The dollar store is one of my favorite places to pick up inexpensive seasonal crafting items.  A perennial favorite across all seasons is their glitter table scatter. Over on Creative Green Living, I show you how to take some wired burlap ribbon and combine it with Valentine table scatter to make a cute bunting perfect for a mantle, door, or mirror.  [how to make an easy burlap and glitter valentine heart banner]

Project estimate:

• burlap ribbon, $1
• Glitter heart table scatter, $1 and up
• Scissors, on hand
• Jute twine, on hand or $1 and up
• Hot glue gun & glue, on hand

Total: $3 and up

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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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It seems like every seasonal change comes with its own themed table scatter. Sparkly gems, sequins or felt in seasonal shapes appear in dollar stores everywhere.  Looking beyond their intended purpose, Aki from A Nest for All Seasons transformed some leaf gems into stunning jewelry with just the right amount of shine. [how to make table scatter jewelry]

Project estimate:

• Table scatter, $1
• Dremel or rotary file, on hand
• Drill and 3/32″ bit, on hand
• Jump rings, on hand
• Chains, on hand
• Pliers, on hand

Total: $1 and up

The post Make Table Scatter Jewelry appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I love coming up with uses for the holiday “table scatter” that Dollar Tree sells for every season. Usually the table scatter they sell is made from craft foam covered in glitter, but I recently found some that is small, transparent plastic hearts. I immediately thought that they would look nice with the sun shining through them. So I turned them into a cute little mobile to hang in a window! I thought about going out and buying a few supplies for this project, but then decided instead to be resourceful and hunt down items I already had around the house to finish the assembly. I’m glad I did, because I think I like the improvised version even better than the original design that I had in my head!

Project estimate:

• Valentine table scatter, $1
• Fishing line, on hand or $1 and up
• Glue, on hand
• Small canning jar ring, on hand
• Yarn, on hand or $1 and up

Total: $1 and up

Cut the fishing line into segments about a foot long. (I used 6 strands total to make my mobile.) Place a dab of glue on the back of a heart (hot glue works great!) and carefully place the fishing line onto the heart. Continue adding hearts until you’ve filled about 8 inches of the string, leaving a few extra inches at the top of the string for tying off. I made three strands with 4 heart and three strands with 5 hearts.

When the glue is dry/cool, tie the strands to the canning jar ring. I alternated between 4-heart and 5-heart strands all the way around. To keep them spaced evenly, add a dab of glue to each tied-off strand around the top of the canning jar ring.

Wrap the canning jar ring with yarn to give it a more finished look. I used some Vanna’s Glamour yarn with a metallic thread running through it because I like the little bit of sparkle. To make a hanger, I braided some more yarn to make a thicker strand and glued the ends into the yarn wrapping to secure them.

The post Tutorial: Valentine’s Day Mini Mobile appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

A while back I picked up a memory game (the kind with pairs of matching tiles) at Dollar Tree with the intent of turning the chipboard squares into jewelry. When it came time for this year’s ornament making to begin, they were one of the first things I grabbed off the shelf. A set of 60 chipboard squares is enough to make as many as 30 of these simple, sparkly ornaments! Here’s how.

Project estimate:

• Memory game, $1
• Christmas table scatter, $1
• Other embellishments (optional), on hand or $1 and up
• Paint, on hand
• Glue, on hand
• Sparkle Mod Podge, on hand or about $5 and up
• Ribbon, on hand or $1

Total: $2 and up

Paint two chipboard squares the same color. Try to get good coverage around the edges as well as the top surface, so that the sides of the ornament don’t show raw cardboard. When the paint is dry, add a coat of Sparkle Mod Podge to make it glittery. (I love using Sparkle Mod Podge because the glitter won’t come off on everything else!)

Glue a piece of glittery table scatter to the center of each painted chipboard square.  Since the glitter from the table scatter was coming off quite easily and getting all over the place, I sealed them in with a coat of matte Mod Podge.  For this ornament, I also added a snowflake-shaped brad to each square.  Make them as simple or as complex as you want!

You should now have two identical halves; one will be the back of the ornament and one will be the front.

Cut a length of ribbon for hanging.  Sandwich the ends of the ribbon between the chipboard squares and glue them together.

