Sweater Snowman

http://craftsandsutch.blogspot.com/2010/12/sweater-snowman.html

 

To get started, you will need the sleeve of an old sweater, fiberfill, a glue gun and glue, a wooden spool painted black, two small black buttons, two small holly leaves cut from green felt, a small red button, an orange triangle cut from felt, ribbon, and scissors.  Not pictured:  black felt circle and a scrap of fabric.  Disregard the needle and thread...I made this cutie no sew!

Turn the sleeve inside out and tie a knot around the wrist end of the sweater.

Turn the sleeve right side out and begin to fill with the fiberfill.  This is the snowman's head.  Once it is filled to your desired size, tie a knot directly under the filling.

Fill the body with the fiberfill.

After the body is stuffed, turn your snowman on his head and fold and glue the opening closed. 

I folded it like a present.

This is what you should have so far.

I wanted my snowman to appear a little more "schmooshed," so I glued the head down to the body.

See?  Definitely more "schmooshed" and cuter!  :)  Glue on the black, button eyes and orange, felt nose.

 To create the top hat, glue the wooden spool to the top of the black felt circle.

Add a holly embellishment to the top hat by gluing on the green leaves and the red button.

Glue the top hat on his head.

For the finishing touch, tie a scrap piece of fabric around his neck.  I cut little slits on each end of the scarf to look like tassels.

Isn't he adorable?  I just love him sitting in the little winter wonderland on top of my fridge!  He might need a girlfriend. :)  It would be super easy to change this little guy up by adding different embellishments...perhaps twig arms, a crocheted scarf, or a tiny little pipe?

Ornament Place Card

http://www.jcsloft.com/2010/12/place-card-tutorial.html

Place Card Tutorial

The Find

I see them everywhere!  Overpriced place card holders that I want to throw in my cart, but I know in the back of my head I can make them for way cheaper!  Why oh why can't I be a normal person and just buy them!  Well check out how I made mine for 12 cents, YES REALLY!

I spotted these pretties at the Dollar Tree.  10 pack for $1...that is 10 cents an ornament?!  How could I pass that up?  The only draw back is that they won't stand up by itself, so, it needs legs!  I was inspired by a Halloween project Maddycakes Muse made this past October that you can see here, look at the legs on the pumpkin!

 Start by puncturing the bottom with a pair of scissors and making a small hole.  Please don't let your kids see you do this because it's kind of dangerous lol : )

This is really hard to see, but cut 3 slits.  One on each side of the circle and one up the back.

   When I saw these ornament hooks I knew I could use them as legs and 40 for $1, PAlease that's awesome!  What is that like 2 or 3 cents per hook.

I slid ornament hooks into my slits and glued them in place to act as legs.

Now for the holder part...place ornament hook onto the top of the ornament.

Then twist it around and up like above.

There you have it!  A super cheap, but chic ornament place card holder.  Check back Tuesday to see these on my Christmas tablescape!!

Ornament Garland

http://dreamhomediy.blogspot.com/2010/12/ball-ornament-garland.html

Ball Ornament Garland

Remember all of these?

For the past few weeks, 4 or 5 containers (about 20 in all) of these tiny ball ornaments have been finding their way into our cart each time we ventured into Target.

Want to see what we did with them?

Required Supplies:

Spray Paint (Optional)

Millions of Plastic Ornament Balls

Fishing Line

2 Candy Cane Ornaments

Step One

Divide out all the ornaments needing a fresh coat of paint.

Hang each of them and dust with a coat of spray paint (in this case, Valspar Baby Blue)

Allow to dry

Step Two

Pour all of your ornaments into the largest pile ever

Step Three

Begin feeding them onto your fishing line.

I found this to be much easier by holding 5 or 6 ornaments at the top and then pushing them down at one time.

This avoids any line tangling at the bottom.

Step Four

Once you've reached the end, tie on a candy cane ornament (repeat on each side)

I also applied a bit of super glue here

You are now complete!!

The staircase is not the final home for this amazing garland

That is to be revealed in a future post!

Votive Holder

http://shanty2chic.blogspot.com/2010/12/pottery-barn-inspired-votive-holder.html

Pottery Barn Inspired Votive Holder

Hi friends!  So, I was DIY shopping in the Pottery Barn catalog again when this came along.

I just love it and I knew that I could DIY one that I would love just as much (actually more because the $129 price tag takes away from it).

Anyone can make this with minimal supplies and cost.  Here's how I did it:

Start with 5 dowel rods.  I purchased them at Wal-Mart for $.70 each.

Arrange them in the shape of a star.

Next, cut 5 equal pieces of paper (I used newspaper) into rectangles and roll them into cones. 

Secure with scotch tape.

Next, cover each corner of the star with the cones using scotch tape to secure the cone to the rods.

I used Gorilla Glue Epoxy to secure all the cross points of the dowel rods.

Using 1 ply jute tie down the cross points for extra hold.

Cut the excess jute.

I then spray painted the entire star with Rust-Oleum Heirloom White.

Now for the corners.  I used 4 ply jute and wrapped each corner up to the tip.  I started by hot gluing the end to the back side of a rod.  I continued wrapping securing with hot glue as I went.

