SWH4T$: Candy Cane Play-dough

Welcome back to Week 9 of She Works Hard 4 The $ (SWH4T$)!



We are so pleased for you to join us this week, and look forward to many holiday tips and tricks!



The Rules? They're pretty simple!

1.) Follow your hostesses at Baby Shmizz and Sweet Stella's via GFC

2.) Link up a specific post that relates to money and time, your job, your business, couponing, anything that shows how you "work hard for your money".

3.) Post our button on your post

Have fun linking and finding new blogs to read!









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Festive & Frugal Toddler Gift
In keeping with Shan's theme from last week, I thought I would feature a cute and cheap gift that you can make for the little kids in your life. I made Candy Cane Playdough for Jack's little friends that we got together with last weekend.

Yes, they are on the liquor cabinet...
right now its the only high placethat Jack can't reach...

I got the idea for this from my favorite addiction time-suck social media site, Pinterest. I actually combined 2 ideas, Candy Cane Playdough with Snow Playdough:

Source: artfulparent.typepad.com via Shannon on Pinterest

Source: tenkidsandadog.blogspot.com via Shannon on Pinterest

In addition to your playdough ingredients (see here), you will also need red & white glitter, 8-oz mason jars, fabric cut into 5x5 inch squares (I also used pinking shears to make the edges of the fabric pretty)

I made 1 batch of red playdough and 1 batch of white playdough using this recipe, and I added 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract to each batch for candy cane scent :) At the end, I kneaded in red glitter to the red batch, and white iridescent glitter to the white batch. 2 batches of dough fills about 5 8-oz mason jars.

Assembly:

-divide your batches into small 15 small balls each.

-start with a red ball and slightly flatten it in the bottom of the jar so it touches all sides of the jar.

-add a white ball on top, squishing down in the same manner.

-repeat until you have 3 layers of red & 3 layers of white (this amount worked for me, you could make more or less layers depending on what you want).

-place the metal lid on the top of the jar, cover with a 5x5 inch square of fabric and screw down the collar over the fabric & lid.

The cost of this whole gift is minimal, because most of the stuff you have on hand already (flour, salt, vegetable oil, cream of tartar). We happened to have mason jars already because we do a lot of canning in the fall, but if you need to purchase them, here is an idea of prices:

12-pack case of 8 oz Mason Jars: $17.95 on Amazon, which is $1.50/jar

1/2 yard of fabric, price varies, but I paid $3.99 at Jo-Ann Fabrics

Glitter: $1.99 each

So I didn't do out the math of how much it would be per jar all said and done, but I'm guessing its less than $5. Which is awesome for many reasons, but mostly because its homemade, its cheap and its just plain fun!

What sort of homemade gifts have you made this holiday season?