$5 Challenge — 3 different Dollar Store Tiered Tray Ideas {and a Chevron stencil printable}

 

Studio 5 called me up a couple weeks ago and asked me if I would take the $5 Challenge. 

Of course I couldn’t resist!!

So I headed over to my favorite place — The $ Store and scoped it out. I decided to make a few tiered trays. I have been loving Enamel Paint ever since I made my mustache glasses. 

I wanted to make some Chevron Platters. 

Kind of nautical for Spring! 

I ended up making three different kinds of Tiered Trays from the Dollar Store. 

The first were Painted Chevron Plates. I picked out two plates and my Dollar Store was out of glass candlesticks, so I had to go scrounge around a few thrift stores to come up with enough for my projects. But they ended up being between .25 and .50 each so score!! 

 I made a Chevron template on my Silhouette and printed it off on vinyl and then stuck the vinyl to the plates. Then I painted over the stencil with Plaid’s Enamel Paint.

 

Here’s a tip — do NOT let the paint dry and then peel off the stencil because your paint will peel off too. You need to peel off the stencil while the paint is still wet.

Then I painted some pennants on one of the plates and a flower on the other. You can use a pencil on your plates and then paint over the pencil marks. And obviously, you can paint anything you want. I was also thinking that a big number would be cute on the top plate.

{total cost — $2.50}

I have made a Chevron Stencil that you can download if you want to use it. You can either trace the chevron pattern on Contact Paper and cut it out with an x-acto knife. 

Or you can trace the stencil onto stencil material and also cut it out with an x-acto knife. You can find stencil plastic at your local craft store. 

Then bake the plates in the oven for 20 minutes to set the paint. Once baked, the plates are dishwasher safe. This paint is technically not supposed to come in direct contact with food, so use a doily or something when putting your food out.

The second type of tiered platter I made was — A Triple Tiered Platter. 

{total cost — $4.00}

 I got this idea from Joy’s Hope. She made some last Spring and I have been obsessed with them ever since. Super easy. Just get three of the silver platters at the Dollar Store and spray paint them different colors. Then spray paint a couple of candlesticks too. You can attach the candlesticks to the platters with Gorilla Glue, E6000 or 9001.

{total cost — $3.00}

The third platter I made was — Mod Podged Pizza Pans.

I also found the pizza pans at the Dollar Store. You take strips of paper and mod podge the paper on the trays. Then there is a spray you can spray over the top that seals the paper.

{total cost — $1.50}

I have a complete tutorial on how to make these here — Mod Podged Tiered Trays.

So if you have a big event coming up, or just need some unique serving pieces, head over to the Dollar Store and make some trays!!

Here’s the video — if you want to take a look 🙂

xoxo

PS – I’m linking this up to Sarah’s

and these other super fun parties — be sure to check them out!! 

  

 

I’m linking up to these fun parties – check them out:

 

 

 

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I ♥ the Dollar Store

I just love the Dollar Store.

There are so many potential projects inside! 

Some of my favorite Dollar Store projects I have made have been:

Tiered Dollar store Tray made out of Pizza Pans

Burlap Dollar Store Napkin Rings

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Dollar Store Burlap Children Wall Grouping

Dollar Store Burlap Magnet Frames

Dollar store Serving Tray

Dollar Store Fall Frames Project

Dollar Store Cupcake Wreath

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Dollar Store Frames Marble Craft

 Dollar Store Doily Pennant

It’s the Dollar Store Challenge this week!

Heather from Dollar Store Crafts is the guest judge over at The CSI Project this week! 

Crafts Made From Dollar Store Stuff

Come link up your Dollar Store projects and you can win one of TWO $20 gift certificates to {shey}*b!

And, come check out the Cupcake Carnival over at Attempting Creative! She’s having all sorts of fun cupcake crafts, recipes and giveaways!

XOXO

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Three Doily Pennant Projects

 I decided to experiment with making some doily pennants.

The first kind I made used the paper doilies you can buy at any grocery store. I made one with small paper doilies and one with the larger doilies. These would be fun to to add a little color for any type of party. I added a little oomph by making some little fabric pom poms that go in between each of the doilies. 

I took a piece of bias tape and pinned the doilies on about 8 inches apart. To make the pom poms, I took scrap pieces of fabric and cut them up into 3 inch lengths and into tiny little strips with my rotary cutter. 

