Suggestions of things to buy at the Dollar Store for crafting

After the success of my what not to buy at the Dollar Store posts, many people are left wanting more.

I had a suggestion to write a post about the craft items I recommend buying at the Dollar Store.

I thought it was a great idea!

Keep in mind the Dollar Store has new items in the store all the time.

I may not have included something I would normally buy (for example, tape runners and Elmer's glue pens) because it isn't currently available.

If you would like to see my full recommendation of items to buy {and what to avoid} find the lists here.

Mirrors and Frames

While I like to buy mine at garage sales, if I were in a pinch and didn't have some available I would buy these.  I know lots of bloggers have done great projects with dollar store mirrors and frames.

Isn't this Pottery Barn inspired tiled mirror fantastic?!  

It's from Dollar Store mirrors.

You can find the tutorial on Dollar Store Crafts.

 Flowers

These flowers are great for taking apart and making headbands for little girls.

Like this one that I made for decoration for my sister in law's "she's about to pop" baby shower, and then as a gift for my sweet niece.

Satin Ribbon

I will pick this ribbon up in a pinch and depending on my project.

If it doesn't need to be heavy duty then this ribbon does the trick.

Again, from the She's About to Pop baby shower, I used the satin ribbon on the banner that I made.

Styrofoam Shapes 

Styrofoam forms can get expensive.  I love when I can find them at the Dollar Store.

I used the cones for these twine wrapped carrots that I made at Easter

and I used the flat circles for this vintage sheet music wreath

Glass Vases

If I can get glass vases for a quarter at a garage sale, then I will snatch them up, but if I need them for a project, these vases from the Dollar Store are perfect.

You can make your own DIY mercury glass vase like I did.

Floral Moss

I made these moss balls and cubes for decor around the house.

 

Raffia

Raffia is probably my favorite craft supply behind a glue gun.

I love it so much!

I use it for trying up all sorts of things.

I used it on this spring votive holder.

Tissue Paper

Tissue paper is good at so many things besides putting around gifts.

I used tissue paper to make these pom poms at my niece's mermaid birthday party.

Storage baskets

Storage baskets from the Dollar Store are great for a lot of things.

I used them for party favors for my daughter's spa birthday party.

Clothespins

Erin at The Buente Family crafted these clothespins for an advent calendar for her son Chase.

Wine Glasses

She Knows made these wine glasses for a dinner party for all of her friends.

Glasses

Kendra at the Adventures of Brad and Kendra made these etched glasses.

Flip Flops

Paper so Pretty made this flip flop wreath but there are lots of ways to embellish a pair of flip flops to wear.

And they make great party favors for a spring birthday!

Those are my recommendations.Did I miss anything?What do you buy at the Dollar Store to craft with?

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Sewing pillowcases for kids with cancer

For the past four years, I have spent a Saturday in April sewing pillowcases for my friend Paula's Pillowcase Project.  Paula's oldest son Gary was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Ewing's Sarcoma.While Gary was being treated at Children's Hospital in Seattle, the itchy scratchy hospital pillowcases were downright uncomfortable for a bald kid going through chemo.Once Gary was finished going through treatment, Paula started Paula's Pillowcase Project with some soft flannel fabric purchased on black Friday and cut and stitched with loving hands from her friends in the community.The planning for the event starts long before the sewing even begins!Paula still waits in line on Black Friday with her sons getting the best deal on fabric that she can.She recruits those people willing to wash bolts and bolts of fabric to have them ready for the Friday before so that "kits" can be cut and put together.

Here are the "kits" cut and ready to be pinned together before they get sewn.

There are so many fantastic fabrics and prints ready to appeal to any age kid!

Pinning is done to get the several layers of flannel together.

The most genius process of making these pillowcases is the first step where you make a hot dog with the fabric.  

There are many hands ready to help on Friday and Saturday.

And lots of machines to help stitch!

If you don't sew, those who can cut with a rotary cutter and those who can iron are just as important as those who can sew a straight stitch!

Paula says that in the past five years of running this project she has a 100% success rate for finding a job for volunteers young and old.

Many of the volunteers are parents of children with cancer and I have been honored to work along side children battling cancer as well.

This is Paula's youngest son Sam sewing the decorative stitches on one of the top layers of the pillowcase.

Over the years they have found that once the pillowcases are washed, the decorative flap gets rumpled, so sewing a decorative edge not only makes it more fun to look at, put serves a purpose.

One of the rooms happily working!

