When Carissa at Creative Green Living found a sleeve of crushed red paper cups, she knew they wouldn’t be much good for holding liquids, but she didn’t just want to throw them away. Instead, she used them for a fun Valentine’s Day kids craft! With an assortment of basic craft supplies, you can make a nearly endless variety of cute little critters. Set out the materials and let your kiddos’ imaginations run wild! [how to make paper cup love bugs]

Project estimate:

• Red paper cups, $1 and up
• Pipe cleaners, on hand or $1 and up
• Glitter heart “table scatter”, $1
• Googly eyes, on hand or $1
• Rhinestones, on hand or $1 and up
• Fast grab tacky glue (for kids) or a hot glue gun and glue (for adults), on hand or $1 and up

Total: about $2 and up!

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If your Halloween decorating tastes run in the spooky-yet-sophisticated category, then this is a project you must see!  Over at Live Craft Love, Laura made this showstopping wreath out of unexpectedly simple materials – recycled cardboard and crepe paper streamers!  The texture of the crepe paper gives it a bit of extra spookiness – for a different look you could also try this technique with wide ribbon.  Or use torn fabric strips.  There are lots of possibilities with this project!  [how to make a crepe paper Halloween wreath]

Project estimate:

• Cardboard, on hand
• Crepe paper streamers, $1
• Glue, on hand

Total: $1 and up!

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Leather feathers – as fun to say as they are to wear!  We love these chic, dangly earrings from Gina Michele.  It’s a great way to use up scraps of leather left over from other projects; if you don’t happen to have any leather on hand, old leather garments from thrift stores are also a great source of materials for this project.  If you like the leather feather look, you could also use this technique to make a necklace, or even to embellish items for your decor!  [how to make leather feather earrings]

Project estimate:

• Leather, on hand or $1 and up
• Chain, on hand or $1
• Jewelry findings, on hand or $1

Total:  Free and up!

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Do you have any kitties?  I have three of them, and I bet they would all absolutely love one of these!  Jessi from Practically Functional used an empty box, a wire coat hanger, and a t-shirt to create this adorable recycled cat bed.  You could even add a pillow on the inside for extra comfort – though one of my cats loves sleeping on cardboard so much that he would probably prefer it without a pillow, so I guess that depends on what your own cat prefers!  [how to make a recycled t-shirt cat tent]

Project estimate:

• Box, on hand
• Wire coat hanger, on hand
• T-shirt, on hand
• Pillow, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  Free and up!

The post Make a Recycled T-shirt Cat Tent appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

This recycled gift tin is super easy, no fancy gift wrapping skills required.  You can use this idea with many different shapes and sizes of containers, so you can adjust it to fit many different gifts depending on your needs.

Recently our crafty pal Tanner shared his haul of Christmas goodies from Dollar Tree with us – and today he is back with a fun project!  Watch the video below for the how-to, or keep scrolling for written directions!

Project estimate:

• Empty chip canister or other container, on hand or $1 and up
• Duct tape, on hand or $1
• Ribbon, on hand or $1

Total:  Free and up!

Be sure to wash your container out before reusing it!  Starting at the top of the container, wrap with strips of holiday duct tape.

Continue working your way down until the entire container is covered.

Fill the tin with a gift – Tanner filled his with some cookies!

Wrap the container from top to bottom with a length of ribbon and tie a bow.  (Tip:  If you have trouble keeping the ribbon in place. add a piece of tape at the bottom of the container!)

The post Tutorial: Recycled Gift Tin appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

While it’s often something that we toss into the recycling bin without so much as a second thought, cardboard is actually a pretty amazing craft material!  We’ve seen it transformed into some pretty amazing things, including this fun, geometric lamp from Marta at 2nd Funniest Thing.  The instructions for the project are in Spanish, but the photos are excellent and make it easy to follow along.  This would be a super fun project for a dorm room or a teen’s homework desk!  [how to make a recycled cardboard geometric lamp]

Project estimate:

• Cardboard, on hand
• Tape, on hand or $1 and up
• Lamp kit, about $5 and up

Total:  about $5 and up

The post Make a Recycled Cardboard Geometric Lamp appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

It seems like I am constantly going through pairs of jeans, buying new ones to replace the most recently blown-out pairs in a constant cycle.  This, of course, means that fairly frequently I find myself wondering what to do with the ones that are starting to shred – I mean, a girl only needs so many pairs of “painting pants” in her wardrobe, and even if you cut them off into shorts, there is still the question of what to do with the leftover legs.  Well, wonder no more – Megan from Upstyler shows you how to turn an old pant leg into a cute basket for decorative storage!  What will you put in your denim basket?  [how to make a recycled denim basket]

Project estimate:

• Old jeans, on hand
• Sewing machine or needle and thread, on hand

Total:  Free!

The post Make a Recycled Denim Basket appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Jewelry crafts are fun and fashionable no matter what your age. And young crafters will love these kid-sized, recycled cuff bracelets! Kim at Learn Create Love made these with her daughter, using recycled cardboard tubes as a base and then letting their imaginations run wild.  Chances are, you probably already have everything you need to create these on hand, making them a great project for a rainy day or other days when you just don’t feel like leaving the house.   [how to make cardboard tube bracelets]

Project estimate:

• Cardboard tubes, on hand
• Paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Embellishments, on hand or $1 and up
• Glue, on hand

Total: Free and up

The post Make Cardboard Tube Bracelets appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

My son loves bees. He also loves games. So when I saw a way to combine his two loves into a great educational game, I leaped at the chance. All I had to do was raid my kids craft supplies (all from the dollar store – of course!) and the recycling bin to get everything I needed to churn out a whole colony of counting bees. Learn how to make the game and more than seven ways to play with it on my site, Creative Green Living. [how to make a bee themed counting game]

Project estimate:

• Clothespins, on hand or $1
• Yellow and  black pipe cleaners, on hand
• Yellow Pom Poms, on hand or $1 and up
• Wire cutters, on hand or $1 and up
• Googley eyes, on hand
• Hot glue gun, on hand or $1 and up
• Wax paper, on hand
• Scissors, on hand
• Scrap cardboard, on hand
• Permanent marker, on hand

Total: Free and up!

The post Make a Bee Themed Preschool Counting Game appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

The last days of summer are waning and fall is on the way. Enjoy those last few blossoms of the season with a cute set of recycled bud vases! Natalie at Creme de la Craft reused a pile of empty and dried-up nail polishes to create these tiny flower vessels. Make one to decorate your desk at work or make a bigger statement by placing a whole row across a shelf or down the center of a table runner.  You could even turn them into place cards at a wedding or other gathering!  Either way, you’ll never want to throw away an old nail polish bottle again!  [how to make nail polish bottle bud vases]

Project estimate:

• Empty nail polish bottles, on hand
• Spray paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Buttons, on hand or $1
• Yarn or string, on hand

Total: Free and up!

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