Play Flowerbox

Note from Heather: Please welcome my first contributor to Dollar Store Crafts: The Masked Mommy! She’s a master of frugal fun, and will be a regular contributor to our site. Hop over to her blog and say hello!

Hi! I’m The Masked Mommy, and I’m new to blogging here at Dollar Store Crafts. I love crafting… when my house is clean enough that I can do so without feeling guilty! I’m also the biggest tightwad you’ll ever meet, so this is the perfect home for my craft ideas :-). Be sure to check out my personal blog for more fun crafty ideas!

Today I’d like to share a craft I recently made for my daughter. It’s an interactive play garden that can have flowers planted, picked, and planted again! It also serves an an adorable window decoration in a little girl’s room. It’s very fun when paired with a watering can and basket for picked flowers, and is certainly a fun educational activity for preschoolers! This idea came from the Ikat Bag, and was adapted to be made out of dollar store supplies. [Instructions for a sew-it-yourself version here].

You can find everything you need at the Dollar Tree, including the flowers, and this version does NOT involve any sewing ;-). The fabric flowers can also be found in the dollar section at Target, or JoAnne’s Fabrics.

Project Materials:

  • Pool Noodle, $1
  • Brown Socks, $1 (for 2 socks)
  • Cardboard box, on hand
  • Glue, on hand
  • Ribbon, (optional) on hand or $1
  • Fabric Flowers, $1 each (need 3)

Total: $5 and up

flowers-009

To Make:

  1. Carefully cut your pool noodle into 2 pieces, each a little shorter than your socks. (“Carefully” is in bold because I totally cut my finger doing this… but it turned out so cute it was worth it! Haha!)flowers-010
  2. This is where it gets easy! Put the sections of pool noodle into the socks, and shove the extra into the middle of the pool noodle.
  3. If needed, alter your cardboard box so the pool noodle sections will fit snugly. Otherwise, your flowers won’t be able to wedge in tightly.
  4. Insert the “dirt” pool noodles into your cardboard “window box” (heel side of the sock down) and glue a piece of ribbon around the top if desired.
  5. That’s it! Start planting your flowers!

Be sure to check out the Ikat Bag’s post to see ideas about planting vegetables in your new garden, and find patterns to sew your own pea pods, strawberries, and plants.

A big thanks to Heather for inviting me to blog over here, and I hope to see all of you again really soon! :-)

~The Masked Mommy

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