Do you love the succulent trend? Here are some really adorable ideas for decorating with succulents. You can use real succulents (they are easy to take care of!), or find faux succulents at the dollar store. My article is at eBay: [7 Cute Ideas for Decorating With Succulents]

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The weather here in Atlanta has been nothing short of fantastical, and my family has basically been living in the backyard, soaking it in. Get your backyard spring-ready or bring some spring beauty indoors with these DIY planters. They’ll work inside or outside.

1. Copper Pipe Planters – I love the modern look of this macrame planter from A Beautiful Mess. It would look lovely hanging in a sunny window or on a porch.

2. Candelabra Planter – Redhead Can Decorate turned an old ceiling fan and candelabra into a functional indoor or outdoor flower planter.

3. Faux Stone Planter – This little polymer clay planter from Lucy Akins is perfect for showing off your favorite succulent.

4. Tin Can Planter – Making a planter from a tin can sounds easier than it is, though it’s still super duper easy. Get the deets at Crafting a Green World.

5. Recycled Hanging Herb Planter – You can’t recycle mesh produce bags, but they give the right amount of drainage for making a sweet hanging herb planter.

6. Gratitude Planter – Heather bills this as a Thanksgiving craft, but I think that these pretty chalkboard pots would work well as part of your spring decor, too!

7. Poured Paint Planter – Turn a plain terra cotta pot into a colorful decor piece!

8. Faux Stone Planters – Bonnie at Revolutionaries turns old coffee canisters into chic planters with a faux stone finish.

9. Switch Plate Planters – It’s sort of amazing how replacing yellowed old switch plates makes a room look fresher. Don’t toss the old ones, though! Turn them into cute little planters with Apartment Therapy’s instructions.

10. Upside Down Planters – Design Sponge has a beautiful, recycled spin on those old As Seen on TV Upside Down Tomato Planters. And you can plant so much more than tomatoes in them!

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Garden center, schmarden center! Make your garden cute with handmade touches instead of pre-made plastic doodads.

1. Miniature Toadstools – How cute would these be in a little pot of herbs?

2. Rainbow Wind Chime – Save your empty cans of beans and follow this clever tute from Creative Green Living to transform them into a pretty wind chime for your garden.

3. Magical Fairy Garden – Fairy gardens are super hip, and you can add one to your spring garden in under a week with this tutorial from Crafting a Green World.

4. DIY Concrete Stepping Stones – Stepping stones are so expensive, and there aren’t a lot of design options at most garden centers. These DIY stones from Nancy Mizelle even use homemade molds, so you can really make these look however you want (and whatever size you need!).

5. Pallet Garden Path – Cano shares three garden DIYs, and this pallet path is such a simple alternative to stone or pebble paths.

6. Rain Chain – A rain chain does double duty: it protects the soil around your gutters from eroding, and it looks so much better than a regular downspout.

7. Ladder Shelf – Good Housekeeping’s ladder shelf is such a cool way to grow more in a small space. I’d love to cover this in potted herbs!

8. Fabric Pots – Plain plant pots are bo-RING! I love these vibrant fabric covered pots by Wholesome Mommy.

9. Pallet Organizer – Our Little Acres shows you how to store your most-used garden tools on an upcycled wood pallet.

10. Farmhouse Table – You work hard in your garden. Show it off with an outdoor dinner party at this farmhouse-style table that you can build yourself with instructions from Thrifty and Chic.

