Collecting rocks is a fun activity for all ages, but what do you do with those rocks after they’ve been gathered and brought home?  Use some of your larger rock finds to make these cute doll faces by Agnes at Hello Wonderful!  Use them as cute decorations or as paperweights, or work them into larger projects.  [how to make rock faces]

Project estimate:

• Rocks, on hand
• Yarn, on hand or $1 and up
• Felt, on hand or $1 and up
• Markers, on hand
• Hot glue, on hand
• Googly eyes (optional), on hand or $1

Total:  Free and up!

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I love crafting with natural materials. I recently wrote a tutorial for these stamped rocks on Creative Green Living and am delighted with how they turned out. The flexible, clear stamps I used in the tutorial make getting perfect images on curved surfaces easier but with a little practice, you can use block mounted stamps you already have on hand to get the same look! [how to make stamped art rocks for your home or garden]

Project estimate:

• Rocks, on hand or free
• Stamps, on hand or $1 and up
• Archival ink, on hand or $3 and up
• Clear craft sealer, on hand

Total: Free and up!

The post Make Stamped Rocks for Your Garden appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Help bring some feathered friends into your yard this summer by providing them a welcoming place to rest, bathe and get a drink. Stone bird baths can be pricey but colorful one from Dollar Store Mom only costs $3 to make! [how to make a party dish bird bath]

Project estimate:

• Plastic platter, $1
• Large plastic bowl, $1
• Tall plastic water bottle, $1
• E-6000 glue, on hand
• Rocks, on hand or $1 and up

Total: $3 and up

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Keeping plants indoors is said to improve air quality as well as increase feelings of general well being. Help make home or work a happier and healthier place to be by making your own air plant display following the instructions over on Suburbia Soup. You can get the materials needed for the holders at the dollar store but will need to visit a home improvement store or nursery to find the plants. [how to make a hanging air plant display]

Project estimate

• Strainer, $1 and up
• Small rocks, $1 and up
• Tray or cutting board, $1 and up
• Cup hooks, on hand
• Hanging hardware, on hand
• Paper fasteners, on hand
• Paper, on hand
• Pen, on hand
• Glue, on hand
• Wire cutters, on hand
• Air plant, about $3 and up

Total: about $6 and up

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It’s impossible to go to the beach with kids and not end up with a collection of rocks. Stephanie from The Silly Pearl wanted to turn her beach vacation memories into something tangible, so she turned the rocks her daughters collected on a recent trip into an ocean-inspired wreath.  If you aren’t near enough the water to collect stones yourself but want to add a touch of beachy feel to your decor, you can also use the bags of river rocks from Dollar Tree to get the same effect.   [how to make a summer beach wreath]

Project estimate:

• Wreath form, $1
• Twine, on hand or $1
• Beach rocks, free
• Glass stones, $1
• Glue, on hand

Total:  $2 and up

The post Make a Summer Beach Wreath appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

We recently featured a DIY rain chain, and since I found out about rain chains, I have been slightly obsessed. Basically, a rain chain is a decorative chain that you can use in place of an unsightly downspout on your home. When it rains, the rain chain makes a pleasing water feature using the rain runoff from your roof. Long popular in Japan, rain chains are beginning to trend here in the USA. I saw a very interesting wire-wrapped rock rain chain, and decided to get a similar look by making my own using dollar store rocks and floral wire. Read on to find out how to make it!

[the inspiration chain from Elderberry Street]

Project Materials:

• 2 spools of floral wire, $1 each
• 5-10 coils of thick decorative floral wire, $1 each
• 1 bag of decorative river rocks, $1
• Paper clips, on hand
• Pencil, on hand
• Wire cutters, on hand or $1
• Needle-nosed pliers, on hand or about $3

Total cost: $8 and up

Note about Supplies:

Wire: You can find the thin, green floral wire, the thick decorative wire, and wire cutters in the floral section of the dollar store. If you can’t find the thick decorative floral wire, pick up a spool of colored 20-Gauge Wire in the jewelry-making section of your local craft store for about $5. You can also use plain silver floral wire instead of green floral wire if you prefer.

How much wire you need depends the final length of rain chain, on your wrapping technique, and how sparing you are with the wire. It is easier to wrap with more wire, as opposed to less wire, but with practice, you will be able to conserve wire if you want to.

