When engaging in craft activities, it is important for young children to have adult supervision at ALL times. It is also recommended to use supplies that are suitable for your child’s age. Feel free to modify materials or steps to meet your specific requirements.
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Supplies You Can Buy At Dollar Tree For Our Craft Tutorials
11/18/2022 This post was written before Dollar Tree raised their price to $1.25 per item. The post still is a great way to inspire you to visit your local store and stock up on affordable craft supplies.
Did you know that if I gave you $100 today, you could place nearly 100 items in your shopping basket and use those items to recreate so many craft projects, inspired by our website {well… minus the tax of course!}
On that note, now imagine having one craft idea a day, to entertain your child for the next year, after making that modest investment. Isn’t that crazy?!” I say it time and time again, our tutorials are DO-ABLE and AFFORDABLE. There really is no excuse.
Now down to the real reason for this inspiration post. I’m going to break down just how easy it is to walk into Dollar Tree store and pick up a few “inexpensive” materials, so you can beat the boredom blues in your home today. You won’t break the bank but you WILL definitely make some awesome crafting memories with the kids, with just ONE trip!
Below you will find a few example pictures of what I love to pick up my local store, as well as links to examples on our website of how YOU can in-cooperate them into your crafty adventures. Hopefully you love this Dollar Tree craft supply collection post of dollar store craft ideas that will not only keep your kids busy this summer BUT ALL YEAR LONG!
Happy crafting, my friends! As I always say – please don’t forget to share pictures of your dollar store craft finds and creations! It seriously makes my day when someone tags us, uses our special brand hashtag #gluedtomycrafts or they send me email just thanking me. Make my day! I hope to hear from you soon!
- Clear Contact Paper – we LOVE to use this material in our stained glass tutorials. I’ve also seen people use it as transfer tape on their vinyl Cricut projects.
- Gloves – not only are gloves great to keep your hands clean for certain crafts {think tye-dye or super messy paint projects} but the food safe ones are great for a fun Halloween party favor idea. I also recently took some basic work gloves and turned them into an awesome Father’s Day present.
- Food Coloring – from playdough to slime, these dyes are great to keep on hand to add color.
- Cream of Tartar – again, a staple for your playdough recipes. I also love grabbing salt and cinnamon while I’m looking at the spices.
- Dry Pasta Noodles, Oatmeal, Popcorn Kernels and Beans – a great addition to make fun textures on your crafts. I’m sure when you were little, you used either/or on your art projects. Turkeys are the first thing that come to mind!
- Dry Rice – you can color it with kool-aid for sensory bins or use the uncooked rice for noisemakers.
- Long Spaghetti Noodles – cook it up and make a spaghetti & meatball themed sensory bin for your toddler.
- Plastic Sunglasses – when they get scratched up, you can make a creative snowman ornament out of it!
- White Coffee Filters – these inexpensive coffee filters are great to make peacocks, watermelon slices and even boats.
- Cupcake Liners – one my favorite craft supplies that comes in an array of colors and prints. I have a great cupcake liner roundup with over 50 ideas on how to incorporate them into your projects. My personal favorite is my pool float friends.
- Empty Tin Cans – enjoy the insides and then recycle the empty cans to make apple and bunny decorations.
- Sandwich Baggies – from popcorn sheep to crinkle paper friends, this is a great craft supply that goes beyond sandwiches!
- Kool-Aid Packets or Powdered Drink Packets – from sidewalk chalk to creative playdough recipes, a few packs of these are great to keep on hand!
- Popped Popcorn – whether you pop it yourself or grab a pre-popped bag, popcorn can be used to make this creative “POPPED” cherry blossom artwork within minutes.
- Socks – they are great for gifting AND making sock puppets with.
- Sponges – from kitchen sponges to the loofahs in the bath aisle, we love using sponges as stamps and paint brushes in our crafts! I also love making sponge balls during the summer months.
