Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Crafting It Up Easter Style with Dollar Tree


Remember my Fall crafts candy corn and Holiday, Christmas themed wreaths posts with Dollar Tree?  I am back again with some fun Easter craft ideas!  And let me warn you, this post is picture heavy!

I received an amazing box of goodies from Dollar Tree to be creative.  The first craft I decided to make is a jelly bean, pinwheel, burlap flower display. 


1. Jelly bean, pinwheel, burlap flower display

Let me walk you through how I made it.  Every product I used is from Dollar Tree (minus the chopstick, hot glue gun and sticks that I used).  List of products used: speckled jelly beans (2 packages to get the colors I wanted), pink and green burlap ribbon, green/silver pinwheel, basic brown flower pot, decorative butterfly (3 pack and I only used 1), circular floral foam (2 pack and I only used 1), green pot shaped floral foam, green easter grass, a chopstick, scissors and hot glue gun with glue sticks.

 circular floral foam

pink burlap ribbon

I started with a circular floral foam and pink burlap ribbon.  I cut the ribbon in strips and covered one side of the circular floral foam using my hot glue gun.

Hot gluing strips of burlap to one side of the foam.

Cut off the excess ribbon

 This will be the back side of your flower.

Then I applied the pink burlap ribbon to the side of the foam to cover it.  Again, I used my hot glue gun.

covering the side of the circular foam

What it looks like now.

Next, I cut out pink burlap semi circles for the petals of my flower and hot glued them around the front of my flower.

You can choose the size of your petals.  This is the size I picked.

 Attach the petals with hot glue.

You can see the flower starting to form.

The petals are now all attached.

Then I played around with the speckled jelly beans to make the inside of the flower.  I sorted them by color into bowls.  There are so many different combinations you can make.  I went for a simple design.  Again, I used my hot glue gun to attach the jelly beans.

speckled jelly beans

sorted speckled jelly beans

 applying the jelly beans with hot glue

 Inside of the flower

applying more jelly beans


and more jelly beans


 This is the final flower part.  The jelly beans are layered so that you cannot see any of the foam.

To make the stem I took a green/silver pinwheel apart.  I cut off the top of the stick and covered it with green burlap ribbon.  Then I used the already green part of the pinwheel and attached it as the leaves. 

green/silver pinwheel

disassembled pinwheel

cut stick

green burlap ribbon

I covered the stick in several layers of ribbon using my hot glue gun.

cut of the excess

what will be the leaves

 attaching the green pinwheel part as the leaves

 The stick easily slides through.  Then I layered the top of the stick with green burlap ribbon as well.

finished stem


top view so that you can see the leaves

I inserted the green pot shaped floral foam into my pot.  I found that my stem could not completely support my flower without help so I chose to add addition support with a chopstick.  I wrapped the chopstick around the stem using green burlap ribbon and hot glue.  This worked perfectly.  I also used the chopstick to make a hole in my flower in order to insert the stem.  Then I stuck my flower into the foam and covered it with green easter grass.  I added my butterfly for embellishment and voila, done!

 making the stem hole

the hole

with the stem attached

After I attached the stem I used the chopstick for additional support.

sealing in the chopstick

 I inserted the foam into my pot.

 The post I used.

flower inserted into the foam

I filled the pot with easter grass.

Filled pot with attached flower!

 lots of decorative butterflies to choose from

I chose to add a single yellow butterfly to embellish my display.

with butterfly

back view

And there you have it!  My new flower pot and flower that I created.

Next, A and B wanted to make an Easter diorama.  I thought this was such a fun idea so I let them have free reign to come up with their own creation.

 
 Easter diorama

2. Easter diorama

Let me walk you through how the girls made their diorama.  Every product they used is from Dollar Tree (minus the hot glue gun/ glue sticks and blue and white spray paint).  List of products used: Dollar Tree box, purple and green easter grass, decorative butterflies (yellow, pink, purple), bunny plush, clear/colored easter eggs, decorative easter egg picks, plush bunny, hopping chick, hopping bunny, small pieces of circular floral foam (to secure easter egg picks),tape, blue and white spray paint and glue gun/glue sticks.

They started with the box that our Dollar Tree goodies came in.


Then they covered it in white paint and then a pastel blue.


bottom white layer


blue layer

added green easter grass

box with green easter grass

Basically the girls took their items and set them up to make a fun display.  They used small parts of the circular floral foam to secure the easter egg picks and hot glue for the decorative butterflies on the back of the box.  They taped the other butterflies from the top of the inside box.  Enjoy.

clear colored easter eggs

colored easter egg picks

hopping chick and hopping bunny

bunny plush

how the easter egg picks were secured

this butterfly was hot glued to the back of the display

top of the diorama

finished diorama

 A and B with their finished creation!

I love it!

And the last craft I made was a plush Easter flower display.  I really love flowers, can you tell?


3.  Plush Easter Flower display

As with the others, let me walk you through how I made this plush Easter flower display.  Every product is from Dollar Tree (minus the hot glue gun/ glue sticks).  List of products used: small green bucket, purple and yellow easter grass, alphabet blocks (2 packages to get the letters I wanted), purple marker, 3 bendable plush flowers (purple, pink and yellow), and glue gun/glue sticks. 


 my green bucket

alphabet blocks

I wanted to spell EASTER on the side and I needed an S so I created my own S using one of the blank spots on a block.  

Then I hot glued the letters around the bucket spelling out EASTER.

adding the A

you get the idea

I added purple easter grass to the bottom of the bucket.

bendable plush flowers

adding the bendable flowers

yellow easter grass

topped it with yellow easter grass

 top view

 This display just makes me smile!

Guess what?  Dollar Tree is having a contest, The Happier Easter Contest, and I entered my creations here.  From March 16th through April 6th you can vote on your favorite Easter craft ideas.  The winner will receive a $500 Visa gift card, and just for voting you could win one of ten $50 Dollar Tree gift cards.  Not bad right!  So what are you waiting for, go and vote here now.

Disclosure:  Thanks so much to Dollar Tree for sending me items to facilitate this post.  I seriously love your store and hope to work with you again in the future!  All opinions expressed are my own.  As part of this campaign I am eligible to win prizes.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh, how adorable and ORIGINAL!! I love it!!

Cyndi Buchanan said...

Very cute ideas! I love inexpensive crafts!

Debi Gerhart said...

I love the jelly bean flower. It is the cutest thing.

Clancy Cash Harrison MS, RD, LDN said...

I am going to make this with my daughter! I know she will love it. It is toooo cute.

Unknown said...

Those are such great ideas! I always hit up the dollar store for the holidays.

Michelle F.