Rocks:  I bought a bag of decorative river rocks at the dollar store because it was easier than collecting my own rocks from outside, but this could be a fun way to showcase rocks you collect on nature walks or at the beach.

Paperclips: These will make the connecting rings. Any old paperclips will do.

Note about Technique:

I used two different gauges of wire because I couldn’t get the large gauge wire to work well with the slippery rocks. I added a layer of light-gauge wire to give the large wire something to grip onto. If you are an experienced wire-wrapper, you will probably have more success than I did using just the large wire. When I started this project, I had no experience with wire-wrapped rocks, but after I made the rain chain, I found a wire-wrapping tutorial that was very helpful, and I recommend you read it before you start:

• Wire wrapped beach glass the easy way by Gaylebird

I will still share my “folk art” technique with you, just promise you won’t laugh too hard at me! I do think that its imperfection is part of the charm of this wire-wrapped rain chain, though!

Here’s a pic of the rain chain in action hanging from the gutter of my parents’ 100 year-old garage.

Make a Rain Chain

Part One: Pre-wrapping with floral wire

1. Cut two pieces of floral wire (about 14″ long) with your wire cutters. Place them in an X formation on your table, then twist together about 5 twists.

2. Place rock on top of the twists, then bring 2 wires up over the rock and twist together.

4. Repeat with other two bottom wires.

I brought my second set of wires to the sides of the rock and twisted them together.

It’s okay if the wires are loose around the rock at this point. Just continue to criss-cross the rock with the wires until it is fairly secure. It’s all right to leave long “tails” of wire on the rock now. You can use the tails to secure the rock to the thicker wire, or clip them later.

5. To tighten the wire on the rocks, grab a straight piece of wire with your pliers, and gently twist a kink into the wire. Repeat in several more positions on the rock until the rock is snug within the wire wrapping.

Part Two: Wrapping with larger wire

1. Bend the thicker gauge wire into a U shape. The U will be about 3 inches long.

2. Twist the U shaped wire about 2-3 times. The resulting loop will be your rock’s top or bottom loop. When you make more of the rock-wire links, you’ll link them together like a chain.

3. Place pre-wrapped rock on top of the twist. Begin to twist the thicker wire around the rock.

4. There is no wrong way to wrap. Just go around the rock one or two times from different angles. You can tighten the wire later using the wire-kinking method you used with the floral wire.

5. While you are wrapping, create a bottom loop. Securely wrap the wire so the loop will stay put. Then clip the heavy wire with your wire cutters. Don’t worry about the rough end, we will clean it up a little before we’re done.

6. I just curl the pokey edge of my wire up into a coil. Then it’s time to take care of the floral wire tails.

7. To take care of floral wire tails, you can wrap them around the heavier wire until they are gone, or you can “sew” them in and out of the heavy wire to add an extra layer of security. You can also clip the ends and just fold them over to reduce the chance of them scratching or snagging.

Conserving Wire: You can see in the photo above that I just used a short piece of thick wire twisted with two loops, and then used the floral wire to secure the rock to the loops. This is a way to conserve the more-expensive thick wire.

Once you are done, you must make a lot more links to complete your rain chain. Depending on the size of your rocks and your loops, your links will be 3-6 inches long. Multiply that by the height that your rain chain needs to be to hang from your roof to the ground, and that’s the number of links you will need.

But how do you connect the links?

Part Three: Making Paperclip Ring Connectors

Making the connectors is simple!

You need:

• Paperclips
• Pencil
• Pliers (optional)

1. Straighten a paper clip out by simply unbending it. You can straighten it further with your fingers if you want.

2. Bend the straightened paper clip around a pencil, making a coil.

3. Use the coil to connect the links of the rain chain, by slipping the coil around each loop (like attaching a key to a key ring).

Part Four: Hanging the Rain Chain

I went quick and dirty with hanging my rain chain, but you can mount it to your rain gutter if you are handy.

I just hooked the top loop of my chain on a bolt near the rain gutter. You could also install a hook or nail to hang the chain from.

It took me about four hours to make this rain chain, but it was relaxing to twist the wire around all the rocks, and I did it outside on the porch while the boys were playing outside. In other words, it’s a fun outdoor craft.

It’s nice to have a custom-made outdoor water feature in the garden, and it only cost me about $10 to make!