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I have a bad crafting habit of using the inside part of embroidery hoops for projects (like this chandelier and these wind chimes), but not the outside part of the hoop.  But I always hang onto that outside part, just in case a project comes along that call for one.  And here is that project!  Alex from Northstory came up with this great hanging planter idea that uses an embroidery hoop to mount a bowl and create a planter that is as inexpensive as it is beautiful.  Imagine your porch lined with these, and your plants spinning in the summer breeze.  Now I am glad that I saved those extra bits leftover from previous projects!  [how to make a hanging hoop planter]

Project estimate:

• Embroidery hoop, $1 and up
• Bowl, on hand or $1
• E6000 glue, on hand or about $3 and up
• Twine or cord for hanging, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  $1 and up

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Around the country, kids are starting to get out of school for summer. Help them beat summer boredom and dress up your garden at the same time by making these adorable tin can garden buddies. Erin from My Very Educated Mother shows you how to make four different bugs to keep you company in the garden. [how to make tin can creatures]

Project estimate:

• Empty tin can, on hand
• Craft paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Googley eyes, on hand or $1 and up
• Thick floral wire, $1 and up
• Paint brushes, on hand
• Wire cutters, on hand
• Ice pick, on hand
• Rubber mallet, on hand
• Waterproof glue, on hand

Total: $1 and up

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Heather the founder of Dollar Store Crafts and I go on the most fun trips to the Dollar Store.  By the time we leave I have a cart full of items and a mind full of ideas.  One of the hot items in my cart this week was a package of metal barbecue skewers.  I was excited to come home and start crafting with them.  They are perfect for turning into garden markers!

Project estimate:

• Paper, on hand
• Barbeque skewers, $1.00 for 4
• Twine, on hand or $1
• E6000 glue, on hand
• Masking tape, on hand

Total: $1.00 and up

Place two skewers flush together.  Put a small amount of E6000 where you intend to start your twine.  Start wrapping the twine around the skewers.  Wrap one time over the start of the twine to cover the end.  Place a small amount of E6000 down the area you intend to wrap around.  Continue to wrap the twine down the skewers until you reach the point where you want to stop.  I didn’t wrap all the way to the bottom because I knew the very bottom would be in the soil and I didn’t want to waste any materials.

Once you get to the end place a small amount of E6000 and cut your twine.  Place masking tape around the end to hold it until it dries.

Once the glue has dried insert your paper between the two rings are the top and place in your garden or container.

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Have we mentioned lately how much we love pretty flower pots?  They’re such a fun way to add personality to a space, both indoors and outdoors.  But the prettiest and fanciest of the flower pots always cost more.  Love the look but don’t have the spare cash to throw around on planters?  Grab some plain, inexpensive pots and give them a makeover instead!  (The bonus?  Not only will you save money, but you can guarantee that nobody else in the neighborhood will have the same ones lining their porch!)  Inspired by some pricey designer flower pots, our alternative costs a fraction of the price and packs just as much personality!

Project estimate:

• Flower pots, $1 and up
• Paper and/or cardboard, on hand
• Sharpie, on hand
• Contact paper, on hand or $1
• Painter’s tape, on hand or $1 and up
• Hole reinforcement stickers, on hand or $1
• Paint, on hand or $1

Total: $1 and up

It started when I came across a set of designer flower pots in a recent issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Curious about them, I looked them up online, and discovered that the set of three retails for upwards of $100. Gulp! And then I remembered seeing some pots in similar shapes and colors at Dollar Tree. I made an immediate run to the store to grab a few of them so I could make my own set!

I like the general idea of the flower pots, but the design on them wasn’t quite “me” – so I changed it up. I decided I wanted a Moroccan-inspired shape, so I did a Google image search for “Moroccan pattern” and found one I liked, which I printed and cut out to make a template. To make the template hold up better through the entire project, I traced it onto a piece of cardboard out of the recycling bin and cut it out. Then I traced it onto the back side of a roll of contact paper over and over and over again.

I’ll warn you, this part of the process is tedious. In order to make it all the way around all three pots I had to trace and cut out 60 of those little buggers. That’s a lot of tracing and cutting. I’m not much for making things perfect and fussy, so I didn’t bother with absolute perfection on my cuts. I figured it would add some character to the finished pots… as well as save my sanity!

Once all of the contact paper shapes are cut out, apply them to the flower pot. To make my pattern, I first made a ring of the shapes around the rim of each pot, then cut the remaining shapes in half and used them to fill in the spaces between. Since I used clear contact paper it’s a little hard to make it out, but you can see how this creates a stencil of the pattern. I carefully taped off the top and bottom edges of the design to complete the stencil.

