About Coastal Creators

DIY Dollar Store Halloween Decoration Ideas

Decorate for Halloween on a budget with these Dollar Store Halloween decor ideas. You can get supplies to make all of these Halloween craft decor projects from your local Dollar Store. We love Dollar Tree. They have the best supplies and always the freshest ideas. If you don’t have a Dollar Tree near you, not to worry, you can get most of the items you need to make budget Halloween decorations at many dollar stores.

Get inspired by these creepy, scary and just fun Halloween decoration ideas from popular bloggers around the web. Most of these crafts are quick and easy and can be made in under one hour. You won’t believe how professional your results will be and your friends will think you bought everything from Homegoods.

Halloween Decoration Supplies

You will need to have basic craft supplies on hand to make these Halloween decorations. Here are some we suggest.

plastic skull
Halloween-themed ribbon and fabrics
acrylic paints and paint brushes
gold and silver metallic paints
picture frames
cheesecloth
balloons
liquid starch
plastic crows, bats, bug, spiders
Mod Podge, twine and raffia
pumpkin bucket
glue, scissors and a craft knife
hot glue gun and glue sticks
candle holders and vases

Dollar Store Halloween Decor Ideas

Spiderweb Halloween Paper Lanterns

Houseful of Handmade

Free PDF Pattern

This Halloween craft requires the use of a Cricut or other paper cutting machine. You can get the flameless candles at most dollar stores. You will also need some black paint. Such a genius idea!

Homegoods Reproduction Skull Candle Holder

Endlessly Inspired

You’ll need some plastic skulls, 2 Terra Cotta saucers, black paint and a glue gun to complete this project. In just a few minutes you will have a skull candle holder that your friends will swear you bought at Homegoods.

Bleeding Halloween Candles using Crayons

The Krazy Coupon Lady

If you don’t have a fancy spiderweb candle to add to your skull candle holder, you can just make a creepy candle by using a plain dollar store candle and a crayon. Melt the crayon over and around the edge of the candle to give it a creepy look. You could use red for blood or black and grey crayons for a dark and sinister look.

Spooky Spider Web in a Mason Jar

This craft is so easy and quick you will want to get the kids involved. All you need is some cotton, plastic spider, Mason jar, and a battery-operated light. Pull the cotton until it looks like a web, insert the candle in the bottom and place a plastic spider close to the outer edge of the jar and you’re done. As an alternative, you could fill the jar with a little dish soap and plastic eyeballs.

Skeleton Hands Halloween DIY Wreath

Tried and True

To create this skeleton Halloween wreath you will need plastic skeleton hands, silver spray paint and a chalkboard for the center. If you can’t find a chalkboard at your local dollar store you could substitute cardboard and black paper. Draw a design on the black paper. Or peruse the greeting card aisle and you may find a Halloween greeting card that you cloud use as the design.

DIY Skeleton Candy Dish

Four Front Doors

This DIY Skeleton candy dish require a plastic skeleton, black acrylic paint, silver metallic paint, glass dish, and glass candle holder. If your local dollar store doesn’t have a glass dish or glass candle holder you could try your local Goodwill shop to find a used one.

Cheesecloth Halloween Ghosts

Town N Country Living

These Halloween ghost are easy to make and the kids will want to help. You will need balloons, cheesecloth, liquid starch, black felt, scissors, and a hot glue gun.

Painted Mummy Mason Jars

It All Started with Paint

These painted mummy Mason jars are a unique decoration for your Halloween decor and they are easy to make. You’ll need Mason jars which you should be able to get at your local dollar store, gold, white, and black paint, rubber bands, and bat cardboard cutouts.

The secret word is scary.

Dollar Store Picture Frame Halloween Lantern

Moe Than a Mom of Three

You can make the cheapest of lanterns just using 4 Dollar store picture frames. Remove the backing and glass. Hot glue 4 picture frames together to form a cube. You could leave it at this point and fill it with pumpkins and skulls.

Love to Frugal

To create a roof for the lantern, take a fifth picture frame apart. You may need to use a saw to create the angled (mitered) corners. Glue the individual pieces together to create the roof of the lantern. Now you have a cheap lantern that looks great for Halloween decorations.

If you want to go even further, take a shower curtain ring or regular curtain ring or even a key ring and put a piece of wire or string around it. Glue the string or push the wire down inside the lantern at the top peak. Use a glue gun to secure it in place. Or, you could use heavy twine or rope to create a handle.

