Don’t throw that milk container away! Recycle it into a Halloween Treat Bucket, perfect to take along with you when you go trick-or-treating. Kids will have fun making this recycled Halloween container, and taking it along on night to collect their candy haul.

Recycled Halloween Treat Bucket Materials:

• 1 recycled milk container, washed well
• 2 sheets of orange paper (construction, card stock, or scrapbooking)
• 1 sheet of black felt or craft foam
• 2 green chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
• markers
• glue dots
• scissors
• hole-punch
• pencil

Instructions:

1. Fold a piece of paper in half and draw pumpkin stem in the top area of the paper. To draw it, make a round or oval shape, then draw a few lines going down from the side edges and the middle.

2. Draw the round part of the pumpkin around the stem, and add a few wrinkle lines coming down from the stem. Draw 3 more pumpkins the same way on your remaining orange paper. Note: make two of the pumpkins shorter, to better fit on the handle sides of the jug.

3. Cut out each pumpkin around the outline.

4. With a washable marker, draw a line around the lid area of the milk jug, and down around the front of the jug. Cut around this line with a pair of sharp-pointed scissors, leaving the handle intact. (See photo.)

5. Attach the four pumpkins to the sides of the milk container with glue dots.

6. Make a hole in one of the front pumpkins with the hole-punch.

7. Thread a chenille stem through the hole. Twist the stem to secure it to the pumpkin, and then twist it around the pencil to make the curly pumpkin vine tendrils.

8. Do the same with the other front pumpkin so it also has a chenille vine.

9. With felt or craft foam, cut pumpkin eyes, noses, and mouths to decorate your pumpkins as jack-o’-lanterns. Attach the facial features with glue dots. Alternately, draw faces on the pumpkins before you attach them to the container.

Additional Recycled Halloween Bucket Tips:

Different Decorations: Instead of jack-o’-lanterns, cut out different shapes to adorn your treat bucket. How about black cats or ghostly shapes?

For Younger Tots: Give your toddler or pre-schooler a half sheet of paper and let them draw or color. Cut scribbles into a pumpkin shape.

Personalize: Use foam letter stickers to put your child’s name on the container and keep everyone’s treat bucket straight!

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When you don’t have a lot of money, but you need to have a lot of Halloween style, make your own wee witch hats from dollar store stuff, just like The Dollar Diva did! Check out her clever witch hat craft over here: [make Halloween witch hats]

Project Materials:

• Party hats, $1
• Party plates, $1
• Spray paint, on hand or $1
• Glitter, on hand or $1
• Glue, on hand

Total: $2 and up

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When it comes to dollar store crafting, spray paint is one of the best tools you have to transform dollar store materials into pretty home decor accents that look much more expensive! I love this fall centerpiece that takes humble dollar store pumpkin pails into an upscale home decor element. This great project was found at Up to Date Interiors, so hop over and check out the full tutorial: [Copper Pumpkin Centerpiece]

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I had a great time getting dollar store crafty this month with my dollar store candles and some Martha Stewart Halloween craft supplies! For this month’s 12 Months of Martha, I’m going to show you how to decorate some super adorable Halloween candles in just minutes. Oh, and don’t miss my appearance on the Martha Stewart show, where I shared my $5 dollar store Halloween costume idea!

Project Materials:

• Dollar store candle, $1
• Martha Stewart Crafts Adhesive Border Pad, about $14, or $.23 per border
• Orange ribbon, $1
• Twine, on hand or $1

Total: about $1.25 per candle, $15 total for the project

Supplies: I got the candles and ribbon at the dollar store.

How to Save Money on This Project: Substitute the adhesive border pad for washi tape, ribbon, or cut strips of Halloween-themed scrapbooking paper out to glue to your candle. Don’t forget to check your craft stash to see what you can use up!

Why the Martha Stewart Adhesive Border Pad is a good choice: There are 60 adhesive borders per pad, so they cost about 23 cents per border, so this is a VERY quick and easy craft if you are going to make a lot of candles. They’d be great for craft bazaars, teacher gifts, or hostess gifts. If you were going to sell them at a craft bazaar, you could easily charge $5 a piece and make about $3.75 profit per candle!

I used two different type of candles — scented and lidded candles I found in the candle/craft section at the dollar tree, and glass prayer candles.

For the prayer candle, I also used a strip of burlap, and some Martha Stewart Halloween decoupage papers (for the owl). If you are making the candles to sell at a craft fair, remember to add about $.23 per border you use per candle. So, for the owl candle shown here (with 4 borders), you would add $.92 to your cost per candle, plus the cost of the owl. I would retail the owl prayer candle at about $7.50.

To Make Super Easy Halloween Candles:

1. Remove labels from candles. Some are easy to peel off, and some will require the use of an adhesive remover like Goo Gone (you can get it for $1 at the dollar store!).

2. Clean glass with rubbing alcohol, and allow to dry.

3. Choose your favorite adhesive borders from the Martha Stewart, and wrap around the candle, trimming to fit. (Save the extra bit for a patchwork candle, or for card-making!)

4. If needed, secure the edge of the adhesive border with a bit of glue or invisible tape.

5. Tie a piece of ribbon or twine around the top of the candle.

The post Tutorial: Super Easy Halloween Candles appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I am kind of lazy when it comes to seasonal decorations; that's why I decorate for Christmas with silver and blue, so I can call them "winter decorations" and not feel bad about leaving them up until February. It's also why I like to use a lot of pumpkins in my Halloween decor. I can leave them out until my Christmas decorations go up after Thanksgiving and nobody thinks anything of it. This year I decided I needed some new pumpkins to add to my collection, so when I found a cute wire pumpkin at Dollar General that I really liked, I knew that I had to do something with it. I brought it home and gave it a ribbon-y makeover, and I went from liking it to loving it!

