Our Halloween Night and Halloween Dollar Tree DIYS

 Did you have a nice Halloween?  We had a very busy weekend with birthdays, Halloween activities, and visiting with friends and family.   

Tuesday night was Trick or Treat night where I live. I have been making DIYs with Dollar Tree supplies for the last several weeks. I did not have a chance to post about my large friends  standing behind me on my porch yet, because I just finished the witch the night before.   

I put out this Welcome Trick or Treaters sign from the Dollar Tree Plus section. I had a few other signs as well, but I did not put them out because it was snowing out, and didn't want to risk them getting ruined. 

I made pumpkin lanterns using candy pails from Walmart and push lights. I glued on two sets of witch feet, and a witch hat on the sitting pumpkin.  On the the other pumpkin I glued on a Dollar Tree candlestick and gem spider.   You can see more on how I made them in this post here.

I made this hanging lantern with a  Walmart candy pail, Dollar Tree garden chain, and a strobe light. It looked really cool greeting all the Trick or Treaters. 

You can see a little more on how I made the giant porch monsters in the second photo.  For the legs, I rolled and zipped tied black foam board.  They legs were then glued onto a pizza pan.  

Underneath the poster board I used three laundry baskets and zipped tied them together in this formation. While I did have these on the porch to greet the trick or treaters, they were not super sturdy with the wind.  I sat in a chair right in front of them to keep them in place.  My Christmas version of this craft will stay indoors. 

I loved how my spooky pool noodle candles turned out.  I will definitely be making these again for Christmas, but with red and white pool noodles. You can see more about how I made them here.

I think one of my favorite Halloween DIYs this season was the my light up ghosts using all Dollar Tree items.  I would have liked to put them outside on Halloween, but didn't because of the cold and windy weather.  I shared more on how to make the ghosts on this post here.

 

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Easy Pumpkin Pail Crafts

Did you know that those inexpensive  Halloween candy pails, actually can be used for many things and not just to collect candy. 

This past weekend, I used some of those pails to decorate our front porch. 

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

I think this pumpkin witch is my favorite. In addition to a pumpkin you  will need a couple of items that can be found at the Dollar Tree. 

You will need two sets of hanging witch legs, and a witch hat. 

Since they only sell with legs at the Dollar Tree, and not witch arms, we will have to alter one of the set of legs. 

The legs are sold hanging on a ring.  Cut the legs off the ring at your desired length for your pumpkin witch. I left my witch legs on the longer side. 

To give the legs some dimension, I stuffed each one with a plastic bag. (I have plenty of Dollar Tree bags from shopping there so much. LOL)  

It is pretty easy to make the hands.  I cut a hand shape out of the felt shoes.

Once all for limbs were stuffed, I hot glued them to the sides and bottom of the pumpkin. 

The last step is also pretty easy. Cut off the plastic handle, because we will not be needing it.  Place hot glue around 1/2 to 2/3 of the rim of the pumpkin. The reason why you do not put it around the entire rim is you want to leave enough space under the hat so you can place a light inside, and be able to turn it on and off.  

I left the unglued portion at the back of the hat.  

Another really easy craft is to turn one of the pumpkins into a hanging lantern.  

The first step is to cut off the plastic handle. I made the hole a little bit bigger, so I could add a hanging plant chain.  I found the chain in the garden section of the Dollar Tree.  

The chain actually had three hanging pieces to hang plants.  Since I only needed two pieces for the two holes, I removed the third piece. I am saving it in case I need it for something else later.  

I originally used a flameless candle as my light source but I wanted it a bit brighter, so I put in a push light from the electronics aisle. 

The last craft is my pumpkin votive. I was recording these crafts for a reel, and realized after I was finished that I did not have still photos to post on the blog from when I was making it.  I glued the pumpkin and a gem spider onto a black candlestick you can sometimes find in the candle aisle. I placed a flameless candle inside the pumpkin.  If you would like to see a video, you can see it on my Instagram here.

 

While we will still have more decorating to do before trick or treat night, being greeted by all the smiling pumpkins on our porch makes me happy. 

