paper crowns

I got to sneak away to the dollar store without toddlers in tow, so I managed to snap some pictures of the things that caught my eye. First thing that caught my eye were these packs of plain paper crowns. They’re ready to be embellished, say if you’re hosting a princess party, but the thing that intrigued me was the shape of the scrolls on the crown. What could you do with those? I was thinking maybe make a faux ornate frame for a mirror. Could work in a little girl’s room, or maybe if you used this cool hot glue embossing technique on the crowns they’d look more realistic. (Here’s another version of the hot glue embossing project – such a great technique!)

small paper envelopes

Next cool thing I saw was this pack of 25 small envelopes. They’re with the teaching supplies, but you could use them for scrapbooking elements, or maybe to make a cool chore chart for your kiddos. Any other ideas? There were several different bright colors in the pack.

magnetic wooden letters

A few months ago, I scoured every dollar store in a 50 mile stretch to find more than one package of these magnetic wooden letters, and I failed. So, I’m happy to report that they are back in stock! Back when I was looking for them, I wanted to glue them onto frames with my sons’ names on them and paint over the whole shebang. What would you do with them?

favor boxes

The dollar store has SO many options for wedding favor packaging on a budget, but I haven’t noticed these until now. I like the simple classic shape (you can kind of see it on the hangtag top right corner).

tiffany boxes

Then there were these little cuties. They are about 2 inches square (about the size of a ring box) and are baby blue (or baby pink, or white). The blue reminded me of a Tiffany box, which I thought was kinda cool. These would probably go nicely with your wedding if this color of blue was in your color scheme. What would you fill them with?

ombre vases

Finally, these colored vases that are darker colored at the bottom (kind of an ombre effect). They look kinda cheesy in the photo, but individually they are pretty cool. They had several different colors (blue, green, pale pinkish), but I liked the blue because it reminded me of this really pretty floral arrangement on a recent cover of Family Circle magazine:

family circle july 2010

I super LOVE the clear blue vase with the bright pink flowers in this arrangement. Nice. I think the colored vases would be fab for wedding table decorations. I would group them with a couple other vases of different height and shape. (If you wanted to go with the look in this photo, you could use the tapestry-ish place mats they sell at the dollar store to put under your grouping).

christmas trees

Guess what! My dollar store had their last year’s leftover Christmas stuff on clearance! About one aisle’s worth of stuff was marked from a quarter to fifty cents. Definitely worth looking over as you are planning your holiday decorations. Speaking of which, have you decided on your color scheme for this year? I’m dreaming of chocolate and mint.

halloween display

While we’re talking about the holidays, now is the time to snap up the Halloween decorations that are starting to appear in stores. These tend to sell out fast. This year, there are LOTS of different skeleton and bones options, as well as the feathered black crows, which are a spooky take on the popular bird decor trend.

A few projects using dollar store Halloween decor items:

halloween display skulls

More Halloween stuff: big skulls, little skulls, tombstones and signs. I didn’t take pictures of the fake body parts and innards. You’re welcome!

ceramic pumpkins

We are also starting to see harvest decor items. These ceramic pumpkins are new this year, and I really like the interesting finishes on them and the colors (especially all grouped together). Would you use these as-is, craft them into something new, or pass on them?

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