Showing posts with label Dollar Tree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dollar Tree. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Halloween: Elegant and Inexpensive...Glam Up A Dollar Tree Skull

 


When life gives you lemons you make lemonade right? An early retirement plus a pandemic has meant I've had more time to focus on creating and I don't know about you, but for me, the more I create the more ideas I come up with. 

I've seen this trend in "Glam Skulls" or "Jeweled Skulls" for the past couple of Halloween seasons and decided that I could come up with a version for far less than the price of them. So here we go! 

Supplies:
  • Plastic Skulls (Dollar Tree)
  • White Tissue Paper (Dollar Tree)
  • Mod Podge  
  • Acrylic Paints
  • Glue Gun and Glue
  • Embellishments

Step 1: 

If you've been in a Dollar Tree around Halloween, you recognize these skulls. These I already had in my Halloween decorations and have used them as is before but this year I decided I wanted to glam them up. The easiest thing would have been spray paint but I have asthma and fumes are not my friend. Several years ago I tried this technique on Easter Eggs and it's been my go to ever since for projects where I don't need a smooth finish and which need something for the paint to grip. 

It's so simple and works so well! Use any white tissue paper, scrunch into a ball, crunch your ball and then tear your tissue into smaller pieces.



Step 2: 
Once you have your tissue paper pieces, start covering the skull with Mod Podge then start placing your tissue paper. Doesn't matter where you start, you just keep going until covered. I prefer to use a bristle vs foam brush for this. You can push into the eyes and small spaces to make sure you get good adhesion. As needed tear pieces smaller to fit where needed. It's a totally random process.


This is what your skull will look like once covered. It would work just like this for Halloween but let's keep going! 

Step 3:
After your Mod Podge is dry , it's time to paint! I chose the same color palette as the Upcycled Candleholders I shared earlier. I used a dark grey basecoat as my first coat: 





"But did she stop there?" Of course not. I went over the grey paint with Martha Stewart Metallic Titanium, and then wiped on and wiped off a black glaze of watered down black paint. 




I didn't wipe out the glaze from the eye sockets and only lightly wiped it out of the nose. Now it's time for the real fun! 

Step 4:
Now it's time to embellish! 


I pulled out miscellaneous embellishments from my stash. Sequins, flat back rhinestones, seed beads, and faceted crystal beads for the eyes. I went with embellishing only one eye per skull, starting by gluing a large crystal bead in the eye socket. From there, it's wherever your imagination takes you! I spread some hot glue in the eye socket, sprinkled on a seed bead mix and while the glue was still setting stuck in some mirror sequins. Then working up and down from the eye, laid down more hot glue, sprinkled more seed beads, added rhinestones and other beads randomly. 


I had some skull beads so I added those too. Skulls on skulls on skulls! 



I love that with a little paint and imagination, you can create high end looking and elegant Halloween decor for very little. Shown here: Glam Skull on top of Dollar Tree candleholder ; my Mackenzie Childs Inspired Pumpkin from Target's impulse buy section ; Goodwill Candleholder Makeover; Painted and Mod Podged Wood Coffin (bought the plain box at Michaels years ago but they still have variations of them). 



I hope you found some inspiration. Until next time, 












Monday, September 21, 2020

Halloween Decor: Witch Hat Frame Wreath

 


When it comes to some things, I'm pretty easily pleased. One of those things is a trip to The Dollar Tree. $20 spent there is a joyous thing! On my last trip, I found a Witch Wreath Frame. I've seen these projects in years past but have not had luck finding the frame. No more!! Some fabric, ribbon, a few ornaments and voila: my Witch Hat Frame Wreath!


Supplies:

  • Wire Witch Hat Frame $1 (Dollar Tree)
  • Black and White Check Decorative Mesh $1 (Dollar Tree) 
  • Black Mini Ornaments $1 (Dollar Tree) 
  • Fabric ( Stash)
  • Grey Decorative Mesh ( Stash)
  • Grey and Black Organza (Stash)
  • Decorative Ribbon (Stash) 
  • Pipe Cleaners (Stash)
  • Hot Glue and Glue Gun ( Stash) 



Step 1:

I had some grey ultrasuede-y fabric in my stash. I cut it in two strips, measuring approx  5 inches by 48 inches. Tied a corner of one strip to the corner of the wreath frame as shown: 






Step 2: 

Anchor your fabric with hot glue and wrap the top of the frame, leaving the brim section uncovered. When you reach the end of the first strip, glue the second to the first and keep wrapping until you reach the top. Cut off any excess, tuck and glue edges. 


Step 3:

Now that the top of your hat is wrapped, time to do the brim! I used the decorative mesh I found at Dollar Tree ( and bought 2 more rolls because it's black and white so of course!) , some I had on hand along with some dark grey and black organza I had on hand. You'll want three strips for each bundle. 