- Toothbrushes – whether old or new, toothbrushes can become paint brushes in DIY liquid chalk. We have also crafted with toothpicks in the past!
- Fly Swatters – it’s an unusual craft supply but toddlers will love “swatting” paint on large sheets of paper, outside this summer.
- Shaving Cream – use this material to make PUFFY PAINT with school glue.
- White Cotton Balls – from ghosts to snowmen, you can’t go wrong with these!
- Circle Cotton Pads – the shape of these are great for snowmen and even baby chicks. It’s like working with felt but without the price tag. I like adding a touch paint on top to make them whatever color we need.
- Q-Tips – perfect to dip in paint and “dot” on your crafts. My personal favorite tutorial using this technique is our “Cotton Swap Painted Lavender” tutorial.
- Band-aids – for whatever reason kids LOVE peeling and sticking band-aids on everything but a boo boo. So if your child fits that description, you will want to check out our “get well” cards tutorial.
- Hair Ties – bet you didn’t see this one coming! I actually in-cooperated a few into a busy bag idea a few years ago AND I used the tiny black rubber ones for a Halloween party favor idea last year.
- Glycerin – usually found in the hygiene/medical aisle, this is great to keep on hand to make your own bubble solution mix. On that note, I highly suggest grabbing some inexpensive dish soap at Dollar Tree as well.
- Baby Wipes – these are usually in the baby aisle. I love keeping a pack on hand for easy cleanup after our doing our craft ideas that involve painted handprints. I usually get as much paint as I can off of little man’s hands and then send him to the sink for extra cleanup. Makeup wipes would work in a pinch too!
- Paper Cups – you can fill them with treats for a birthday party or use them as a starting point for a dog or a lobster.
- Paper Bowls – I never thought I would be able to material this material because of the “dip” in it but then I fell in love with paper bowl unicorn and paper bowl apple crafts.
- Paper Plates – probably the most used material on our website. For the longest time, I was actually known as the “paper plate” queen. Anything in real life that is a circle shape, can be turned into a craft project from a paper plate. I also love using the square ones too. I highly recommend picking up small, large, square and even the fun printed ones for butterflies!
- Plastic and Paper Straws – not only are they great for puppet play but they can be cut down much smaller and turned into various objects with a little hot glue.
- Plastic Forks and Spoons – they aren’t just for eating with! With just a little paint and glue, they become puppets!
- Battery Operated Tealights – we’ve only used these once on our site but they were the perfect addition to our jack-o-lantern luminary craft idea.
- Aluminum Foil – you can ball it up and use it as a fun texture paint brush, use it to sharpen your scissors OR you can use it in your crafts just like you would use paper. We even used it as a cookie sheet cutout last Christmas!
- Wax Paper – when I don’t have contact paper and I’m in a pinch, wax paper with a little school glue is great for stained glass art projects.
- Kitchen Spatula – another important thing to keep on hand for your slime making. I love using a spatula to get everything off the sides of my plastic bowl during the process.
- Potholders – add some fabric painted handprints to them and you have a great gift idea!
- Muffin Tins – not only is a muffin tin great to keep on hand to hold small craft supplies {like sequins, rhinestones etc} but it’s the perfect “paint holder” for our sidewalk chalk recipe.
- Plastic Silicon Muffin Cups – I love using them for our smashin’ ice activity.
- Checked Print Paper – this print reminded me of a picnic basket and that’s how our thumbprint ant project was born.
- Brown Paper Bags – you probably know the drill. Brown paper bags equals puppets. So many different ways to make one but my favorite {and most popular on our site} is our superhero version.
- Wood Clothespins – often found in the laundry aisle, we love making butterflies, ballerinas and reindeers out of them.
- Sunflowers Seeds – Yes, this salty treat can be used for the center of SUNFLOWER crafts!
