This post is sponsored by Einstein Bros Bagels. I was compensated for my time spent putting this post together and for letting you know about the great deals happening at Einstein Bros Bagels this fall. Love of pumpkin and recognition of a great deal are my own.

Easy Upcycled Sugar Jar

This is a pretty simple project...but sometimes those are the best kind. It's not elaborate or fancy but fills a need and looks cute doing it. PLUS I had everything I needed on-hand so it was a zero-cost craft. Love that!

A couple weeks ago my church ran out of sugar on Sunday morning for the table with coffee. Yikes! One cool thing about my church is that it's smaller and so every pitches in to make things happen. A call was put out on facebook to see if anyone could grab more sugar canisters (kind of like these:)

...which is what we'd been using. They are admittedly un-cute. Plus the store name dropped in the post where more of these was available to purchase wasn't anywhere near my house. But come Saturday night nobody else had stepped up to volunteer to bring sugar. I had plenty of sugar at home....just not in a canister or other cute container that can sit out on the table.

What I did have, however, is a collection of glass jars that I like to use for crafts or storing leftovers. I went to my glass jar stash and found this baby which use to house organic apple sauce from Trader Joe's:

Perfect! Now it just needed a label. I pulled up Microsoft word on my computer and found a font I liked called "constantia".

Leaving it up on the screen of my computer, I grabbed a sharpie and free handed the letters onto the glass. I could have printed it off, taped it inside the jar and traced it....but I didn't want to chance waking up my sleeping kiddo (the printer is about 10 feet from the door to his room). I think it turned out alright:

Easy peasy! The lid screws on tight for storage plus this will be easier to refill (and cost way less to refill) than the disposable canisters we were using before. Green, frugal, free....it just doesn't get much better!

I'm sharing with these great parties. Come join the fun!

* Creative Juice Thursday at Momnivore's Dilemma * Hookin Up with HoH at House of Hepworths * Crafty Soiree at Yesterday on Tuesday * DIY Thrifty Thursday at Thrifty 101 * Lil' Luna Link Party at Lil' Luna * Show Off Your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans * Show and Tell with Blue Cricket Design * Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage * Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring  * Weekend Show Off Party at Ladybird Lane * Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest *

Worm Factory Review and GIVEAWAY!

One of the best home management decisions I've made in the last five years by far has been my acquisition of a Worm Factory composter. I absolutely LOVE my Worm Factory. This week, thanks to the generosity of Nature's Footprint Inc (the makers of the Worm Factory) I get to help them give one Worm Factory 360 away to one of my blog readers for FREE! We all know that I am a fan of free. They have also generously offered Carissa's Creativity Space readers I discount for the next 2 weeks in case you didn't win. Read on, friends!

Free Desktop Background for April

I love free desktop backgrounds. I really like ones with a calendar on them. And I really really like them if you can personalize them with your own pictures. Last month, I told you about the one I downloaded from Lee-Lou Blogs. Lee-Lou's background this month was okay. But I'm really really loving the one from The Shappby Shoppe (And no wonder I like it. It's pretty similar in style to my blog template).  This is what mine looked like when I finished putting my pictures in it:

Way to be classy, Kylie! Head over and get your own and make sure to leave a comment thanking Kylie for taking the time for putting it together and sharing it for free.