Kathy's Homemade Chili

Homemade Chili with Macaroni:
2 cans of chili beans
1 can white kidney beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can "ranch style" pinto beans
1 can "chili ready" diced tomatoes
1 lbs ground beef (browned)

FRESH:
1/2 cup chopped finely carrots, green onion, (option) bell pepper, (option) 1-2 jalapenos, and garlic, chili powder, and salt & pepper to taste.

Optional: add Macaroni! Add one box of dry macaroni and 1 can of chicken broth.

Combine all ingredients in bit pot, bring to a boil. Be careful not to burn and stir often. Then bring to simmer and heat on medium till macaroni is tender. Enjoy!

DIY: Homemade Paper Crafts - Decorate with Paper!

DIY: This is an addition to my last post - how to make a homemade paper banner. This one is personalized - you can see I drew it out first. I used LIME GREEN, BLUE and white paper to make this, I also added bright colored ribbon, and yarn to the ends and the middle to make it more festive. The options are endless, and still pretty cheap. Plus if you are making the decorations yourself - you can make them all match!

This is basically the look you get with a homemade banner. This was my Christmas one.

I then tried homemade paper books this year. At the community center one of the groups is called the Book Making Club and I took a couple of their samples to learn how. Basically you can make them any size and color. I used red and green for the Christmas. Plus I used stamps, glitter and the other supplies are scissors, a punch, thread and a threader, a sharpie and a computer to make the photos that went in the "books". I also made these books ornaments. It was a lot of fun and really popular.

This is the what the front looked liked after I finished.

Here is the photos and a finished one.

Enjoy!

DIY: Paper Decorations - Homemade Paper Banner and Homemade Gift bags

DIY: I love working with paper. It's cheap, handy and easy to make a number of different things. From invitations, to scrapbook pages, to personalized cards, and so much more. This year I have been experimenting with more and more paper, to see just how much I can make from just paper (and a computer of course). You don't have to use super-sophisticated clip are or photos to make great decorations, but having a variety of fonts, photos, and icons will come in handy. Luckily, you can surf the Internet and get just about anything. So here is a "gift bag" I made for my daughters 1st birthday, I have since gone on to make luminaries for a wedding, and holiday gift bags. Once you have the pattern down, it's so easy. So here it is again.

Cut, fold and tape! Viola!

Added side creases for effect! Looks a real bag!

This is what the bottom looks like when I tape it, I also tape the side too.

Next is a classic, but always forgotten the "paper banner". You make it say anything, out of ANY color, and use fancy fonts to make it cute! here it goes. So use a 8X10 to make two triangles, then put in the letters you need. Then print on colored paper, or on white if that is what you want. 

For the holidays I use RED and GREEN paper for this homemade Holiday Paper Chain.

Then I matted it to opposite color of paper.

I used two sided tape at the top and used a hole punch to put the string through.

And there you have it! An easy, cute, CHEAP way to decorate and add a festive feel to anything!! This I made and gave to my secret Santa this year. So easy!