For this version of the ornament, I painted both sides of the squares and put them together in an offset manner.  Rather than using Sparkle Mod Podge, I used red glitter paint from Martha Stewart to go over a coat of satin red.  I also waited to add the table scatter pieces until after I’d glued the squares together to ensure that I got them on straight.  There are a ton of possibilities with this project!

The post Tutorial: Make Glittery Chipboard Ornaments appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I’ve loved miniatures ever since I was a kid.  Since I never had a “real” doll house, from a young age I started making my own miniatures.  They started out as simple creations,cutting and pasting elements I liked from interior design magazines and catalogs into empty boxes to create dioramas of rooms, stacking the finished boxes to create a complete house.  By late elementary school, I was taking on projects like creating a teeny-tiny dining room table and chairs out of popsicle sticks and the plastic shafts of cotton swabs.

As an adult, I still get giddy when I’m making miniatures, so I thought I would share some of my ideas by writing a series of miniature-making tutorials.  I most recently had an idea for making a mini merry-go-round using a cocktail umbrella.  Instead of carousel horses, I used some plastic doves that were left over table scatter at my wedding that came from Dollar Tree.  You could also use any other tiny animals, including gumball machine prizes.  (Note also that if you are making this for a  child, it is fairly fragile and won’t stand up well to much play.  Definitely more of a display piece!)

Project estimate:

• Styrofoam base, $1
• Felt, on hand or $1
• Craft foam, on hand or $1
• Scrapbook paper, on hand
• Adding machine roll, free
• Dove table scatter, $1
• Toothpicks, on hand or $1
• Cocktail umbrellas, $1
• Yarn, on hand
• Glue, on hand

Total:  $3 and up

Start with your empty adding machine roll (the plastic tube from inside a roll of calculator paper or cash register receipt tape).  If you don’t have one laying around, ask anyone you know who works in retail to save you one!  Cut a piece of paper the same width as the tube and roll it around the outside, securing in place with a little glue.

Cut a sheet of craft foam into a circle that is about the same diameter as the cocktail umbrella when fully opened.

Find the center of the circle of craft foam and cut a small hole.  Cut a piece of felt the same size as the base and lay the foam circle on top where you want the merry-go-round to sit; mark the placement through the center hole with a marker.

Using the marker dot as a guide, cut a corresponding hole in the circle of felt.

Glue the felt to the top of the foam base, then glue the foam circle to the felt, making sure the cut out points line up.  Use a toothpick to make a pilot hole in the foam base at the center of the holes.

Glue a strip of felt around the outside edge of the foam base as well.  If desired, you can give it a more finished look by gluing a coordinating piece of yarn around the seam where the two pieces of felt meet.

Glue the paper-covered adding machine roll to the center of the craft foam circle, making sure the hollow core of the tube lines up with the holes you cut in the foam and felt.

Cut toothpicks in half and glue the pointed ends into the tiny holes in the bottoms of the plastic doves.

Use a sharp object, such as a tapestry needle, to make a pilot hole where each dove will go, then put a dab of glue on the end of each toothpick and carefully press them into the base.  Alternate the height of the doves (if you use an even number, you can alternate them up-down-up-down all the way around).

Try to space them as evenly as possible all the way around the tube.

Very, very carefully press the cocktail umbrella through the center of the tube and into the foam base.  This might take a couple of tries because the umbrellas aren’t that strong!  Push it in until the mouth of the tube holds the umbrella as far open as it will go.

I finished my scene with a tree, which is just a twig from my yard with a ton of green pom poms glued to it.  I made a hole through the felt and into the foam base with the pointy tip of a pair of scissors, then put a dab of glue on the end of the twig and pressed it into the hole.

Additional resources:

• How to make your own foam base

The post Make a Miniature Merry-Go-Round appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Remember those heart-shaped luggage tags I picked up at Dollar Tree last month?  I was originally planning to do something for Valentine’s Day with them, so I tucked them away for storage.  I put them in an organizer with clear pockets hanging on my craft room wall, right next to a stack of little sheets of craft foam that I got at Dollar Tree months ago and have slowly been working my way through.