The post Tutorial: Rain Chain from Wire-Wrapped Rock appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

When it comes to Christmas, I like to decorate in blues and silver rather than red and green.  This is partly because I think the colors are prettier, and partly because I can also call them winter decorations and not feel bad if I don’t take them down  until Valentine’s Day.  (They’re so much more fun to put up than they are to put away!)  For a long time I’ve been wanting to do something with the long stalks of bamboo they have in the floral department at Dollar Tree, and inspired by the oncoming snowy weather, I made a bouquet of bamboo that has a very wintery feel.

Project estimate:

• Bamboo stalks (3  packages), $3
• Glass vase, $1
• River rocks, $1
• Paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Stencil, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  $5 and up

The snowflake stencil I used in from Martha Stewart’s Holiday Icons stencil set.  The paint colors I used for this project are Martha Stewart Craft Paints in Wedding Cake, Summer Haze, and Sterling.  I also used Martha’s Glitter Finish.  Check out the full line of Martha Stewart paints and supplies at Plaid Crafts.

The number of bamboo pieces you will need for your bouquet depends on how many will fit in your vase.  I would recommend a vase that holds at least a dozen stalks for the best results.

Paint the bamboo white.  I used 2 coats of Wedding Cake, then decided I also wanted them to have a snowy  sparkle, so I added 4 coats of Glitter Finish on them.  I’m totally in love with this glittery stuff!  Tip:  I found I had the best results when I placed the bamboo across wire baking racks to dry rather than on a flat surface.

Paint the rocks that will weight the bottom of the vase.  I painted most of my rocks a gorgeous light blue shade called Summer Haze, and about 1/3 of them a metallic silver (Sterling).  Tip:  Make sure you let the paint on one side of the rock dry completely before you flip it over, or the partially-cured paint will stick to your work surface and little bits may pull off of the rocks.

Stencil a snowflake onto the vase.  I wanted my snowflake to have a handpainted look, so I stenciled it lightly first, then peeled off the stencil and went back over the design with a paintbrush.  I used a thick coat of silver to give it an embossed look.

Once all of the paint is dry, you just put it all together!  First, put a layer of rocks at the bottom of the vase, then put the bamboo in the center of the vase.  Add more rocks around the outside edge until the base of the bamboo is covered.  Don’t add too many rocks though; there should be enough space left in the vase that the bamboo can spread out at the top, and too many rocks will make the bamboo all stand straight up in one clump.

If you enjoyed this project, check out these other great holiday tutorials using Martha Stewart Craft Paints and supplies!

Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post. Paint and painting supplies for this project were provided by  Plaid Crafts.

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When Michelle from Sweet Suite 10 spotted a shelf of lion garden statues at Dollarama, she initially passed them by.  After all, her condo doesn’t have any kind of garden space in which to display them.  She went back and snagged them, however, after she was struck with a brilliant idea: turn them into bookends!  Her inspiration was a pair of white owl bookends she’d found with a $40 price tag.  Her lions cost just $2 each, with a makeover coming in at just a few bucks more.  [how to turn garden statues into bookends]

Project estimate:

• Animal lawn statues, about $4 and up
• Rocks, on hand or $1
• Paper towel, on hand
• Cardboard, on hand
• Spray paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Felt, on hand or about $0.33

Total:  about $4 and up

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Next time you go to the beach, collect a few stones and stack them up to make a pretty piece of memento art with a modern feel. Simone over at Beach Vintage created this art with rocks from her favorite beach. I love this idea for using some of those rocks you just have to pick up when you comb the beach. I like to have a simple craft project to do whenever I’m on vacation at the beach, and this would fit the bill nicely! [how to make modern rock art]

Project Estimate:

• 16 flat stones, various sizes and colors, on hand
• Heavy-duty glue like E-6000, on hand
• Plain canvas, $5-ish

Total: $5

The post Make a Modern Art Memento appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Have you started thinking about Father’s Day yet?  Many dads are notoriously difficult when it comes to gift selection, tending to appreciate most the gifts that are practical and useful.  Make dad something he can surely use and give him a little reminder of his kiddos right on his work desk by making him a special “Dad Rocks” paperweight!  Amanda from Crafts by Amanda shows how to make this fast, functional present that will let him know exactly how you feel about him!  [how to make a Father’s Day paperweight]

Project estimate:

• Salt, on hand
• Flour, on hand
• Water, on hand
• Gravel, on hand

Total:  Free

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