Adam and I recently took a road trip for our honeymoon.  One of my favorite things about taking a road trip is the opportunity to check out some different dollar stores!  When we saw a sign that said “Dollar Zone” in Traverse City, Michigan, I insisted that we stop.  And boy and I glad we did!  Dollar Zone isn’t an everything-for-a-buck store; they did have items that cost a little more, but the deals were incredible.  The store was also huge!  You can see the depth of the store over Adam’s shoulder in the photo.  (I have no crafty ideas for the purple hat; I just couldn’t resist snapping a picture of Adam when he put it on!)  Here are some of the great tidbits I found.

Clear rubber stamps!  I recently used clear stamps for a project and I don’t think I will ever go back to the wood block variety if I can help it.  They are so much easier to work with!  While Micheal’s sells sets of these stamps for $10 or more, Dollar Zone had a great selection for just $1 per set!  They also had complete sets of alphabet stamps for $1.25 in several different large fonts, a deal I was completely unable to resist.

They also had several varieties of shaped ice cube trays.  These made me think of the skull ice cube trays that have been so popular here at DSC as of late; make projects like molded sugar, mini soap-on-a-rope, papier-mache, or chocolate pops in all kinds of different shapes.

Also catching my eye were these wonderful little wallet-size picture frames.  I could tell by the corners of the frames that they were very good quality; cheap frames tend to line up funny or have chipped edges at the corners.  Can you ever have too many shapes and sizes of picture frames?  Still bearing their original $9.99 price tag (though some had apparently been reduced by half price at some point), Dollar Zone had them marked at $1.25 each.

One of my favorite, must-have craft supplies is spray paint.  Starting at $1 and going u to about $4, they had everything from plain old spray paint to special finishes like crackle and suede.

If you need to organize little things like beads, buttons, and other small embellishments, a spice rack is the perfect solution.  This rack holds a whopping 32 bottles and costs just a buck!  Save empty containers from your used-up spices, or find other small containers that will fit in the rack.  (It looks like this one would be the right size to hold baby food jars as well.)

The party supplies section of the store offered up a great selection of paper lanterns.  From parties to interior design, paper lanterns are a versatile decorative element.  They had a bunch of different shapes, sizes, and colors; customize them by painting designs with craft paint.

My grandmother always had stick-on things like this in her bathtub, which is the first thing I thought if when I saw these bathtub flowers and other shapes in a variety of different colors.  The second thought to cross my mind is that these would make great instant wall art for a little girl’s garden-themed bedroom!

I love this apple-shaped cutting board, especially for just $1.   I think it could have a lot of crafty possibilities!  The first thing that came to mind was some kind of wall hanging to give as a teacher’s gift.

These glass vases were among the most expensive items in the store at $10 each.  But, at almost 3 feet tall, they were a steal for the size!  I was reminded of a large rope vase I saw at Michael’s for almost $40; while the vase at Michael’s was built around a wire frame, the shape and size of the vases were very similar.  Take one of these vases, wrap it in dollar store rope, glue the rope into place, and spray paint the desired color to get the same look at a fraction of the cost!

I’m sure my ideas are just the tip of the iceberg with this assortment of items.  What would you make out of this stuff?