Then I put about 8 different prints together and folded them over and then pinned the pom poms onto the bias tape. I sewed over the bias tape using a zig zag stitch. (30 minute project)

The fabric pennant that I made is a no sew project. I cut out a template out of cardstock. I cut out a 8 inch long rectangle by 6 inches wide. Then I took my ruler made a pennant shape. I traced the pennant onto 12 different patterns of material. Once I cut them out, I hot glued the pennants onto bias tape, 1/2 inch apart. Then I took some Dollar Store doilies and cut pieces out of them and hot glued them onto the individual pennants. (1 hour project)

 I am linking up to these wonderful places:

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Three Doily Pennant Projects

 I decided to experiment with making some doily pennants.

The first kind I made used the paper doilies you can buy at any grocery store. I made one with small paper doilies and one with the larger doilies. These would be fun to to add a little color for any type of party. I added a little oomph by making some little fabric pom poms that go in between each of the doilies. 

I took a piece of bias tape and pinned the doilies on about 8 inches apart. To make the pom poms, I took scrap pieces of fabric and cut them up into 3 inch lengths and into tiny little strips with my rotary cutter. 

Then I put about 8 different prints together and folded them over and then pinned the pom poms onto the bias tape. I sewed over the bias tape using a zig zag stitch. (30 minute project)

The fabric pennant that I made is a no sew project. I cut out a template out of cardstock. I cut out a 8 inch long rectangle by 6 inches wide. Then I took my ruler made a pennant shape. I traced the pennant onto 12 different patterns of material. Once I cut them out, I hot glued the pennants onto bias tape, 1/2 inch apart. Then I took some Dollar Store doilies and cut pieces out of them and hot glued them onto the individual pennants. (1 hour project)

 I am linking up to these wonderful places:

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Burlap Napkin Rings Tutorial {Dollar Store Project}

I have so many Valentine ideas I wanted to do — but  I’m running out of time! Here’s one I made today. But, these napkin rings don’t have to be just for Valentines Day – you can use them all year. 

I bought the napkin rings at the Dollar Store. Yep, I have been wandering around in there again! Four napkin rings for a dollar — pretty sweet deal. I had wanted to make this for awhile and thought I would go to home depot and get some sprinkler PVC pipe and cut it into sections to make the rings, but then I saw them at the the Dollar Tree. Saved me some time and effort!

If you want to make these, here is what I did.

Supplies:

Burlap — eight inches wide by 13.5  inches long section to make 6 napkin rings

Hot glue gun and glue sticks (low temp is great or you might burn your fingers like I did)

Napkin rings (Dollar Tree)

Jewelry embellishments (I got mine from Michaels on sale — 2 for $1.99 plus 30% off)

Ribbon ( I used pale pink organiza, but you can use any color you like)

1. Cut your burlap into strips 2 1/4 inches wide by 8 inches in length. Cut as many as napkin rings you want to make.
   
2. Put your ring in the middle of the burlap strip. Put a dot of hot glue in the center at the bottom of the ring. Hold the material tight around the outside of the ring and bring the edges together where the glue dot is. Press down tightly. If using hot glue, not low temp, let the glue sit for a few seconds before bringing the material around on top of it. It is very easy to burn your fingers. It is good to let the glue cool off just a bit first. You can also use the end of a Popsicle stick or end of a pencil to hold the glue while it is hot and then smooth it down with your fingers once it is almost cool.
   
3. Repeat step 2 all the way around the napkin ring until you are back at the beginning.
4. When you are back to the seam again, overlap the burlap so that it goes over the first seam and cut off any excess. Run a line of glue under the outside seam of the burlap and press down to close.
   
5. Repeat with all of the napkin rings.
6. Measure your ribbon. Cut the ribbon to the length of the circumference of the napkin ring.
   
7. Once your burlap is attached, put a dot of hot glue on the seam of the napkin ring. Put the edge of the ribbon on the hot glue, run the ribbon around the napkin ring until you reach the hot glue again. Press the end of the ribbon into the hot glue. If the glue has cooled, put another dot of hot glue on top of the other end and press down.
   
   
   
8. Once the ribbon is attached, attach your decorative jewelry pieces. Mine had loops on four sides that are used if you using them for jewelry. I cut the loops off using pliers. I used Gorilla Glue to attach the jewelry piece to the napkin ring. I put a small dot of glue at the top and bottom of the jewelry piece and put it on the top of the napkin ring – so the seam is opposite on the back. I held it down for a couple of minutes until it was tacky and then let it sit so the jewelry piece was facing up until it was completely dried – about 2 hours. 