I purchased 5 of these mercury glass votives at Target for $.99 each. 

I used 1 ply jute and wrapped it 3 times around each votive hot gluing as I went.

I knotted the jute

and secured it with hot glue.

Now to add it to the star.  I tied the excess jute around the back side of the star and knotted it.

Then I followed up with another piece, wrapping it from front to back securing with a knot in the back.

View of back

I cut the excess jute

Now for the finishing touches...I used the 1 ply jute to wrap the rods.  Start at one corner and hot glue the end of the jute to the back side of the corner.

Wrap it around loosely until you reach the next corner.  Secure with hot glue and cut the excess.  Repeat steps to the next corner and so on until every rod has been wrapped.

Candy Jar

Transform an ordinary candy jar into an old-timey apothecary-style jar with a colorful twist. Fill it with sweets and it makes an inexpensive hostess gift sure to brighten up anyone's day.
What you need: 1 pre-printed candy jar with lid 1 glass taper holder candle stick 1 can Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Satin in Burgundy Drop cloth or paint box Glass Glue

How and How Long: Remove any price tags or stickers from candle sticks, and clean and dry them. Spray light coat of your desired spray paint on the candle stick, and allow to dry according to package instructions. Turn candle stick over and add a second coat of spray paint. When candle stick is dry, add additional coats of spray paint as desired. Remove lid of candy jar, and clean bottom outside of jar, removing any stickers. Turn jar upside-down on work surface. Apply glass glue to top of candle stick, and place candlestick glue-side down onto bottom of jar, taking care to center the candle stick. Allow glue to dry and cure according to package instructions. Approximate project time: 1-2 hours (and about 1 day for glue to completely cure).

What it Costs: Cost is less than $10 for all the supplies, but about $1.50 if you are using up what you already have on hand!

Wreath Trio

http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2009/12/how-to-make-wreath-trio.html

How to make a wreath trio

Remember this super cute wreath trio that we gave away during out 7 days of giveaways? Well, we had a lot of people ask us how to make it. So, I decided to do another how to make a wreath post.

Here are the items that you need:
Three 15 inch wreaths (I got mine from all a dollar)
A hot glue gun with plenty of glue sticks
Craft wire
3 colors of ornaments (colors of your choice)
(In each color, you need one box of 24 medium sized ornaments and one box of 15 small ornaments) see picture below.

First, spread the wreath out to create the a flat wreath to start gluing onto.

Then, start by gluing an ornament in each corner of the wreath.
Next, slowly start to fill in the ornaments with plenty of hot glue. Be extremely careful. I burned myself several times. No pain, no gain. :)

Continue around the wreath until all the medium sized ornaments were secured. Make sure that the ornaments are not wiggly. I glued them really well at this stage.

Then I used the small ornaments to fill in the holes around the wreath. It does not need to be perfect.
Repeat the gluing steps for the next two colors and then wire them together with the craft wire.

Interchangeable Cube Art

http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2010/12/make-interchangeable-cube-art/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+dollarstorecrafts/VSZK+(Dollar+Store+Crafts)

Make Interchangeable Cube Art

6 DECEMBER 2010 322 VIEWS ONE COMMENT

by breanna

Hey there Dollar Store Crafters! A few weeks ago Heather posted her awesome finds from the dollar section of Target, including some clear photo cubes.  Seeing these cubes gave me a GREAT idea! I’m sure you’ve seen a thousand versions of the wood blocks projects out there -- they’re adorable! I’m tempted to buy some unfinished wood blocks every time I’m in the craft store, until I start thinking about how long and involved the project will be.  These clear photo cubes are a PERFECT compromise!

My favorite part about this project, aside from how lightening fast it was to put together, is that it’s completely INTERCHANGEABLE! Unlike the wood blocks, you can change these out anytime! It’s the craft that keeps on crafting! So, let’s get to it!

Project Estimate:

• clear plastic photo cubes: $1 each
• scrapbook paper-on hand
• cardstock- on hand
• adhesive: on hand

total: (depending on length of word) $7

I knew that I wanted to use the word “BLESSED” for my project, and thankfully there were exactly 7 photo cubes left at Target!

Once you’ve unwrapped them, you’ll see that the cube is in two parts, and inside is a paper cube that they’ve used as an example of what you can do with the cube. DON’T THROW THE PAPER CUBE AWAY! It makes the project even easier!

Each side of the cube is 3.25 inches x 3.25 inches. So I cut out 42 squares of the paper I had chosen. Then, using  just a little bit of adhesive, stuck the squares to the paper cube. I chose to make each side of my cubes have a different pattern.

Then, using a die-cutting machine, I made the letters. It was about this point that I realized that my last name had the same number of letters, so I went ahead and cut those out too for use after the holidays. Then I adhered the letters to the patterned paper, putting both words on opposite sides of the cubes, and put all the cubes back together.  (You could certainly make yours much more fancy and impressive by adding ribbons and glitter and chipboard thingamajigs. I was content with keeping it simple this time.)

And that, my friends, is a seriously quick, seriously satisfying dollar store craft!