It was one of those ideas that came without even trying.  I was sitting on the craft room floor wrapping Christmas gifts, pondering how to dress up the packages a bit.  I was staring blankly into space, deep in thought, when my eyes came into focus on the luggage tags and the sheets of foam.  A little light bulb appeared above my head—gift tags that double as ornaments!  I got so excited about the idea that I ran to Dollar Tree and bought more luggage tags.  (My store has a  whole bunch of them in the school supplies section in several different shapes, sold in packs of two.)  In the end I made eight gift tag ornaments for under five bucks!

Project estimate:

• Luggage tags, 2 for $1
• Craft foam, on hand or $1
• Christmas table scatter, $1
• Glue, on hand
• Scissors, on hand
• Paper scraps, on hand

Total: $2 and up for two

First I had to cover up the centers  of the luggage tags.  To do this, cut corresponding shapes out of craft foam that are just larger to the area of the luggage tag you want to cover.

Glue the foam shapes to the luggage tags.

Next, glue a piece of table scatter to the center of each foam shape.  (I love this table scatter and I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy it.  But you can use anything you want here!)

On the back side, cut off that unsightly tag.  Does anyone really know what all of those regulation numbers mean anyway?  (It also says they are made in China…  So I would not recommend licking or eating your ornaments.)

Remove the information card from the luggage tag and use it as a template to cut the same shape out of a scrap of scrapbook paper.

Write your to and from information on the paper, as well as the year.  Slide the paper into the window pocket and you’re done!

I had a bunch of table scatter left over, so I used some of the glittery trees to decorate a plain silver cardboard canister.  I also wanted to convey the silliness of the gift that’s inside this package, so instead of using a ribbon, I tied it up with some pom pom garland that I also found at Dollar Tree.

You can also make these into keepsake ornaments by attaching photos to the fronts instead of table scatter.  Use them to tag gifts for grandparents, or if you have young children, attach photos corresponding to the recipients of the gifts so they can help pass out the presents on Christmas morning!

The post Make Gift Tag Ornaments appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Thanks to today’s guest blogger, Michelle Sybert from Muffin Tin Mom, who is the host of Muffin Tin Monday, a fun weekly challenge to create fun meals served in muffin tins. She previously contributed an awesome idea for molded peppermint bark trees. She has a great idea for how to use the pretty sparkly table scatter you can find at Dollar Tree this time of year. Thanks for contributing, Michelle! -Heather

Holiday Ornaments from Table Scatter

by Michelle Sybert, Muffin Tin Mom

During the Holidays, our local dollar store is aflutter with treasures that make my heart skip a creative beat. On a recent trip, I was able to score some fantastic glittered table scatter for only $1 per packet. The kids made these simple Christmas ornaments using the table scatter. I was amazed at how easy this simple Christmas ornament craft turned out.

Here’s what you’ll need:

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It’s been a crazy couple weeks for me, so I haven’t had a chance to post about a recent video I made: Dollar Scores 4. You can watch it right here or subscribe to my YouTube channel and get instant updates whenever I post new videos. This video features a random assortment of stuff I bought at the dollar store awhile back, with color commentary from my four year-old son. Plus, I make a rare appearance in the video (only because I wasn’t wearing pajamas for once!).

If you aren’t into video, here are the highlights:

Plastic gems: $1

I have used up a few bags of these. I like these square ones – if you hurry, you can buy them to make a dollar store Lady GaGa mask in time for Halloween! You can use them for all kinds of other stuff, too, of course!

Kids’ choice: Whale crackers and Top Hat: $1 each

This is the reason to watch the video: because my son tells us what his favorite finds at the dollar store are and why.

Magic Top Hat Toy: $1

This magic top hat toy flattens, folds up into a little packet, has a secret hiding compartment in it. The package also comes with a web address where you can find out how to do magic tricks with the hat. I thought that was pretty cool! My kids like to wear the hat and pretend they’re Scrooge McDuck.

Sparkly Leaf Table Scatter: $1

Table scatter is just a fancy way to say sparkly stuff that doesn’t actually DO anything. But if you’re a dollar store crafter, you know you can use it in all kinds of creative ways. I’m not actually sure what I’m doing with mine yet, though!! Also, this week I saw similar table scatter, but in winter and Christmas themes, so let’s think of what we can make with this!

That’s the quick tour. If you want a bit more, check out the video at the top of the post, or my other Dollar Scores posts.

Happy weekend! What have you found at the dollar store lately?

The post Dollar Scores 4: Finds from the Dollar Store appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.