I’m excited to use them on Valentine’s Day, but I think I will use them throughout the year too!

XOXO

http://www.tatertotsandjello.com

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Valentine Project: $2 TIERED Dollar Store Tray

I had so much fun making my Dollar Store tray that I decided to make a tiered Valentine-ish one too. Although I like it so much I think I will use it all Spring and maybe Summer too! It’s so bright and happy looking!

If you want to make one, here are the trays I used from the Dollar Tree:

I pretty much followed the steps I used making the first tray, which are found HERE. I cut the paper into strips , but I didn’t want the top and bottom trays to be too matchy-matchy, so I mixed it up a little.

And I added feet just like I did to the first tray, although I painted them off-white instead of black. I attached them with Gorilla Glue.

I also used a little silver candlestick that I had laying around. I was going to paint the candlestick, but I like the shine it gives the tray so I left it silver.

Also — I wrapped a pink striped ribbon around the underneath of the top tray where you can see the paper edges. I meant to take a picture of that, but forgot. I will try to take one tomorrow and update it.

I am excited to use it on Valentine’s night to put my dessert on. So fun!

♥♥♥

XOXO

http://www.tatertotsandjello.com

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Valentine Project: $2 TIERED Dollar Store Tray

I had so much fun making my Dollar Store tray that I decided to make a tiered Valentine-ish one too. Although I like it so much I think I will use it all Spring and maybe Summer too! It’s so bright and happy looking!

If you want to make one, here are the trays I used from the Dollar Tree:

I pretty much followed the steps I used making the first tray, which are found HERE. I cut the paper into strips , but I didn’t want the top and bottom trays to be too matchy-matchy, so I mixed it up a little.

And I added feet just like I did to the first tray, although I painted them off-white instead of black. I attached them with Gorilla Glue.

I also used a little silver candlestick that I had laying around. I was going to paint the candlestick, but I like the shine it gives the tray so I left it silver.

Also — I wrapped a pink striped ribbon around the underneath of the top tray where you can see the paper edges. I meant to take a picture of that, but forgot. I will try to take one tomorrow and update it.

I am excited to use it on Valentine’s night to put my dessert on. So fun!

♥♥♥

XOXO

http://www.tatertotsandjello.com

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Dollar Store Serving Tray Tutorial

Why am I so fascinated with the Dollar Store? It’s truly amazing to me that everything in there is just a buck. I get a little mesmerized when I’m in there… 

I picked up a couple metal pizza pans a few weeks ago, thinking that I could do something fun with them. As I was going through my kitchen cupboards the other day I discovered that I really don’t have many serving trays and I thought — why not turn one of those pizza platters into a serving tray? I was going to make a Valentine’s one, but wanted to use it all year — so made it match my kitchen. 

I thought it would be cute to add some little feet to the tray so it sits up off of the counter. I have a box of old knobs from when I switched my knobs out in my kitchen. So I grabbed a few of those. But you could probably find some at a thrift store too. I also added a couple dainty little drawer pulls (from an old dresser redo) to use as handles.

Here’s what I did:

• I flipped the pizza pan over and measured where I wanted to put the feet. I measured the space between each foot as well as the distance diagonally across the sheet. They all ended up being 6 inches. Then I marked the spot with a black sharpie.

• Then I picked out 4 different black and white papers to use for the projects. I cut 4 inch strips of paper. I had to cut the paper diagonally in my paper cutter so that the length would be long enough to cover the pizza pan and go over the sides.

• Then I Mod Podged the paper onto the pan. I started at one side. I laid the first sheet of paper over the side of the pan to see where I needed to place it. I made a little mark with my sharpie on the edge of the paper. I trimmed the edges of the paper so that they mimicked the edges of the pan – -leaving about an inch longer than the edge of the pan. I made little cuts at the edges of the sheet so that when I flipped the edges under that they would lay flat.

