Give your shoes a temporary kitty makeover! Heather used electrical tape to make adorable cat faces on the toes of a pair of plain flats to dress them up. This is a great way to add a little bit of fun to your outfit, while still leaving your favorite flats wearable for other occasions. When you’re done, simply peel off the tape and the shoes go back to their original state.

Project estimate:

• Shoes, on hand or $1 and up
• Electrical tape, on hand or $1

Total:  $1 and up

Apply strips of tape to cover the toes of the shoes. Cut little slits in the edge of tape to make it go on more smoothly over the curved surface.

Cut and apply two triangles for the ears.

Cut facial features out of colored tape and add them to the shoes.

Don’t forget to add pupils to the eyes!

Once the faces are complete, just add feet!

The post Tutorial: Kitty Face Shoes appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Plastic canvas is one of those craft supplies that is extremely useful and versatile, but for some reason I rarely find myself using it.  That could change, however, with projects like these kitty cat coasters from Becky at The Pink Samurai!  I mean, seriously, could they be any more adorable?  (Okay, maybe that is my status as Crazy Cat Lady talking, but still…  Super cute!)  And they’re a great stashbuster project for all you yarnaholics out there!  [how to make plastic canvas cat coasters]

Project estimate:

• Plastic canvas circles, $1 and up
• Yarn, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  $1 and up

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What kid doesn’t love stuffed animals? Here is a great handmade gift idea for the littles in your life – a cute little kitty made out of a terrycloth towel! We found the pattern for this adorable feline at Nunodoll, a great resource by dollmaker Runo where you can find all kinds of wonderful doll and stuffed animal patterns and tutorials.  Using terrycloth as a material for making dolls is such a great idea – not only is it inexpensive, but it is easy to wash!  [how to make a terrycloth stuffed cat]

Project estimate:

• Towel, on hand or $1
• Polyfill, on hand or about $2 and up
• Buttons, on hand
• Embroidery floss, on hand
• Sewing machine or needle as thread, on hand
• Pattern, free

Total: Free and up!

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Is your cat as into Shark Week as you are? Make Kitty their very own dorsal fin by following Instructables manager, Jessyratfink’s tutorial. Make sure your save the costume to pull out again for Halloween!

[how to make a shark week cat costume]

Project estimate:

• Grey Felt, on hand or $0.25 and up
• Thin elastic, on hand
• Fabric glue, on hand
• Cardboard, on hand
• Sewing machine or needle & thread, on hand
• Paper, on hand
• Pen, on hand
• Fabric pins, on hand

Total: Free and up!

More shark crafts:
Follow Mrs. Greene’s board Shark Week! on Pinterest.

The post Make a Shark Costume for Your Cat appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

When you look at your desk, do you ever think, “Gee, this space just isn’t geeky enough”?  (No?  Maybe it’s just me?)  If your workspace is in need of a little personality, perhaps the answer is a wrist rest.  A geeky, keyboard cat wrist rest, perhaps, like this one from the good folks over at Urban Threads.  Cute, practical, and delightfully nerdy – how could I not fall in love?  [how to make a keyboard cat wrist rest]

Project estimate:

• Fabric, on hand or $1
• Embroidery thread, on hand or $1
• Rice, on hand
• Sewing machine or needle and thread, on hand

Total:  Free and up

The post Make a Keyboard Cat Wrist Rest appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

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

The post Turn Garden Statues into Bookends appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

When I mentioned the book Crafting with Cat Hair:  Cute Handicrafts to Make With Your Cat by Japanese author Kaori Tsutaya (and translated to English by Amy Hirschman) to a few people, I got mixed reactions.   But really, what makes cat hair such a “weird” medium?  No one thinks you’re strange if you work with sheep’s wool.  You’re being super posh if you create something  with the fleece of an alpaca.  Angora is rabbit hair, and nobody seems bothered by that.  So…  why not cat hair?

It’s something I certainly have in abundance.  I have two shedding machines:  Merlin and Abracadabra.  I’m especially keen on the idea of crafting with Merlin’s fur; he’s a huge, gray, fluffy Maine Coon with long, wispy hairs.  I’ve been told that his fur would be ideal for spinning into yarn, and it looks much like the wool roving that’s sold for needle felting, so I’m itching to give some of the crafts in this book a try!

I was pleasantly surprised at how cute the projects in the book are, and how diverse.  I’m especially fond of the book cover tutorial, which I’m planning to use with a bunch of composition books I bought for next-to-nothing when it was time for back-to-school sales.

There are also many helpful sections with tips and tricks for things like gathering cat hair  and making sure that both your cat and your crafts stay pest-free.  My favorite tip in the book is using a cat hair patch to cover a hole in a wool sweater.  A genius and free repair!

Most of the projects involve needle felting.  If you’re into needle felting, or have ever been curious about it, using your cat’s excess fur as a craft supply is an inexpensive way to get into a new craft. Any of the projects in the book, or even the book itself, would make an nice Christmas gift for a cat lover!

Disclosure: review copy provided.

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Melinda and Rhonda both love their pets, so they decided to make them toys. After all, toys aren’t just fun for pets, they provide hours of amusement for owners too!

[See all the submissions from Iron Craft]

Our IC13 Submissions:

Rhonda Greene’s Submission: Sushi Roll Cat Toy

Rhonda’s kitties love to play. The have a ton of toys, but it seems that they can never have enough. (Probably because they are so good at hiding them behind appliances and underneath furniture.) So she made them a felt sushi roll!  See more pictures of the toy and her adorable baby playing with it (and learn how she made it) on her blog.

Melinda Hileman’s Submission: Lucet-Made Cat Toy

Melinda decided to braid Bailey a new toy with a lucet. [See more info and photos]  She also made Bailey a Medical Alert tag with Shrinky Dinks (he has diabetes). Last year, she made a plastic canvas “No Begging Zone” sign to keep her dog out of the kitchen (it worked!).

Did you submit a craft for the 13th Iron Craft challenge? Share yours in the comments section!

The post Best in Show (Iron Craft Week 13) appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

The brilliant minds at Craftershock have figured out how to make a Cat Tower for $5 or less! Pet lovers, rejoice. You can satisfy your urge to craft AND get your cat a new toy with this brilliant project. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have any furry animal babies, so if any pet lovers out there come up with some great dollar store pet projects, let me know! [via Craft Gossip]

Project Materials:

• Piece of poster board, $1
• 12×12″ square of cork board, $1
• Cat toy on a string, $1
• Scissors, on hand
• Stapler, on hand

Total cost: $3

The post Make a Cat Tower appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Reader Diane from JuxtaPoser tipped me off to some cool catnip toys she made for her pet, using stuffed animals from the dollar store. She wrote up a nifty tute for this easy pet project on her blog. Thanks for sharing your idea, Diane! I don’t have any pets myself (two kids under 3 is enough for me!), so I love it when my readers share their ideas for pet-related crafts!

You can get a huge range of stuffed animals at the dollar store, and you can also find bags of catnip there! You will make a bag to contain the catnip out of a sheer fabric (or maybe a recycled nylon stocking?) and sew it inside a stuffed animal.

If you’re afraid of sewing, this is an extremely low-sew situation! Try it out!

Project Estimate:

• Stuffed animal, $1
• Catnip, $1
• Sheer fabric (or nylon stocking), $1 or on hand

Total cost: $2 and up

Random p.s. The animal in the picture is a dugong! I made a dugong-toast for Little Nummies awhile back… just in case you’re a fan of dugongs!

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