Decorating: Glow Star Stickers

Have you seen those glow in the dark star shaped stickers?

The ones that you can stick to your ceiling and make it so that you can sleep under a starry night sky every night.

There are a few problems with those stickers.

1) If you have what's referred to as "popcorn ceiling" (little bumps all over) aka lazy way out ceiling, then the stickers won't stick.

2) If you move, say good bye to those stickers, they don't move easily.

Many years ago I can up with a solution on how to use those stickers despite the issues.

A $1.00 (maybe $2.00 depending on where you get it) solution.

I went to the dollar store and bought a black plastic table cloth.

Now these may be only in dollar stores around Halloween time. However if you go to party supply stores they will usually have them year around for a little more then dollar store costs.

Using thumb tacks I pinned the table cloth to my ceiling over my bed and stuck the stickers to it.

since I came up with this idea I have moved nine times. Some houses had popcorn ceilings, some didn't. 

The table cloth made the stars easily transportable and that one dollar table cloth has lasted 10+ years.

So if your kids have been wanting the stars over their beds but you've been unwilling or unable to accommodate them, now you can!

Or if you are an adult (like me) who just loves looking at the stars you can have them every night, minus the threat of a raccoon or skunk joining you in your sleeping bag!

One Hat, Four Looks

Last round of Iron Craft was about making something all of mostly from the Dollar Store.

I made and submitted the After Bath Wrap

But I didn't stop there.

I also dressed up a hat I got at the dollar store.

Some supplies were dollar store, many of the extras were not dollar store (which is why this was secondary to the bath wrap).

With some fabric, lace, buttons and velcro I turned a plain hat into a multi-look hat.

This would be really great for traveling since with just a little space you can have four different hats!

For one look I wrapped ribbon around the brim of the hat then made a fabric flower for where the ribbon crossed and used a button for the center of the flower.

This is made with one long strip of fabric and a straight stitch that is then gathered creating a circle.

For the second look I made a four petal fabric flower with a button center.

This flower is created by cutting out circles, folding them over and sewing the ends together.

Third look is lace bunched around in a circle with a red ribbon bow center.

Last look has sheer and satin ribbon into a large bow with a fake flower and pearl bead in the center.

The hat has a soft piece of velcro attached to the brim. Each decoration has a rough piece of velcro attached to the back of it.

The end result is easily removed decorations that wont destroy the hat or fall off easily. And the hat can look fun and beach ready or elegant and nice!

Or take the easy way!

 

After Bath Wrap

This round of Iron Craft is all about the Dollar Store.

The goal was to make something using all or mostly things bought at the dollar store.

I've already made many crafts that fit that criteria that I could revisit, but of course as much as possible want to try something new.

I'm actually in the process of making a second craft that falls within those guidelines but this one was my main goal.

I decided to make an after bath wrap for babies/toddlers.

 When I went to the Dollar Tree I found they have micro-fiber cloths. I bought two that measured 16 inches by 19 inches. Other then that all you need is a wash cloth and some thread (both of which can also be found at dollar stores). Maybe a bit of felt if you want some decoration.

I started by cutting about 2 and 1/2 inches off the long side of both micro-fiber cloths.

 Then I matched the two edges I just created and sewed the two cloths together.

Next I sewed the two strips together at the short ends and matched the seams up with the seam of the two larger cloths.

I pinned the thin strips down to create ruffles and sewed them down.

For the hood I used a wash cloth and matched the center of it to the seam of the micro-fiber cloths and sewed across.

At the top of the wash cloth I sewed the ends together then pressed the excess down and sewed again so that they didn't stick out.

To add a little extra cute I hand sewed on a felt cut out of a bathtub, some bubbles and a rubber ducky.

The micro-fiber is extra soft so you can wrap up your baby in a soft towel to dry off with!