- This is going to be a collection statement – I can’t stress it enough. Yes Dollar Tree has many “unsuspecting” craft materials {like I list throughout this post} but they also have a great assortment of actual crafting supplies you would typically find at a Michael’s store or Hobby Lobby, FOR HALF THE PRICE!
- I promise you, they are the same quality so if you see them, grab them! I also like hitting up their seasonal section during Halloween and Christmas for these types of materials.
- Going off the above statement, you can find things like good quality crayons, school glue, glue sticks, yarn, blank canvases, ribbon, finger paints, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, glitter, glitter glue, wiggle eyes, pom poms, buttons, loose craft feathers and so much more! I could honestly list 20-30 ideas just right here! Then you can make things like puppets, wreaths or even small gifts!
- Stickers and pretty washi tape – another great craft hack if you are looking to stay on budget {especially with young kids!} I love picking up random stickers for my son to enjoy, so you can just put them on some colored paper and call it “artwork.” I highly encourage you one day just to buy a pack of $1 stickers, lay them out with some paper and crayons & see what your child comes up with.
- A simple single hole paper punch – I love this tool for making colored paper confetti from paper scraps, that we later use in our crafts. Take for example our All The Fish In The Sea and Paper Confetti Hydrangea posts.
- Hand-Held Office Stapler – when glue can’t get the job done, a stapler comes in handy!
- Index Cards – when in a pinch, colored index cards are great for substituting cardstock paper. You can cut them, fold them etc.
- Noisemakers – for New Year’s we used noisemakers as paint brushes. But then toddler loved it!
- Plastic Eggs – when the Easter stuff comes out, I ALWAYS grab a pack or two of their plastic eggs. They make for a quick matching game and you can even recycle them into superheroes & birds. One year they even had carrot shaped one that I used for a garden set for my son.
- Colored Paper Bags – just like the brown lunch sacks I mentioned earlier, these items can be used for puppet making but you can skip the craft paint since they are already colored.
- Paper Napkins – would you guess that I use these for making ballerina dresses or winter tree art?
- Reindeer Moss – perfect addition to add to your fairy houses or gardens.
- Rocks and Gemstones – I love painting these and adding them to our garden.
- Marbles – these are usually right there where the decorative rocks are for floral arrangements. Those rounded pieces can be used to make creative marbled art within minutes.
- Aluminum Pans – another great thing to keep on hand for the marble art projects I mentioned above {especially if you don’t have a large empty box on hand!}
- Tissue Paper – cut it up and glue it to paper plates for color. This is primarily what I do with it. I love collecting any and all the colors I find!
- Puzzles Sets – let the kids put the puzzle together a few times and then recycle it into monsters and/or a creative “love you to pieces” frame piece.
- Sidewalk Chalk – I’ve recently gotten into sharing chalk art tutorials, where I encourage people to bring the chalk from indoors, into on the kitchen table. Our chalk art peacock actually went viral on Pinterest recently.
- Plastic Beads – not only are they great for basic necklace and bracelet making but if your beads are round, you can upcycle them to make spiderweb artwork in a large box.
- Toy Trinkets – Dollar Tree has a good selection of little plastic trinkets in the party aisle AND toy aisle, that are perfect to mix in your slime creations.
- Playing Cards – from a simple matching game for toddlers to just cutting them up as a recycled item, this is one of those unsuspecting craft supplies. You can also throw a box or two of them in a family game night gift for someone else!
- Water Bottles – enjoy the contents and recycle them later on to make rockets and ladybugs.
- Plastic Containers and Dishware – these items can be decorated with vinyl and/or Sharpie pens.
- Paper Towels and Toilet Rolls – again, use the product but save the cardboard tubes inside. They make for great superheroes, beehives and mermaids.
- Kitchen Sponges – I’ve already hit this item above but I wanted to make sure you saw our sponge painted watermelon and sponge painted pizza cards.
