How To Make A Dollar Store Bridal Bouquet

 This is me dressed in my white dress ready to play "wedding." I have made my own bouquet using only things I've found at the dollar store. This is actually pretty easy to do if you follow my steps!

 At the dollar store pick out three bunches of flowers in the colors you like. 

Choose some large, some medium and some small. I also bought one bunch of leaves.

Have an adult use wire cutters to clip each flower from the bunch. 

Also clip extra leaves so there is only one left at the top of the stem.

Remove the leaves from the flower stems.

  Tape each flower to the stem so they won't fall off when you've made your bouquet. My smaller flowers have more than one, so I taped each one and also where they join the stem.

Begin by placing your three largest flowers together. (Save your small ones for later.) Tape them tightly close to the top of the stems.

Add three more, tape them in place, and continue until all of your two largest kinds of flowers are complete.

 Use as much tape as you need to make sure they are secure. 

Then you can bend the wire of stems to make them look how you like.

 Take a stem of your small flowers and poke a bunch through the bigger flowers, then pull the stem through the bottom until they are in place. I used two like this on top of my bouquet. Then put the rest of the small flowers around the bottom.

Use more tape to make sure they stay in place. Then add stems of your leaves around the bottom and tape them too. It's hard to see, but I am holding one of the leaves.

Take the stems that are remaining, from the flowers that were removed with the wire cutters. Add them to the stems of the bouquet, to make the handle thicker. Make sure the bottoms are even, then tape them in different places so that they are tight.

 Florists use ribbon to wrap the stems, but I wanted to find something I could get at the dollar store, so I chose pink crepe paper. I also bought my tape at the dollar store.

 To begin, tape the crepe paper close to the top. Wind it tightly but carefully so it 

doesn't tear. Move down the stem until you reach the bottom. 

Cut the crepe paper then fold and tuck the edge inside.

 If you have a pretty pin you can have an adult secure the crepe paper, 

pointing the pin up into the handle. Using two pins looks very pretty.

 If you don't have an adult to help you, or if you don't have a pin, just use tape. 

The picture below shows my two pins.

 Your bouquet is finished, but you may want to bend some of the wire stems to make it look nicer.

 I saved one of my smaller flower pieces to make a grooms boutineer. 

I used some left over leaves and taped them behind the flowers.

Here is my bouquet, ready for the wedding! Also,

doesn't my little brother look cute dressed up to play

my groom?

You can play wedding too, using your own bouquet, dressing up, and if you're lucky, 

you might have a cute brother like mine to play your groom!

Wooden Butterfly Wall Hanging

 This is a picture of how my butterflies turned out.

Be creative and make yours any way you'd like

I will tell you the way I made mine.

 You will need some wooden butterflies. I had three large and one small.

Mine had wires already on them for antenae. If you need to, use your own

wire to create antenae and glue or tape them on. Also, mine had holes

in the tops of the wings. To make holes, have an adult hammer or drill

small holes. You'll also need some different colors of acrylic paint,

some gell glitter, some thin ribbon, a black marker and a paint brush.

 Place some paper underneath before beginning so you

can keep your table clean. I painted my first butterfly yellow.

 I drew a light pencil circle in the center of the butterfly,

then I squeezed dots of glitter gel onto all four corners.

With my paintbrush I spread the glitter around the wings.

 I painted the small butterfly pink. When they were both dry

I glued the pink butterfly on top.

On the other two butterflies I drew a curved line to guide me,

since I wanted to paint them two different colors.

 Paint the bottom of one and the top of the other one color.

I used light green.

 Paint the rest another color. I painted mine blue.

 For an easy way to put different sizes of paint dots

on your butterflies to decorate them, find things around

your house like the eraser of a pencil, toothpicks,

a glue stick, a wooden spoon and the end of your paint brush.

 This is where your own creativity comes in. 

I used some big dots, some medium, some tiny,

and I painted some parts of the decorations with my brush.

I also drew on my butterflies with the black marker.

 I used the glitter for more decoration. I used it as the body of one

butterfly and the marker for the others.

Let the paint and glitter dry. I left mine overnight.

Cut two pieces of ribbon about 2 inches long. Tie this between

the three butterflies. Be sure to make knots. Cut another

piece of ribbon about 14 inches. Tie this from one end to the other.

 You can see the way I pinned mine to hang them up.

HOW TO MAKE A FUN AND UNIQUE FRIENDSHIP BRACELET

I am going to show you how to make a fun friendship bracelet using a cardboard octagon and yarn.

 Start by using box cardboard. Cut a square that is about 3 ¼ X 3 ¼ inches in size. Cut each corner so that it makes an octagon. On each of the eight sides cut a slit about ½ inch. Poke a hole in the middle using something sharp. It would be smart to have an adult do all of the cutting for you.

 Cut seven pieces of yarn about one yard long. You can use seven different colors of yarn. For this one I used pink variegated yarn.

Hold the strings in your hand and make sure all the tops are even. Tie a knot about one inch away from the top.

Using a pencil poke the knot through the hole in the center of the octagon.

On the other side of the octagon separate the strings into seven of the slots. (You will be using the other slot when braiding the yarn.)

Notice me holding the yarn that is three strings away from the empty slot. You will begin braiding by using this string.

Take that string to cross over the other two, putting it into the empty slot. Continue doing this using the third string over, then placing that in the empty slot.

The braid will begin to appear underneath the octagon where the knot is. Do not pull on the braid.

Continue your braid until it is the length you want your bracelet to be. When I made my multi-colored one it was about twelve inches long, which wraps around my wrist twice. This cute pink one is about eighteen inches long, which wraps around my arm three times.

 

Pull each string out of the slots. 

Pull your braid out of the octagon. 

At the end of the braid, tie another knot.

  

 

Cut the remaining ends so 

that there is about one inch after the knot.

 Wrap your bracelet around your arm then tie or tuck the knots to secure them. You will have yourself a very cute bracelet!