You may want to paint the lantern black and add a bit of silver paint to give it a distressed and aged finish. If you are going to use your lantern for another holiday or to decorate at another time of year, you may want to consider what color would work well for other occasions and be more versatile. A black lantern with a bit of gold or bronze dry-brushed over the black may be more versatile.

Fanged Vampire Pumpkins

Martha Stewart

Free Mouth Template

You can use a small real pumpkin or get a small plastic pumpkin from the dollar store for this project. You will need plastic vampire teeth that you can easily find at the dollar store. The eyes are red map tacks but you could use anything that is red – a dot of paint, a piece of red hot candy, a regular straight pin with a red head.

Lay the template on the pumpkin, trace an outline and cut out with a serrated knife or hand saw. Wedge the teeth into the pumpkin.

Build a Backyard Planter Bench (Free Plans)

We have a patio outside our kitchen and have been wanting to put a planter bench there for a long time but didn’t want to spend the money to buy a good quality planter. Good quality planter benches can run upwards of $1,000. Yes, you can get a planter bench for $100 that is made out of plastic but we wanted a solid wood planter bench. And yes, you can buy wood planter benches that might cost around $400 to $500 but we wanted a triple planters with 2 benches and weren’t ready to shell out $1,000! So when this happens, what is there to do about it? Make it yourself of course!

You can build this solid wood, triple planter with 2 benches for just around $200! It’s exquisite and you will be the envy of the neighborhood. Create a gathering place in your backyard. Good quality planter benches can run upwards of $1,000 of this size but you will own a solid piece of outdoor furniture for a fraction of the cost.

Following the MyOutdoorPlans.com Planter Bench Plans, we built this planter with two benches and 3 planters. We painted everything white to make it stand out on the red brick patio. We also have a two-seat bench that is white and two small white concrete planters that are white so the white paint brings the whole space together nicely.

We purchased “Everest” Sedge Grass to put in each of the planters. The variegated green and white leaves look fantastic against the white planters.

Planter Bench Plans

You can follow the bench-making plans at MyOutDoorPlans.com to create these outdoor planter benches.

Materials We Used

(12) 8’ tongue and grove pine boards
(3) 20 inch square pieces of 5/8 inch plywood
(11) 1”x4”x8’ pine boards
(4) 2”x4”x8’ boards
(3) 1”x3”x8’ pine boards
(3) solid wood corner guards
1-1/4” wood screws
2-1/2” wood screws
2-3/4” wood screws
Zinsser BIN cover stain
KILZ White primer/sealer paint
Rust-Oleum Marine Coatings Topside paint, semi-gloss

We used Zinsser BIN cover stain because we used knotty pine. Zinsser’s covers the knots and doesn’t allow them to bleed through the paint. The painting process is probably the longest process in this whole project because we used three paints – primer, Zinsser layer and 2 coats of Rust-Oleum.

It took just about one week working part-time to create one bench and two planters.

After we finished this project, we built a fire pit to put in the center of the patio. This fire pit only took about one hour to create. We have full written instructions to build your own fire pit on a companion video on our YouTube channel.

Build a Backyard Fire Pit in One Hour

It’s easy to build a backyard fire pit for fun Fall nights and hours of Smore’s enjoyment. We built our patio fire pit in just about a hour. You can buy most of the supplies you need at your local hardware store (Ace, Lowe’s, Home Depot). The supplies list is minimal and you won’t need many tools. Building a fire pit should only take you about an hour (or maybe two) to complete so it’s a quick project even beginner DIYers can complete.

Safety First! You will want to make sure your fire pit is not going to be located under any low-hanging trees. Safety is always key when setting up your fire pit.

Your first step is to decide the best spot to place your fire pit. Because you will be using Flagstone wall blocks that are heavy, you won’t be moving your fire pit anytime soon. You will want to find a permanent area to build your fire pit. Will you build in the ground or above ground? We constructed our fire pit on our patio.

Fire Pit Supplies List

If you want to build our exact fire pit, here are the supplies we used. Our fire pit measures 18 inches in diameter by 12 inches in height.