• Then I applied the mod podge. I put a layer on the pan itself and another layer on the back of the paper. Then I layed the sheet on the pan with the edge where the sharpie mark was. I smoothed it down using an old credit card. I used my fingers to smooth it down over the rim of the pan and around the side of the edge. (you need to put mod podge around the side to the back of the sheet). I continued pressing with my fingers over the edge of the pan and flipped the pan over to smooth down the edges on the underside.
• Note: At this point, only put Mod Podge on the underside of the paper — not the outside of the paper.
• Then I applied the next strip of paper, doing the same thing.
• Once all of the paper was applied and wrapped around to the back of the pan, I let it sit until the Mod Podge dried.
• Once it was dried, I put a layer of Mod Podge on the top of the paper. I found that this cuts down on the bubbling. 
• Once that layer of Mod Podge was dried, I sprayed the sheet with polyurethane spray. This will make it so you can wipe down the platter. I put 3 layers of polyurethane spray on – letting each layer dry for about 15 minutes in between coats.
• While the polyurethane was drying, I painted my old knobs black. I applied two coats and let them dry. Once the paint was dry, I applied 2 coats of polyurethane spray and let that dry.

• Once the polyurethane was dry — about an hour after the last coat, I flipped the pan over and applied the black knobs to the pan. I used Gorilla Glue and it is awesome stuff! It takes about 2 hours to dry so I let it dry overnight.
• The next morning I applied a very small amount of the same Gorilla Glue to the handles on top of the tray and let those dry for a couple of hours. And I was done!

And, for a buck — how could I go wrong??

XOXO

http://www.tatertotsandjello.com

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Dollar Store Serving Tray Tutorial

Why am I so fascinated with the Dollar Store? It’s truly amazing to me that everything in there is just a buck. I get a little mesmerized when I’m in there… 

I picked up a couple metal pizza pans a few weeks ago, thinking that I could do something fun with them. As I was going through my kitchen cupboards the other day I discovered that I really don’t have many serving trays and I thought — why not turn one of those pizza platters into a serving tray? I was going to make a Valentine’s one, but wanted to use it all year — so made it match my kitchen. 

I thought it would be cute to add some little feet to the tray so it sits up off of the counter. I have a box of old knobs from when I switched my knobs out in my kitchen. So I grabbed a few of those. But you could probably find some at a thrift store too. I also added a couple dainty little drawer pulls (from an old dresser redo) to use as handles.

Here’s what I did:

• I flipped the pizza pan over and measured where I wanted to put the feet. I measured the space between each foot as well as the distance diagonally across the sheet. They all ended up being 6 inches. Then I marked the spot with a black sharpie.

• Then I picked out 4 different black and white papers to use for the projects. I cut 4 inch strips of paper. I had to cut the paper diagonally in my paper cutter so that the length would be long enough to cover the pizza pan and go over the sides.

• Then I Mod Podged the paper onto the pan. I started at one side. I laid the first sheet of paper over the side of the pan to see where I needed to place it. I made a little mark with my sharpie on the edge of the paper. I trimmed the edges of the paper so that they mimicked the edges of the pan – -leaving about an inch longer than the edge of the pan. I made little cuts at the edges of the sheet so that when I flipped the edges under that they would lay flat.

• Then I applied the mod podge. I put a layer on the pan itself and another layer on the back of the paper. Then I layed the sheet on the pan with the edge where the sharpie mark was. I smoothed it down using an old credit card. I used my fingers to smooth it down over the rim of the pan and around the side of the edge. (you need to put mod podge around the side to the back of the sheet). I continued pressing with my fingers over the edge of the pan and flipped the pan over to smooth down the edges on the underside.
• Note: At this point, only put Mod Podge on the underside of the paper — not the outside of the paper.
• Then I applied the next strip of paper, doing the same thing.
• Once all of the paper was applied and wrapped around to the back of the pan, I let it sit until the Mod Podge dried.
• Once it was dried, I put a layer of Mod Podge on the top of the paper. I found that this cuts down on the bubbling. 
• Once that layer of Mod Podge was dried, I sprayed the sheet with polyurethane spray. This will make it so you can wipe down the platter. I put 3 layers of polyurethane spray on – letting each layer dry for about 15 minutes in between coats.
• While the polyurethane was drying, I painted my old knobs black. I applied two coats and let them dry. Once the paint was dry, I applied 2 coats of polyurethane spray and let that dry.

• Once the polyurethane was dry — about an hour after the last coat, I flipped the pan over and applied the black knobs to the pan. I used Gorilla Glue and it is awesome stuff! It takes about 2 hours to dry so I let it dry overnight.
• The next morning I applied a very small amount of the same Gorilla Glue to the handles on top of the tray and let those dry for a couple of hours. And I was done!

