Make the most of the fairy garden trend by mashing it up with a useful home decor item: bookends. I created this Fairy Garden Bookend craft project for the Live.Craft.Love blog, so check it out to find the materials list and instructions to make this whimsical (and very quick) craft: [fairy garden bookends instruction]

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I found this tissue paper pom-pom garland at the dollar store, and I knew it had to transform into something new, so I fluffed up all the poms, and turned them into a cute wreath. Find out how to make this bird wreath in my column at eBay: [tissue pom-pom wreath instructions]

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Chinese Glass Rhinestone Earrings
Retail Price: $5.95
Sale Price: $2.96

Lampworked Glass Pendant
Retail Price: $4.40
Sale Price: $1.75

Light Rose Swarovski Crystal Drop
Retail Price: $7.59
Sale Price: $3.72

Sterling Silver and Cubic Zirconia Pendant
Retail Price: $24.95
Sale Price: $5.96

Light Blue Magnasite Beads
16-inch Strand
Retail Price: $7.44
Sale Price: $3.27

Gemstone and Glass Bead Mix
1/4 pound bag
Retail Price: $10.83
Sale Price: $5.15

Czech Fire-Polished Glass Beads
16-inch Strand
Retail Price: $6.07
Sale Price: $3.38

Vintage German Opaque Beads
Package of 24
Retail Price: $3.22
Sale Price: $1.10

Fire Mountain Gems is my favorite online source for beads and jewelry-making supplies, and they have deeply discounted a lot of items for their final sale of the year! Check out these deals, and visit the site for even more fun beading and jewelry-making finds.

disclosure: affiliate links

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Need a fun treat for your upcoming Christmas party? Look no farther! With a few kinds of candy and some pretzel sticks, you can make your own adorable reindeer treats. Beth at Hungry Happenings made hers with red M&M noses to make them Rudolph treats, but brown candies will also work for making other reindeer as well. As for the rest of the colors in the bag… Eating the leftovers is totally a legit part of the project, right? [how to make chocolate pretzel reindeer]

Project estimate:

• Pretzels, $1 and up
• Chocolate, $1 and up
• Caramels, $1 and up
• Candy eyes, $1 and up
• M&Ms, about $0.50 and up

Total: about $4.50 and up

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This burlap and lace pocket vase is a cute and easy way to give the gift of flowers or greenery to friends and family for the holidays. It takes just minutes to make, and you can use any lace or ribbons you have on hand. Check out the instructions at Live.Craft.Love: [burlap & lace pocket]

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When I went to college, the internet was just becoming a thing. I visited my first official webpage in the fall of 1995! I used a daily email to keep in touch with my mom and let her know what I was up to.

The email lifeline became very important to me, with my family living so far away! Of course, I made friends at college, but I always looked forward to hearing from family, whether via email or traditional mail.

One of the things I remember most fondly from my time at college was receiving care packages from home! My parents sent me some essentials (and treats), each adorned with a post-it note of encouragement. Never underestimate the power of a care package!

The best care packages strike a balance of much-needed supplies (like razors, soap, etc.) and treats (like candy and a little extra spending money).

With that in mind, I’m here to help you create the perfect college care package. You can find goodies at your local dollar store (like Dollar General) and drug store (like Rite Aid).

What to include in a college care package:

• Schick Quattro Razor
• Schick Quattro Refills
• Student’s favorite candy bars
• A box of tea or instant coffee
• Extra bar of soap
• Toothpaste and a new toothbrush
• A $20 bill
• And of course, a heartfelt note from you!

There are a lot of different razors in the Schick family to choose from — make sure your college student can get a good shave!

I chose the Schick Quattro for Women for my college care package!

Don’t forget the Schick Quattro For Women Refill blades!

Let your Schick Quattro go for a ride in your cart, right up to the check out stand!

Pay for it at the register, then pop it in your perfect college care package!

Find some great coupons for Schick products at Coupons.com!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Schick®. The opinions and text are all mine.

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I’m excited to share that I recently contributed a sewing project to Susan Beal’s new book Hand-Stitched Home, a book featuring sewing projects that use Pendleton Wool. If you aren’t familiar with Pendleton Woolen Mills, it’s an amazing Oregon textile company that creates stunning blankets, wool fabrics, and more, and has been around for over a hundred years. For this book, I created a backpack pattern featuring one of Pendleton’s gorgeous Jacquard print fabrics (Rancho Arroyo Aqua).

