When I was in kindergarten my class made “bell” ornaments for Christmas, consisting of Dixie cups wrapped in tin foil.  My mother of course loved it and, much to my chagrin, kept it for many, many years.  She insisted on putting it on the tree every year up until fairly recently, when she was finally convinced that the badly-deteriorated ornament, after over 20 years of service, had officially made the transition from decoration to trash.

If you prefer a more upscale look to your holiday decorations, finding projects for your kids that don’t look like kiddie projects can be a challenge.  Reader Crystal has just such a quandary.   Via Twitter, she asked us:

What are your favorite Christmas decorations to do with kids that don’t completely look like kids decorations?

Coming into the holiday season this is a very pertinent question!  Here are a few crafts we’ve posted here at DSC in past years that kids of various ages can make without leaving your house looking like an elementary school classroom.

• Push pin starburst ornament, suitable for ages 5 and up
• Pine cone garland, easily adaptable to Christmas by changing the paint colors
• Sparkly ornament tree, great for kids who are old enough to use a low-temp glue gun

What are your favorite upscale Christmas decor crafts that kids can make?

(photo by Flickr user by AForestFrolic, Creative Commons license) 

The post Reader Question: Upscale, kid-friendly Christmas decorations? appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

If you aren’t familiar with Keurig coffee makers, they are a single-cup style of brewer that uses small cups of ground coffee with built-in filters for the brewing process.  They’re a great solution for people who only want to brew a cup at a time, and while some models are compatible with a refillable filter cup, they are commonly used with disposable, single-use cups.

DSC Reader Mae has been saving her empty Keurig cups, but isn’t sure what to do with them.  I think they would look cute as little shades on a set of Christmas lights.  What other crafty things can you make using the empty cups?

[photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

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Chipboard coasters — you know, the ones you get at a restaurant — what can I do with ’em??

I have a collection of these as well, since things that are colorful and free are hard for me to resist. I’ve been wanting to take some of them and bind them with paper to make miniature notebooks. I’ve also considered saving up a whole bunch of different designs and using them to create some large-scale specimen art to cover a whole wall.

So, dear readers, we put the question to you: What would you make with a collection of chipboard coasters?

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

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Okay dollarholics, it’s time for another burning question. You guys always come up with so many great ideas! (Is there any crafty problem we can’t solve when we all put our heads together?) This one comes to us from Cathy, who needs some ideas for updating a dated decor look that I’m sure you’re all familiar with. She writes:

I just wanted to post a request, but why not make it a challenge, right?! Anyway, I need some help with affordable ways to decorate a closet door. Preferably the ones that are kinda tacky with the sliding mirrors. If you could help me out that’d be awesome!

Thanks,

Cathy

I think it might be interesting (and classy!) to use a fancy flourish stencil and etching paste to create a wallpaper-like design on the surface of the mirrors. What other low-cost alternatives can you think of?

[photo by alvimann @ morguefile.com]

The post Reader Question: How to Dress Up Mirrored Closet Doors? appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

We get a lot of questions here at DSC, and we do our darnedest to provide answers to every single one of them. While we sometimes have an answer off the top of our heads, we’ve found that often the best thing we can do is in turn ask YOU, our awesome readers. It’s time again to put on your thinking caps and help your fellow crafters! Reader Larry sent us this message:

Hi,

I am referring to a tutorial by Ann On May 9,2010 on how to “Crackle Paint with Elmer’s Glue”. I need help badly. Can anyone tell me how to OR what to use to crackle a clear top coat? I am trying to crackle my paintings, but if I use a colored top coat to crackle the glue, the paint covers up the painting, therefore I need some type of amber (old, old, look) tinted CLEAR coat that will Crackle.

Thank you very much,
Larry

You can see the post Larry is referring to here, with a link to the tutorial by Ann from Make the Best of Things along with some tips and that Heather previously suggested: [make your own crackle finish]

What do you think, guys? What else could you use to make an aged-looking, amber crackle finish?

The post Reader Question: Ideas for Crackle Painting? appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I got an urgent message from one of my readers, Jessica H. with a request/challenge for all my creative Dollar Store Crafting readers out there:

I love those decorative ball thingies you can buy all over the place now.  They come in all different styles (mirrored, raffia-covered, floral, etc.) and you put them in pretty bowls and they serve no purpose whatsoever but to sit there and be pretty.  I have looked all over, but the cheapest that I could find them anywhere was something like $8 for 3 which is still too much to pay for something that is for all intents and purposes useless.  But I still want some.  I have racked my brain trying to figure out a way to make some of my own, but I haven’t come up with anything.  There might be tutorials out there on the internet, but I am too scared to Google “DIY decorative balls” if you know you what I mean.

Okay, maybe it’s not urgent exactly, but it is a request.

Lucky for Jessica, I actually stumbled across a tutorial for making twine-covered decorative balls this week. The tutorial is over at V and Co., and shows you how to color the twine and wrap it around the styrofoam balls. Found via U create. [click here for instructions on how to do this project]

The tutorial doesn’t mention any dollar store supplies, but I happen to know you can pick up styrofoam balls and twine at the dollar store, among other supplies like raffia, etc.

Project Estimate:

• Styrofoam balls, $1 (for 3-6 balls)
• Twine, $1
• Spray paint, optional, on hand or about $3
• Hot glue, on hand

Total: $1 and up per ball

You can mix this project up to fit your own tastes in decor. For instance, I found these variants on the theme in an internet search:

Wood Slice (Retail: $7.99): Just cut up slices of some small branches and hot glue them to the balls.

Various Natural Materials (Retail: $47.94 for 8): Glue pine cone pieces, bay leaves, and other natural components onto balls.

Porcelain Shell (Retail: $72.50): Obviously you can’t make this out of porcelain (well, maybe YOU can, but I can’t), but you can get the look with real shells and some acrylic paint and lacquer. I might cover the styrofoam ball with papier-mache first and paint it dark blue if I was trying to get this exact look.

And I found this in the Dollar Store Crafts archive, which I think would be an awesome modern take on the decorative ball: Thumbtack Armored Ball (just omit the ornament-hanging loop).

I also like these Temari-inspired thread-covered balls, also found in the Dollar Store Crafts archive.

I hope this gets you started, Jessica! And if anyone else has made some of these decorative balls or has a good dollar store idea for them, let me know!

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