Treating it like any other stencil, apply two coats of paint. I used white Martha Stewart craft paint with a pearl finish so that the finished design would catch the light a little, making the design really stand out. (Martha’s paints are also good for this project because they are formulated for all kinds of surfaces including things like glass and glazed ceramics. Some paints may flake off, so make sure you use something that is designed to stay on the pot!) Immediately after applying the second coat, very carefully peel off the tape and contact paper. Take your time – the edges of the paint may want to come off with the stencil, and you don’t want that to happen!

I was very happy with the stenciled design but decided it was still missing a little something. So I placed a hole reinforcement sticker in the center of each shape and used them as tiny stencils to add dots to the design. Carefully paint inside each circle, then peel away to reveal perfect, evenly-sized dots all the way around. Let the paint dry completely and you’re done!

What will you plant in your spiffy new pots? Since these are orchid pots and lack drainage holes, I think that I will use mine to plant a few cacti – my hubby has been wanting to plant a small cactus garden so it’s the perfect idea. And Mother’s Day is coming soon – if your mum has a green thumb, she’ll love these!

The post Tutorial: Designer-Inspired Flower Pots appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I love fancy flower pots. I’ve even been known to acquire new houseplants just as an excuse to buy particularly nice pots that catch my eye. But, and this is a big but, the cost of a pretty planter is often more than I am willing to pay. Why spend a wad of cash when you can DIY ’em for so much cheaper? We’ve seen chalkboard painted flower pots before, but Vanessa from Tried & True stepped these up a notch on the wow-factor scale by adding some cute stenciled designs! [how to make stenciled chalkboard flower pots]

Project estimate:

• Flower pot, $1 and up
• Paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Chalkboard paint, about $5
• Stencils, on hand or $1 and up

Total: $6 and up

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My kids love anything outdoors.  A few years back their grandparents gave them this planter where you could see the plants grow under the soil.  It was very cool.  The kids asked about it the other day and I couldn’t find it to save my life.  I decided I can make my own.  A Dollar Store clear plastic container and some potting soil did the trick.

Project estimate:

• Clear plastic container, $1
• Potting soil, on hand or $1
• Seeds, 4/$1
• Knife, on hand

Total: $1.25 and up

First flip your container over and poke holes in it for drainage.  I used a kitchen knife and it worked great.  Don’t press to hard or you will crack the plastic.

Next fill container with potting soil.  Fill about 3/4 the way up.  Then add your seeds.  We added ours towards the outside edge so you can see the roots really well.

Poke some holes in the top just as you did the bottom for ventilation.  Water in the seeds and place top on container.  If you are planning to have it in the house you’ll need to put something under it to catch the water run off.  Dollar Store has great cookie sheets or roasting pan which will work well.

You’re done!  Watch it over the next few weeks and see what happens under the soil as you grow beautiful plants.

*If you’d like to grow root vegetables such as carrots just get a deeper container.

The post Tutorial: “Watch It Grow” Planter appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

If you fancy yourself a gourmet, you know that nothing else quite compares to the flavor of fresh herbs. However, if you live in a place with cold winters, keeping an herb garden going year-round is a little more difficult. That is why we love this project by Naomi Shulman at Spoonful. Not only does this planting system allow you to keep fresh herbs in your kitchen throughout the year, it also has a couple of other perks we really like: it uses recycled materials, and it is self-watering. (If you’re as bad as I am at remembering to water your plants, that is a priceless feature!) I’ve been hoarding some colorful plastic bottles from some juices that I bought a while back, and I am now imagining them lining my windowsill and full of little plants! [how to make self-watering recycled bottle planters]

Project estimate:

• Plastic bottles, on hand
• Soil, on hand or $1
• Seeds or seedlings, on hand or $1 and up

Total: Free and up

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