Here’s my video introducing the book!

Buy the book on Amazon: Hand-stitched Home: Projects to sew with Pendleton & other wools

Visit Susan: West Coast Crafty

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The post I Made It, Just Say You Love It & Shut Up! T-shirt appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I’m gonna be honest with you and admit that I dislike packing lunches every morning. It’s one of my most-loathed chores. This year, my boys are old enough to take on the task themselves (in fact, I am not making this up, they are right this minute packing their own snacks up into a backpack for a trip outside to play.)

I have a three-part plan to help streamline the transition from mom-packed lunches to kid-packed lunches.

Help Kids Pack Their Own Lunches:

1. Provide appropriate lunch packaging. I’m taking a trip to the dollar store for reusable containers such as sandwich boxes, small lidded containers for sauces and dips, and disposable packages like printed baggies (I am a huge sucker for cute baggies.) I might even hit up the Japanese dollar store for some adorable bento supplies like these:

2. Prepare a lunch supplies station. In my kitchen, I will designate a cupboard and a fridge drawer with lunch-appropriate options so my boys can easily make healthy lunch choices. Once a week, I can pre-package items like a single-serve veggies, fruit, or whole-grain crackers. I’ll also keep the fridge stocked with healthy beverages like fruit/veggie juice from my juicer (in small containers) or organic milk boxes.

3. Print a lunch-packing chart to make it easy. I’ve detailed below with ideas for each part of a healthy lunch. The boys can choose one item from each list for their lunch every day. I’ll print this list and put it up in the cupboard where I keep the lunch supplies.

What Goes Into a Healthy Lunch:

Taking cues from this back-to-school resource with 50 Lunch Ideas by Horizon Organic, I came up with a list of healthy lunch ideas that use foods that our family usually has on hand.

Choose one: Whole Grains

This whole grain choice can be a standalone item (like air-popped popcorn), or an item that is designed to go with another food group (like a sandwich or wrap).

Items on this list include (but aren’t limited to): air-popped popcorn, whole wheat sandwich, whole wheat bagel, whole grain pita chips, whole wheat crackers, whole wheat tortilla, whole grain dry cereal.

Choose one: Dairy

Not all the items on this list are strictly dairy, but they are all in the dairy group, and provide a source of calcium. Choices include: organic milk boxes, cheese slices
string cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, fortified soy milk.

These items can be paired with other groups as well, such as adding cheese to a sandwich or quesadilla, or making a yogurt parfait.

Choose one: Protein

Items on this list include: hard-boiled egg, rotisserie chicken, mini meatballs, salmon or tuna salad, nut butters, hummus, or refried beans. It’s best to choose less-processed meats and proteins. I love 100% natural peanut butter, and hummus is a family favorite as well.

Some less-traditional but super fun lunch proteins include: colored hardboiled eggs, mini sliders (sub ground turkey for a lean option), tiny sub sandwiches, veggie burgers, cooked lentils or beans.

Choose one: Veggies

Some kids don’t eat their veggies, I know it can be a challenge. In our family, we have two voracious veggie eaters, and one reluctant one (who often “doesn’t have time” to finish the carrots in his lunch box). Maybe if they pack their own lunches, they’ll be more likely to eat the veggie option!

Not all these suggestions will work for every family, but these are what will work for ours: baby carrots or snap peas, cucumber coins or mini cucumbers, steamed edamame, lettuce leaves, celery sticks, mini peppers, cauliflower, broccoli or seaweed. Yep, my boys love seaweed. That’s a slam dunk for all three of them. No, you don’t have to eat it if you don’t like it!

Here are some ideas for making vegetables more exciting to kids: carrots & ranch, celery & peanut butter (“ants on a log”), add spinach to smoothies (this works especially well with purple berry smoothies – you can’t taste or see the spinach), veggie kebabs (food’s more fun when it’s served on a stick!), add sprouts or greens to sandwiches, make kale or spinach chips in the oven, add grated vegetables to homemade muffins, or add diced veg to soups, cut into cute shapes (find tiny cute cutters at the Japanese dollar store), cut into bite sizes, lightly steam tougher veggies, cut with a spiral cutter.