There is one other sewing area and another room where pinning and card making takes place.

Once the pillowcases are finished, each of them get a handmade card and a ribbon on them.

This years final pillowcase total was 222!

Throughout the year Paula pops into the oncology unit and personally delivers the completed pillowcases or leaves a stack that says "please take one".She also has the help of a social worker on the floor now who can pick out a pillowcase that is hand delivered to the young patients.All of the pillowcases are free of charge for the kids, and the smile that lights up their face is priceless!

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How to use any image with your Silhouette Software

I love my Silhouette!

One of my most favorite features is the fact that I can take just about any image and use it in my software.

This feature comes in handy quite often, and I must confess, I rarely buy anything from the Silhouette library.

I will also confess that I am no Silhouette software expert.

I'm still learning all the time!

There may be an easier way to do this, but this is the way that I do it.

I start by doing a google search for the image that I am looking for.

This time I was looking for an image of a trillium flower.

I am my daughter's cabin leader at 5th grade camp and they are the trillium cabin.

Who doesn't need matching t-shirts to commemorate their time?

I am a true sorority girl!

I need a t-shirt for any event or it didn't happen!

I'm always looking for an image that has crisp lines, which is why I settled on a sketch.

Once you find the image you want to use, right click on it and save it as an image with a name in a file that you can find.

Don't judge, but I will save stuff and forget where I saved it at or even where it's at!

I'm getting better, but it's the story of my life!

Open your Silhouette software and open the image that you just saved.

It should pop right up.

Select the "trace" feature and click on "select trace area"

That area is the shaded blue rectangle that you see around the image.

You will also see yellow lines on your image.

You can use the trace settings with the high pass filter and low pass filter to get the lines where you want them.  I haven't found a science to this.  Just keep messing with it until all your lines that you want are yellow.

Once the lines you want are yellow click on "trace outer edge"

Once the outer edge is traced you can click on your original image and drag it.

You will see the image that you just traced in red.

I usually delete my original image because you don't need it anymore.

There are lots of intricate lines, and since I am going to make this into a t-shirt, I can't have too many extra details, so I use my eraser and take out some of the extra dots and lines that I don't need.

Once I have the image the way that I want it, I select the whole image and group it together.

Now you can move your image and start designing whatever you want.

Easy as that!This feature opens the possibilities for so many things!Just this past week I used this trace feature to make three different projects.These are the completed cabin t-shirts that I made using the flower I showed you above.I even made the most of my fabric transfer and used the negative and positive space.

I also made this custom cape for my sister in law.

She is going to a superhero party and the birthday girl {Myla} LOVES batman.

I was even able to use my silhouette to cut my felt.

Super stoked that I figured that one out!

I even used the trace feature to  make this vinyl chandelier on my vintage window.Isn't it lovely?!

What's the first thing you would make using the trace feature?

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Handmade Charlotte Folk Art paints and stencils

I wrote this post as part of a sponsored campaign with Plaid and The Blueprint Social. All opinions in this post are my own.

Some of my favorite parenting moments happen snuggled up in the morning with one of the kids after a refreshing night of sleep. 

Those little bodies sneak in for morning snuggles, curl around my warm body and reach for my hand.

We have a little secret code at our house.

If you are holding hands and squeeze the persons hand three times it means "I Love You".

Sometimes we keep squeezing and adding squeezes making it "I love you more and more and more".

Eventually, we giggle and it turns into a "no I love you more", 

"well, I love you to the moon and back",

 "no, I love you past the stars and back through infinity", 

and well, it just keeps going.

But it usually starts with "to the moon and back", 

which is why when I saw this stencil by Handmade Charlotte, I knew I had to use it!

I got a little package from the people at Plaid that contained all of these goodies.

I love folk art paint so I was excited to get more to add my to stash!

I had this suitcase in my garage that I bought for decor for this wedding.

Start by taking your stencil and pick out the negative space.

It is quite easy and took less than three minutes!

I used painters tape to tape the stencil in place in the middle of the suitcase.

I poured out a little of my folk art paint {WAY more than I needed!}

and used these nifty pouncers on my stencil.

**Tip** Always use less paint than you think you need on your pouncer.

Pounce your little pouncer out a bit to get some of the extra paint off.

This helps you to keep your edges crisp on your stencil.

 Let it dry and remove your stencil.

Stand back and admire your handiwork!

You can use folk art paint and stencils on wood, tin, suitcases...you name it!
What would you make?

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