(39) Mini Flagstone Allegheny Retaining Wall Landscaping Blocks
LOCTITE Pl500 Landscape Block Adhesive Off-White Landscape Construction Adhesive
(3) Holland Red/Charcoal Concrete Pavers (bricks)
Galvanized Metal Tub
Metal Grate
Heavy duty steel file
Hammer
Concrete/Brick Chisel

About the Galvanized Tub: You can buy a galvanized metal tub from Tractor Supply, Amazon, Lowes, or even Target stores. You can substitute a galvanized tub for an actual fire ring that has been specifically designed for DIY fire pits. Fire rings are often quite large though and since we wanted to keep our fire pit smaller, we went with the galvanized metal tub.

About the Metal Grate: We had on hand an old single burner from a propane stove that we used for our metal grate. You will probably want a raised metal grate of some sort to stack the wood on to keep it from the bottom of the tub. You could use an grate from an old grill, a portable camp fire grill, or a raised fire grate. Check out the free section on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or even your local Goodwill store and you may find something that can be used and it will save you money.

About the Retaining Wall Blocks: we used mini Flagstone Allegheny Retaining Wall Blocks to put around the galvanized tub. This created the wall for our fire pit. The common size of these blocks is 3-in x 8-in and the actual size is 3-in x 8.2-in.

Determine the Number of Landscaping Blocks Needed

To determine the number of landscaping blocks you will need to make a circular fire pit, just multiple the desired diameter by 3.14 then divide by the shortest length of the block. For the fire pit pictured, the greatest diameter was 18 inches at the top of the galvanized tub. So, 18 times 3.14 equal 56.52; 56.52 divided by 6 (which was the shortest length for the trapezoid block used) equal 9.42. If one does not have a predetermined diameter, just buy the number of blocks needed to make a circle close to the size fire pit desired without having to cut any blocks.

If you aren’t good with math equations, you can also “eye” it. You may not buy the exact number of block needed but you can always return or purchase more as needed. We purchased 39 landscaping blocks and had to cut three in half to make them fit.

Adjusting the Landscaping Blocks to Fit Properly

You may have to cut a few of your landscaping blocks to fit properly. In our fire pit we had to cut several blocks as shown in the photos. To cut a landscaping block, draw a line where it needs to be cut and then score that line using either a concrete/brick chisel; a heavy duty file; or, for more accurate cuts, a circular saw with a concrete blade. Once the block is scored, place the chisel on the score line and strike it with a hammer until the block splits.

Fire Pit Drainage

It is a good idea to drill a few holes in the bottom of the galvanized tub for drainage. You don’t want rain water collecting in the bottom of your fire pit without any place to go.

Assembling the Fire Pit

After obtaining the number of landscaping blocks needed, it is time to assemble the fire pit.

Place three concrete pavers (bricks) in the center of the area where you will construct the fire pit. The galvanized tub will sit on these pavers for support and ventilation once the fire pit is complete.

Place the galvanized tub upside down over-top of the pavers (bricks). By placing the tub upside down, you ensure that the first layer is the widest and will accommodate the largest widest of the tub when it is turned upright.

Lay the first row of blocks in the desired pattern.

Apply Landscape Construction Adhesive to the top of each block and then add the second layer of blocks. Continue these steps until the desire height is reached.

Place the metal grate inside, stack the wood and your fire pit is almost ready for use. We do suggest at that you give the Landscape Construction Adhesive 24 hours to completely dry.

Who will you share your fire pit with?

Face Mask Storage Pouch to Make and Sell

Here’s a fun project you can make and sell. I will teach you how to make a face mask storage pouch that you can sell on Etsy, your own website, on Facebook, Instagram and in local shops where you live. With so many people are sewing face masks so why not sew a storage pouch to go with the face masks you make. (See how to make a 3D kids face mask)

You will need a variety of supplies and fabric on hand to make these face mask storage pouches. You don’t need a lot of fabric. You could use coordinating fabric from the face masks you are already making.

Note: this sewing project assumes you know the basics of sewing. I am not teaching how to sew, just how to make this specific project.

Alternative Uses

These face mask storage pouches can be used for other things as well. We may not be making and selling face masks in the future but you could still make these little pouches and sell them for other uses. Just change the wording on the package and voila, you have a completely new product. A lot of times, the way you market a single product makes all the difference.

Since these pouches have a swivel hook added on one side, they can easily hook on the outside of a backpack or a purse handle. They could be hooked inside of a purse or tote bag as well. Here are some things you could store inside of these pouches besides a face mask.

