I Am In Love...

Tonight, yet another sleepless night in the life of an insomniac, I remembered a website I had found over a year ago. I couldn't remember the name, of course, but I remember what I found there. It was a website for crafters that holds monthly challenges.

One of the monthly challenges, my favorite, was to make something totally unique out of $10 of supplies bought only at a dollar store. I was amazed at some of the really cool ideas there were, and how totally cool the items turned out.

One woman bought some fleece scarves, and some squishy teddy bears, and turned them into an awesome, fur lined, totally wearable hoodie. Another woman made a replica of Scarlett O'Hara's green & white picnic gown out of a hula hoop, foam pool noodle, garden stakes, plastic table clothes, and coffee filters.

For the really handy with a sewing machine people out there, here's an absolutely adorable, one of a kind doll. Do you know someone who collects snow globes?Here's an idea on how to make one from an Ivy Bowl, a rubber sink stopper, some glitter, and some inserts.

There were just some amazing entries into the contest, which can all be seen here. While I was locating it, I found they had done another dollar store challenge for $5 or under. Not all of the images are still there, as the post is several years old, but it does have some interesting ideas on crafts that can be made cheap using dollar store items.

Also in my search, I found a website called Dollar Store Crafts, which has some really cool ideas for inexpensive, easy to make crafts- again, featuring items found at the dollar store. Here are some of the fun ideas I noticed right away:

Starburst Mirror
A Pocket Advent Calendar- This one is SO easy, and a FUN thing to send to your college kid, or give to a friend!
$.50 Stuffed Chipmunk- As a side note, Walmart sells the Magic Gloves used for this project at 2 pairs for $1.50, so it would make 4 chipmunks for roughly $.37 each.
Mosaic Headboard
Bandanna Quilt- SO simple & easy- if you can sew a straight line, you can make this!

Both sites are simply amazing, and provide endless hours (yes hours!) of craft ideas out of every day, normal, CHEAP items!

I hope you take a while to peruse both sites, because for the crafty among us can find a lot of awesome ideas to use for making Christmas gifts this year. I plan to tackle the Bandanna Quilt soon. The things people come up with just by walking the aisles of Dollar Tree are simply
amazing. The actual websites are:

http://www.craftster.org
http://dollarstorecrafts.com