Step 4: 

Make your bundles. Starting at one end (  short side ) scrunch / gather / pinch each strip. Hold the shape with either a binder clip or clothespin and when you have three (black and white, grey, organza) tie together w/ a pipe cleaner: 


Of course I would take a picture of one of the two clusters I made w/out organza because I didn't have enough but you get the idea!  I made 10 clusters. Using the ends of the pipe cleaners, secure to the brim part of the frame. 

Step 5:


Step 6:

Once the brim was filled in, I made a bow from some ribbon in my stash and tied to the frame with the pipe cleaner ends from the bow. To finish everything off, I grabbed some of the black mini ornaments from a previous trip and which I used on my Gothic Batty Wreath , strung them on a pipe cleaner and made a cluster for the center of the bow. 



Even happier with the end result  than I was about  my well spent $20 at Dollar Tree! Based on what I already had on hand, my total cost for this was $2!










Monday, August 31, 2020

Halloween: Gothic Batty Wreath. Dollar Tree Finds

 


I popped into Dollar Tree recently since I've been seeing some fun finds on different blogs. Just my luck, I didn't find what I went for but can you ever leave Dollar Tree empty handed? Not me! The end result is this Gothic Batty Wreath using a wire frame and ornaments I picked up on my visit. 


Supplies

  • Wire Wreath Form (Dollar Tree)
  • Black Mini Ornaments (Dollar Tree)
  • Black Ultra Suede Fabric (Stash)
  • Cream Paper Flowers (Stash)
  • Self Adhesive Rhinestones (Stash)


I also picked up these cool straw brooms that I thought I was going to use in this project but ended up saving for something else. 


The fabric scrap I had was about 36 inches long and 9 inches wide so I cut it in half to make two 4.5 x 36 strips and wrapped the wreath form adhering with hot glue. 


I cut out 8 pairs of bats (16 total) on my Cricut Explore 2 using black cardstock.


I scored each bat down the middle and then layered using foam tape to give each pair some depth and dimension. Then, hot glued as shown towards the inside of the wreath. Never one to leave well enough alone, because I debated...I kind of liked the simplicity of it but...I had those cool black ornaments to use! 


I removed the ornament caps and then glued groups of three ornaments around the wreath. They come in matte, shiny, and glitter. I ended up using about 1.5 packages and still have the same amount left over which means I guess I'll have to make something else!  I also remembered I had these paper flowers in my stash. Last September we were at Disneyland which was all decorated for Halloween. My favorite was The Haunted Mansion which each normal year ( so not 2020!) they turn into "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and this was shaping up to remind me of that. Creepy yet pretty. 


I added the flowers to the ornament clusters and then because "it don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that bling" finished with some self adhesive rhinestones.


Yep. I got that stray glue string. 

Et voila! 










Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Black and White Wickedy Witch Wreath


Happy October! Yikes. But here we are. I actually had time to make something this weekend and had so much fun with it. Super easy and inexpensive and I'm really happy with it!

Supplies: 
  • Wire Wreath Form ( Dollar Tree)
  • Recycled Packaging ( See below for description)
  • Tulle (on hand)
  • Ribbon ( Michaels 40% off, 2 rolls)
  • Halloween Picks (Michaels 40-60% off)
  • Hot Glue / Glue Gun

Don't ask me how my brain works. My family has tried and failed. It just does what it does, which is how I came up with the idea to use this "packaging stuff" that's used to protect things in shipping to pad my wreath which my brain decided needed to be done. That's it. I had a wire wreath form on hand from Dollar Tree and thought just wrapping it in ribbon the frame might show through so wanted to pad it before wrapping it in ribbon. 



I cut it in strips and then wrapped and glued it to the frame w/ hot glue. WARNING: I used to have a fancy glue gun then it broke and I've been using a really cheap little "one temp" one. You might want to use "low temp" if you use this material because it can melt. I recovered and kept at it but you've been warned!


Wrap and glue, wrap and glue, wrap and glue watch "SVU". 



I ended up not wrapping the whole thing because a couple of burned fingertips makes you lazy and I also figured that where I was going to put "stuff" didn't need to be padded.  You can see the difference it made though and I do like the padded part which is the exposed part of the wreath. Wrap with ribbon et voila. 


Once my wreath was ribbon wrapped ( say that three times fast) I made a six-loop bow from black tulle, tied the ends around the wreath, and secured with a couple of dots of hot glue. Using the second roll of ribbon, I made an eight-loop bow and glued down to the wreath. 

Then, assuming your puppy hasn't run off with your witch leg pick, remove the stems from the hat and legs and glue down and you're done. 


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