Project estimate:

• Wire pumpkin wreath, $7
• Ribbon, on hand or $1 and up
• Hot glue, on hand

Total: $7 and up

When I checked out the fall decor at my local Dollar General I found lots of great candles, floral accents, and wreaths. I had quite a few crafty ideas while browsing the selection, and saw lots of inexpensive little tidbits that I think I may have to work into my decorating. There were a few things I really liked, but one thing in particular caught my attention: a wire pumpkin with a floral swag attached across the bottom.

I loved the wire pumpkin, but as-is it wasn't quite "me". So I decided to give it a fun little makeover!

The first thing I did was remove the floral swag, which was actually two floral picks held on with twist ties. It only took a few seconds to disassemble, and I set aside the floral picks to use for other seasonal projects.

I decided that I wanted to wrap the sections of the pumpkin with ribbon. After choosing which sections I wanted to wrap, I used hot glue to attach one end of the ribbon to the wire pumpkin.

I wrapped the whole section with ribbon from top to bottom, using a dab of glue every once in a while to hold the ribbon firmly in place.

I repeated the same wrapping on the other side to keep it symmetrical.

Since I wanted to play with different textures I decided to wrap the center section of the pumpkin with smaller ribbon, this time working in a figure-8 configuration around the wire. Again, add a dab of glue every other round or so to keep it from sliding up or down the wire as you work.

To finish the pumpkin, I continued using the thinner ribbon, wrapping it all the way around to cover the rest of the bare wire. I even used a little bit of green ribbon to wrap the stem! I'm super happy with how it turned out. It is way more my style now!

The post Tutorial: Make Ribbon-Wrapped Pumpkin Decor with Dollar General appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

What do you do with a tissue box once the tissue is all gone? You can recycle it, or you can turn it into a tissue box pinata Halloween craft! Of course, you can use a tissue box to create a pinata for any occasion. Just switch up the decorations on the outside — fringed tissue paper for a traditional pinata, holiday colors and motifs for a holiday pinata, or maybe a sparkly silver one for New Years’ Eve. Get your kids into the act too, and let them create their own festive pinata crafts. Find my article for how to make a tissue box pinata over at Homemade Simple: [make a tissue box pinata]

Project Materials:

• Recycled tissue box, on hand
• Flat colored tissue paper, $1
• Ribbon, on hand or $1
• Glue, on hand
• Candy or prizes to fill it up, $1 and up

Total cost: $1 and up

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Here’s a Halloween party food idea that is very impressive, and also super gross: a meat skull appetizer plate! For those of you who like your Halloween parties more on the creeptastic side, this Halloween craft is for you! And when you see what the dollar store component is, you’ll be all “why didn’t I think of that?” This great idea is from Ruffles and Truffles: [how to make a Halloween meat head skull]

Project Estimate:

• Plastic skull, $1
• 1 package red jello, $1
• 1/2 lb lunch meat ham, sliced thin, $3-ish
• 2 cocktail onions, on hand or $1 and up
• 2 black olive slices, on hand
• Toothpicks, on hand or $1
• Lettuce, for garnish, on hand
• Plate/tray for display, on hand or $1 (a silver tray from the dollar store?)

Total: $5 and up

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Even though my kids have a never ending quest to acquire more candy (especially around Halloween!), I still try to limit the number of sugary snacks they consume. I came up with this cute Halloween kids craft to give away as party favors (or even for trick-or-treat night). It’s a great alternative to giving out sugary snacks on Halloween. Get the tutorial I posted over at allParenting. [pumpkin bottle cap necklace]

Project Estimate:

• Bottle caps, recycled
• Orange acrylic paint, I used Apple Barrel Neon Orange, about $1.50 a bottle
• Paint brush, on hand
• Black permanent marker, on hand
• Narrow green ribbon, on hand or $1
• Hammer and small nail (optional)

Total: $2.50 (but you probably already have what you need on hand!)

The post Kids Halloween Craft: Jack o Lantern Bottle Cap Necklace appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

• Skull ice cube tray, $1
• Resin, on hand or about $5 and up
• Glitter, on hand or $1
• Black Paint, on hand
• Bail, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  $1 and up

The post Tutorial: Make a Resin Skull Pendant appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

This Spiderweb Doily Pillow by Amy at Positively Splendid is a perfect example of dollar store crafting. She took a dollar store felt spiderweb and turned it into a pretty throw pillow – looks way more expensive than the few dollars it took to make, right? You need a blingy spiderweb pillow! Learn how to make it: [make a halloween pillow]

With a few dollar store substitutions, you can make a version of this pillow for just a few bucks! I would use a dollar store pillow, a thrifted throw pillow, or just re-cover a pillow I already have. I would try to use stash fabric (or if I absolutely HAD to have the green fabric, I would buy a small piece of it). I would use and old piece of jewelry I already have on hand, although I do love the Styled by Tori Spelling piece that Amy used on her pillow.

Project Estimate:

• Pillow form or old throw pillow, on hand or $1 and up
• Fabric, on hand or $1 and up
• Black thread, on hand
• Felt spiderweb decoration, $1
• Old piece of jewelry and jump rings, on hand

Total: $1 and up

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