Tampon or Feminine care pads
Hand sanitizer and/or individual wipes
Coin and bills (lunch money for kids?)
Gum and mints

You could even add a gift card and give the whole thing as a gift. The recipient gets a cute little pouch to use for various reasons plus a gift card or cash for shopping.

Supplies List

Cotton fabric
Thread
Pellon fusible Fleece 987F (see alternative below)
3/4″ swivel hook with lobster claw
Plastic snaps
KAM Snap Pliers tool
Awl (comes with KAM Snap Tool)
1/4″ presser foot (optional)
Point Turner (optional)

Instead of the Pellon fusible Fleece you could use a lightweight interfacing. I like the Pellon Fleece because it makes my pouch feel more professional. You definitely need some type of interfacing to give this pouch some body and form. I use fusible because it keeps it in place and makes it much easier to sew.

Sewing Instructions

1. Cut the inside fabric and the outside fabric 4-1/2″ wide x 11-1/2″ long.

2. Cut the Pellon Fusible Fleece 3-3/4″ wide x 10-3/4″ long.

3. Cut the strap fabric piece 2″ wide x 3-1/4″ long.

4. Position the fusible fleece on the wrong side of the inside fabric. Because the fleece (or interfacing) is slightly smaller you will have an approximate 1/4″ space, or should have, all the way around. I do this so it won’t get caught when sewing the seam and when you turn it isn’t too bulky. Iron the fleece in place.

5. Put the two fabric pieces, rights sides together, and sew a 1/4″ seam all around, leaving a 3″ gap for turning. I like to make the gap on one of the long sides and not on the short side. Make sure to back-stitch when you start, finish and also at all 4 corners (before and after each corner).

Tip: Make sure you are careful to sew a straight seam. This makes a difference in how the corners look. The corners need to be perfectly straight so they line up when you fold the piece. You want to make sure the corners do not angle out at all. I use a 1/4″ presser foot that helps me get that perfectly straight sewing line.

6. Trim the corners to get rid of the excess fabric, being careful not to cut too close to the sewing.

7. Turn the piece, poke out the corners with a Point Turner and iron flat. You can even use a chopstick if you have it. Just make sure not to use something with a sharp point to poke out the corners or you could blow them out.

When ironing you will turn under the fabric at the opening. Make sure you iron this as straight as you can. Because, once again you want all sides to match up when you fold the piece to make the pouch.

8. Take note of the direction of the design on the fabric. Fold your pouch with inside fabric touching to see what it will look like when it is closed. Top-stitch 1/8″ from the edge on the short side that will be the side you see when you open the pouch.

9. Fold one end up until it measures 4″ and iron. Fold the top flap down and iron. Your pouch should measure 4″ x 4″ if you have it folded correctly.

10. With the pouch still folded, measure the flap to find the center from the sides and then about 1″ up from the edge. Place your hand in between the flap + front layer and the bottom layer so the awl won’t pierce through the back. Using the awl, poke a hold through the top layer and front layer.

11. Using your KAM Snap tool, attach the female part of the plastic snap to front layer only. You will add the male snap component after you finish sewing.

We have a handy KAM Snap tool desktop stand pattern with instructions that you can build using scrap wood.

12. Fold the strap piece in half on the long side. Open it and fold one edge to the center and then the other edge to the center. Then fold over again and sew 1/8″ where the edges meet. You could back-stitch at the beginning and the end but this piece will get sewn inside of the pouch so this is optional.

13. Slide the strap into the swivel hook and make the edges touch together.

14. Place the strap with the swivel hook inside the pouch so only about 1/2″ is sticking out. You will place it about 1/4″ from the top-stitched edge. Pin or hold in place for sewing.

15. Starting about 1/4″ down from the edge, top-stitch 1/8″ from the edge, making sure the strap with swivel hook stays positioned straight. Sew to the bottom corner and back-stitch.

16. Pick up your presser foot and raise the needle, pull the piece out a bit, turn and start working from the other bottom corner. You will be sewing from opposite bottom corner all the way around until you meet up with where you started sewing. Make sure to back-stitch where the top-stitched edge meets on both side.

17. Clip the threads.

18. Now you will attach the male part of the plastic snap to the flap. Fold the flap over and use your awl again to make sure the hole you created in step #10 is still in the correct position. When you push the awl through the hole you should be able to touch the female plastic snap part. If it does not touch, just add another hole until it does. Using your KAM Snap Tool, add the male plastic snap to the flap.