And, for a buck — how could I go wrong??

XOXO

http://www.tatertotsandjello.com

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Cookie Sheet Advent Calendar

My kids love playing with this calendar. My 4 year old loves to put the new magnet on each day. This is a fun project to make because you can use your imagination to make up the magnets. Some things I used were: 

• little mirrors
  
• dominos 
  
• small ornaments like sleds, stars and drums that are meant to go on miniature trees
• die cuts
  
• poker chips  
• glass disks
• vintage buttons
  
• flower scrapbook embellishments
• game pieces 
  
• printed scrapbook paper
• pieces of metal
• pictures

 

 

 

 

 If you want to make this fun project, here’s what I did:

• Get a cookie sheet. {You can get a new one or go to Goodwill and pick up an old one. Also, the Dollar Store has cookie sheets – they are a small size, but work great for this project. If you get a new one that has non-stick surface, you will need to sand it down so your paint will stick.}
• Drill two holes at the top of the cookie sheet for your ribbon to go through. I used  regular drill. It is hard, but if you apply pressure it will work. Make sure to drill on a surface that can get dinged up. I did it on my garage workbench. You might have some sharp edges and you can file those down with a metal file.
• Spray paint your cookie sheet. I did mine white, but black, red or green would be cute. Or maybe silver or gold?
• Pick out 2 pieces of scrapbook paper that coordinate. One will be for the top of the calendar and the other will be at the bottom. You also need a plain piece of paper that will have the actual calendar grid on it. 
• Once your cookie sheet is dry, bring it to your work space and measure it width and length. This is how you will figure out how big to cut your scrapbook paper. Each cookie sheet is different, so I can’t give you exact dimensions. You will want a pretty square surface for the grid section of the calendar. So if your cookie sheet is 8 inches wide, then it will look good to make the grid paper 8 inches by 8 inches. This will also give you room at the top and bottom to put your coordinating paper for your lettering.
• Once you have figured out the dimensions for your grid paper, cut it out and then figure out your dimensions for each day. You will divide the total amount of width and length by 5 to get these dimensions. Now take a pencil and ruler and measure the dimensions out and draw lines to get the grid. You may need to make corrections, that is why you should use a pencil. Once you have the correct dimensions, go over the lines with permanent marker.
• Now cut out the other paper. I made the top a little longer than the bottom so it wouldn’t be so matchy-matchy, but you can do whatever you like.
• Lay it out on the cookie sheet. Once it looks right, use Mod Podge and glue it down. I went over the top with mod podge too to protect the paper so it will last. If you haven’t ever used Mod Podge, be careful. You need to put a thin layer of Mod Podge on the back of each paper and another on the acutal cookie sheet. Then lay the paper down and smooth all of the bubbles out. It works best to go in small sections. Start at one end of the paper and go diagonally across to the other side. Keep smoothing the bubbles out. NOTE: If Mod Podge sounds too scary, you can use spray adhesive and then spray a coat of clear sealant over the top to protect it.
• I put the Christmas die cut letters on right at the end of the Mod Podging – adding a thin layer over the top of the letters. 
• Now while your paper is drying, get out all of the embellishments to make the magnets. I lay it all out the way it is going to go on the board before I put any of the numbers on the magnets. This way you can see how it looks and make any changes that you want to without having to take the numbers off. You will want the shapes to be separate: no circles next to each other or anything that is the same color together. 
• Once you have all of the magnets laid out they way they will go on the calendar, start putting them together. Then put the numbers on last. For the numbers I used a few different methods to make them so they wouldn’t all be the same. I printed a bunch of numbers off in different fonts and different colors. If you go to 1001fonts.com, you will find tons of fun fonts. They also have many many Christmas and holiday fonts which are fun for this project. I also used a labeler to print off some numbers, some stickers and I wrote some numbers with a sharpie. 
• When you have the numbers on you can add the magnets to the back of each number. I used a super glue.
• Now put your ribbon through the holes and tie it into a bow.
• Another note: Depending on how you decide to you use your Advent Calendar, you can put all of the magnets on and then take one off a day until there are no more, or start with a blank surface. Since it is magnetic, you can keep the magnets you are not using on the back of the cookie sheet so they will not get lost.
• Enjoy your new Advent Calendar!

 

XOXO

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