- Cotton Aprons – sometimes you can get lucky and find a good apron in the spring/summer stuff or in the kitchen aisle. These are great for keeping your clothes clean during craft time AND you can make a quick gift like our Vinyl Grilling Apron.
- Computer Paper Packs – although our keepsake printables are pretty awesome on their own, you can easily take our free provided files and spruce them up a bit by printing them on decorative paper instead.
- Construction Paper and Cardstock – it’s pretty obvious of why you need them but with the chalk craft tip I shared earlier, you are going to have tons of fun just off of one pack of paper!
- Paper Envelopes – we LOVE sending happy mail to grandparents far away, so envelopes are a must. We also recently shared our Handprint Fri-Yay idea that in-cooperated a simple red envelope.
- Dot Stickers – these are primarily used at a yard sale for pricing but not for us! I love in-cooperating them into things like mermaid tails.
- Ink Pads – I don’t see them often but every once in awhile I’ll see ink pads in the craft aisle. These come in handy for our thumbprint crafts on our site.
- Picture Frames – in the beginning of Glued To My Crafts, I use to share A LOT of free printables that you could download, print and frame for instant decorations.
- Colored Crinkle Paper – usually these small paper scraps are used for gifting and/or Easter baskets. I recently shared a Crinkle Paper Roundup that takes you outside the traditional. From unicorn hair to bear friends, you might want to bookmark that page!
- Styrofoam – perfect to keep on hand for your plastic flower floral arrangements.
- Decorative Leaves and Flowers – you can’t go wrong with these!
- Brown Kraft Paper – perfect to put on a table for messy craft time OR use it for the Fly Swatter Painting idea I mentioned earlier!
- Erasers – these can be fun to use as place makers on bingo cards or even turn them into stamps! Even the eraser on a pencil is great to dip in paint and make a dotted pattern on paper.
- Bubble Wrap – I’m telling you, one pack will go a LONG way! You just cut a small piece off and use it as a stamp in to make winter trees and cherry blossom art.
- Paper Doilies – you can’t go wrong with grabbing the circular or heart shaped ones. I love keeping them on hand to make custom valentine cards.
- Pool Noodles – not just in the pool but also on the craft table! With adult supervision, you can cut ONE pool noodle into small sections and make things like donuts, unicorns, lobsters, fish etc. Check out my roundup to see what I’m talking about!
- Building Blocks – I bet you didn’t know that Dollar Tree has their own version of plastic building blocks, very much like the Lego brand. Yes, they are complete knockoffs but I’m happy to report they DO fit on the name-brand stuff and you honestly can’t tell the difference when mixed all together. I love using a few bags of the cheap stuff for quick gifts. Especially since I can buy single colors that match a theme {I’ve seen them in white, yellow, red, blue and black at my local store.}
- Spray Bottles – grab some coffee filters, color them with markers and spray them with a little tap water to make the colors “bleed” together. Check out our turkey and peacock tutorials to see what I’m talking about!
- Watering Cans – perfect for a backyard car wash or flower planting play set.
- Plastic Popcorn Box & Tongs – this may seem random but this is a great game idea for toddlers. Throw some cotton ball “popcorn” all over the house and have children pick them up with tongs, to place in their popcorn container. It will work those fine motor skills!
- Party Crepe Streamers – a little goes a long way I love using them to make jellyfish!
- Curling Ribbon – from our paper rockets to our turkey puppet tutorial, this is a FUN one to keep on hand!
- Ribbon – I always keep my eye out for the solid print ones, especially during Christmas time. You can’t go wrong with keeping red, green and brown colored ribbon on hand.
- Balloons – have you seen our Balloon Elephant Cards? It’s a craft idea and a party favor!
- Newspapers – you probably didn’t know this but Dollar Tree keeps newspapers for sale at the front of the store. Once you are done reading it, recycle it and make a koala friend!
- Sandpaper – another unsuspecting craft material. I recently used it in our starfish wishes card tutorial and have plans to share a sand-castle idea in the coming days!