Done! If all goes well you should have a completed face mask storage pouch.

How to Package

If you are going to sell these face mask storage pouches you will want to package them properly to make them look professional. Packaging can be the reason why one product sells and the same product from another seller does not sell. It’s all in the presentation. If it isn’t appealing people won’t want to buy it. The same goes for photos online. A photo can make or break a product sell.

Of course, packaging works better in person so if you are selling these online you may not want to package them in this manner. However, everything I sell whether it be online or in-person gets packaged the same because ultimately it is all about my business image. I want people to know they received a quality item and packaging is a big part of that.

Since I do not want to pay very much for packaging or buy expensive headers card, I make my own with just cardstock and my HP laser printer. Yes, I could add a graphic or make them glossy or in color but the customer is going to take one look at it and throw the packaging away as soon as they open it. Why spend the money! For this type of product, my simple black and white header card works fine. I have these face mask pouches in a high end gift shop and also in an art studio in my local area and they look perfectly fine with this packaging.

As long as your packaging has the important information on it that’s all you need. Of course, there are a million ways to do something. This is just how I do it. I don’t want to add additional cost to my product because of the packaging.

I tend to sell more wholesale than retail and remember, when selling wholesale what you earn is cut in half because the retailer is getting the other half. That means your packaging needs to be cheap. If you purchase a header card it could cost 50 cent to $1 just for one piece depending on the color and type of cardstock used. The way I make it costs almost nothing for the header card and approximately 11 cent for each bag.

Packaging Supplies

You will need some supplies if you are going to package these face mask storage pouches to sell.

6″ x 6″ Crystal Clear Zip Bags, 2 mil
110 lb. white cardstock
Printer
Stapler
Paper cutter (or scissors)
Scoring board (optional)
hole puncher (optional)

About the Bags: I suggest that you do not use poly bags. They don’t look professional for a product you are trying to sell. Poly bags are fine for a sandwich you add to your child’s lunchbox but not for products. Always use crystal clear “crisp” bags. I buy mine from clearbags.com and they come within a couple of days. They even have a discount for larger quantities. They are VERY reasonably priced. I have been buying bags from them for over 15 years with no problem. They don’t sell all of their sizes on Amazon so you do need to buy from their website.

Free Packaging Template

I design my header cards in a Word program. You are welcome to download, print and use my header card template for free. I am only giving the free header card template to my email subscribers. You will also find a face mask packaging header card in the Template Gallery.

Subscribe below or click here to fill out the form and get access to the file.

My header card is pretty basic and only requires cardstock and a printer to make. You get 3 to one sheet. Once you print out the header card you will need to cut the cards apart. I use a rotary cutter, mat and clear ruler but you can also use a Paper cutter or even scissors. Just make sure you cut inside of the black lines.

I created a scoring line to show you where to fold the header card. You can try to just fold it on that line or use a scoring board. I just recently purchased a scoring board and I don’t know why I waited so long. It really is a time saver and your lines come out much straighter.

To package you will place your face mask storage pouch in the clear bag, press the air out, and zip it shut. Place the header card over top the zipped edge and position it evenly so no edges of the bag are showing. Staple on both sides of the header card. I do not staple in the center because the corners will flap out. If you are selling at an outdoor craft show in the summer, the card stock will definitely flap out from the humidity so staple on each side.

If you are selling these face mask storage pouches in a shop you may want to put a single hole in the center about 1/2″ down from the edge using a hole punch. This way they can be hung on a display unit.

Paint an Old Outdoor Welcome Mat and Make it New Again!

If your old outdoor Welcome Mat is faded and you are about to throw away, stop right there and grab some paints to give it a face-lift. You won’t believe the transformations you can create with some colorful paints. Painting something old always seems to make it look brand new. If you can’t buy a new door mat, upcycle it and give it new life!

For this project you will need some acrylic paints, paint brushes, and a clear spray sealer or polyacrylic clear sealer to put over the paint once it’s dry. You can use matte or glossy paint depending on the finish you are going for.

Here are some examples of outdoor welcome doormats that have been painted to give them new life to get you inspired to paint yours. Looking at the “before” and then “after” images makes you realize just how much a good coat of paint will do wonders for an old doormat.