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Easy Halloween Gnome DIY

Gnomes can be very easy, and inexpensive to make, and there are a lot of different ways you can make a gnome. The way I am going to show you today, all you will need is a few items from the Dollar Tree and a glue gun. 

Another thing nice about this craft is you can easily change out the gnome hat for each holiday or season with different fabric.  I used Halloween fabric for this tutorial, but Dollar Tree has so many cute patterns available throughout the entire year.  

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

The items you will need are: 

• Dollar Tree styrofoam craft pumpkin  - they are  available in orange, white and black in store and online.  You can currently buy the orange and white pumpkin in smaller quantities of only 4 on their website.  Another cool thing is when you order online, you can often have your order shipped free to your local store.

string mop head

• Crafters Square fabric cuts -  you probably wont need to buy this in bulk, but you can see some of the fun Halloween prints available this year with the link.

• wooden beads - Dollar Tree has beads available in all shapes in sizes that would be great for gnome noses. 

• floral foam styrofoam cone - they are currently available online in small quantities of 4.

• Crafters Square glue sticks

The first thing I like to start with when making my gnomes is the beard.  You will need to pull out 16 strands from the mop and lay them on a flat surface, 

Cut each strand in four pieces.  The easiest way to do that evenly is to cut the strand in half, and then cut each half into half.  You should end up with 64 pieces each about 4 inches long. 

With your glue gun start gluing the pieces at the top of the pumpkin. The strands will be longer than the pumpkin. Glue them as close together as you can if you do not want the pumpkin to show underneath. 

Continue gluing on strands until they cover the half of the pumpkin.  

After you have all the strands attached to the pumpkin, the next step is to pull out the stem.  The reason why you want to remove the stem is so the cone will lay flat on the pumpkin in the next step.

Glue the cones on the top of the pumpkins. 

 After the cone is in place it is time to make the hat.  Fold the fabric into a triangle shape, and cut to the size you would like for your gnome.  The smaller the triangle, the smaller the hat.  I made mine a little bit on the bigger side.  

With  the right side of the fabric on the inside, glue the edges of the flat side of the triangle together.  (you can also sew this edge if you do not want to use glue). Once the glue has cooled, turn the fabric right side out.  

Place the hat over the cone and adjust it so it looks something like this.  You can glue the hat in place, but if you plan on changing out the hat for different seasons, you may want to use a small push pins to hold it place. Once you have the hat in place, glue on the nose.    I named this gnome Trick because I used the fabric with scary jack-o-lanterns. 

I named this gnome Treat because of the candy corn on his hat. 

Trick and Treat 

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How to make easy faux ice cream

Making faux ice cream for the craft class I taught, has to be one of my favorite new things to craft. Not only was it simple to make, it was made using Dollar Tree products.  

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Items I used to make the ice cream 

Tool Bench Lightweight Spackle

Dollar Tree White Acrylic Paint

Craft Smart Acyrlic Paint in Brown and Pink Blast 

Decorative Glass Bowl

Good Cook Ice Cream Scoop   (I liked this kind because it made the scoops more uniform in shape) 

I mixed the spackle, and just a teeny bit of water in a plastic container.  As you stir it, it becomes the consistency of ice cream.  

Using an ice cream scoop with a spring handle makes the prettiest ice cream.  If you don't like how one turns out, that's okay, you can put it back in the bowl re-scoop it. The scoop in the bottom left has a little bit more water mixed in, which made it have a softer look. Place the scoops on a piece of wax paper to dry.   I was able to make 3 scoops from one small container of spackle. 

There are two ways you can make the colored ice cream.  You can mix the paint into the spackle, or you can paint them when they are dry which is what I did.  I mixed the brown and the pink with Dollar Tree white acrylic paint until I got the colors I liked to make the strawberry and chocolate ice cream. 

 Just a heads up, it's best to not be hungry when you are making these because they really look like real ice cream. 

When the scoops were dry I put them in a glass dessert bowl.   I think I got these at Dollar Tree awhile back, but since they no longer have the stickers on them, I am not sure.  

If desired you can add faux chocolate syrup, faux whip cream or even faux cherries from Hobby Lobby to your ice cream.   I will be making some more of ice cream treats in the near future, and  posting more faux ice cream DIYS. 

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