See, so many ways to make veggies fun for kids!

Choose one: Fruit

Fruit might be easier for some kids than veggies are. If your child refuses to eat vegetables, don’t skip the fruit! Fruit provides fiber, vitamins and minerals. And, as I am fond of saying to my kids, “Fruit is nature’s candy.”

Lunchbox-friendly fruit choices: apple slices, applesauce, berries, banana, fruit kabob, dried fruit. Ideas for spicing up fruit options: add raisins to celery & peanut butter, add bananas to a peanut butter sandwich, add cinnamon to apple slices.

Choose one: Beverage

If your kids are like mine, they need more than one beverage in the day – we make sure to send a water bottle with them so they can rehydrate throughout the day. When my boys pack their lunch, they can refill their daily water bottle, and pick another beverage such as: organic milk boxes, 100% fruit/veggie juice, veggie juice (canned or homemade).

If your child isn’t into these beverage ideas, try squeezing orange, lemon, or lime juice into water to make it tasty (and add vitamins!), send a chocolate milk straw to drink plain milk with (adds only 27 calories), or even let them help you make fresh fruit/veggie juice the night before.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas for packing healthy lunches this school year. I’m excited to see if my system works and if my boys are able to successfully pack healthy lunches.

What do you think? Will you encourage your kids to pack their own lunches this year?

Visit Horizon Organic online:

• Horizon Organic on Facebook
• Horizon Organic on Twitter
• Horizon Organic on Pinterest

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Horizon Organic. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post DIY School Lunch: Helping Kids Pack Healthy Meals appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

When I was in middle school, polka dots and leggings were in, along with neon colors. Yep, you guessed it, I was a kid at the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s! Some of the things I thought were cool back then are cool again now.  One thing that I only WISH I had back then was this cool locker decorating system, LLZ by LockerLookz. I grabbed one of my 8th grade friends (and my son, who insisted on decorating a locker too!), and we got busy creating our dream locker.

What is LLZ? It’s a set of coordinating locker decorations that are fully removable and non-damaging. Every part of the system can be put into a locker using clever magnet action!

Where can I get LLZ? Available with back-to-school stuff at Michaels, Staples, AC Moore, and Meijer!

What kinds of things are included in the LLZ line? So glad you asked!

Coordinating printed locker wallpaper that goes up with the help of strong magnets:

2. The World’s Cutest Magnetic Chandeliers

And they light up and have motion-detection so they turn off when your locker isn’t in use.

The crystal chandeliers are adorable, but check out this modern chevron lamp:

3. Two words: Locker carpets.

Nothing says luxury locker like a swag carpet!

4. Mirrors, Whiteboards, and Pencil Holders — all magnetic!

Oh, and other cute embellishments like the big flower magnet.

We had a blast decorating our lockers. My eight year-old son even got into it and emphatically told me he would love to decorate his locker with this stuff.

His color scheme was green and black! And he insisted on a chandelier too.

LLZ by Locker Lookz is the original brand of high fashion locker decorations with the highest quality products – I was so impressed by how awesome the collection is. We had a ton of fun with this product. Everything was so cute and well-designed, and the kids loved it. I want to have a locker again so I can decorate it!

You can try this system for yourself virtually at the LLZ by LockerLookz Design Your Own Locker site (and win a prize! See below for details):

Instagram Contest: Win a $250 Gift Card!

If you are interested in trying out these products, you can enter the Locker Lookz Instagram contest and win a grand prize of a $250 Visa gift card for a back to school shopping spree. OR you can win a secondary prize: 1 winner each week will receive their full locker design (8 total winners)!

How to Enter:

1. Follow LockerLookz on Instagram
2. Go to LockerLookz.com & create your dream locker design using the “Design your Own Locker” feature
3. Post your locker design on Instagram using hashtag #LLgirlz and tag @LockerLookz!

The contest starts July 5th and ends August 29th. Official contest rules here.

To learn more about LockerLookz, follow them here:

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Instagram

Disclosure: this post is sponsored by Darice and the Blueprint Social. All opinions are 100% mine.

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