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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Dollar Tree Delight!

When I finished grocery shopping this morning, the Dollar Tree store was just opening.  Let the groceries melt...

A couple of weeks ago, somebody on one of the forums mentioned that the Dollar Tree in their area had some tiny glass bottles full of sparkles and glitter for nail polish.  Eight for a dollar!

I went over there the day after I heard it and nothing.  Not all Dollar Trees get the same merchandise, as I understand it.

Anyway, I decided to take another look.  Jackpot!!! 

See the eight tiny bottles that Tessie is holding?  One Dollar!!!

They are real glass.  The stoppers leave something to be desired, but those can easily be replaced. 

An extra added bonus?  A lot of the contents are usable for minis!  How cool is that?

You may be asking, why the photo of four watches at the top?

I also found a hanging rack of Sunbeam brand batteries.  The watch batteries that I usually pay about $5.00 for three on a card at Walmart/Kmart are the same thing....I got 4 for a dollar!.  I am not sure how long they will last, but I will let you know.  At least all of them are running right now.


OK.  I know you want a report on the booth.  I spent yesterday afternoon making fancy ropes and tassels to match...I think that I may have nearly enough now. 

For some reason the watermelon red rayon photographs as pink.  It's not.  Maybe it's just because I photographed it against the black surface, in the sun.

I think that I am rayon-ed out now. 

You can do the same rope trim with embroidery floss.  All you have to do is tie two colors together at one end.  Then, with the knot in the middle just keep twisting the thread in one direction until it wants to fold back on itself and twist. If you grasp the knot in one hand and the two twisted ends in the other, it will automatically form the ropes that you see in the photo.

If you are going for speed, you can tie one end to one beater of your electric mixer.  Don't put two beaters in.  Hold one end or tie it to a door knob.  With the other end tied to the beater, turn the mixer on LOW!  Almost instant gratification that way. 

I did it by hand yesterday.  I was in the mood.

The piece that Tessie is tangling with is just plain old crochet chain, done with a #0 metal crochet hook.

I am now going to join Tessie in gloating over my find of bottles.  You wouldn't believe the array of things inside.  Some are tiny flat sequins of various shapes.  Others are fine glitter.  Some are itsy bitsy hole less beads.  I have a feeling that some are going to find their way into the fortune telling booth...

See you tomorrow.

16 comments:

Phyllisa said...

Hi Casey. So far I have filled my tiny glass jars with bath salts,
potpourri and shells. Next I want to
use them as kitchen canisters, filled with the real thing. As for the tops, I shall cut off the
top piece and glue in the rest.
Phyllisa

Caseymini said...

Phyllisa, I am thinking that they would look good with either jewelry findings or beads glued to the top. Lots of possibilities.

Rhissanna said...

I love the Dollar Tree! I'm on first name terms with the manager at our local one. (Hi there, Roy!) I'll see if they have those bottles. At 8 for a dollar, that's a lot of 'Drink Me' bottles for an Alice doll.

Lucille said...

A Dollar Tree opened up here recently. I must go in and see about those little bottles. They're so cute. Love your work on the cage!

Kathi said...

Thanks for the tip about the bottles. Hope my Dollar Tree has them. I see some tiny red apples in one bottle! :)

Blake said...

Ahhhh! I love dollar store finds! I will have to go take a look as well!

Marilyn D. said...

Casey: Here in Eastern Canada we have "Dollarama". They had the tiny no-hole beads in tiny jars as well but mine all have little cork stoppers. Perfect for mini jars. I've used some of the little beads to make flower stalks for 1/4" scenes. I just took short lengths of thin green florist wire, dipped the ends in glue and rolled them into a small amount of purple beads and also fuschia beads. They look like little delphiniums. I then took some green florist tape, folded a length in half and tugged on it so it stick to itself, fringed it then wound it around the bottom of the wire. I curled the ends of the fringe a bit with my fingers before wrapping. They look like strappy little leaf bunches on the bottom of the flowers. Quite effective after I glued them into little wooden beads that I painted for flower pots.

mcddiss said...

esos relojes son una verdadera ganga y seguro que encontraras como aprovecharlos al maximo ,esos botecitos yo ya los conocia ,aqui tambien los tenemos hace tiempo y van muy bien para rellenar con diversas cosas

besitos

Mari

Caseymini said...

Mari, I didn't get the watches there. I only got the batteries. Four for a dollar. The watches are some that I made beaded bands for, or am about to make a beaded band for. I do wish that the dollar store had things like that for a dollar! Then I wouldn't have to spend all that time beading!

Fabiola said...

I also found these glass jars. Perfect for minis.
Bye Faby

Daydreamer said...

Thanks for the tip Casey! I rushed right over and sure enough they still had a good supply.... they now have considerably less... ! :)

dalesdreams said...

The Dollar Tree is a good thing! :)

Unknown said...

What section of Dollar Tree are they in? I may get there today Tues. & also hit the thrift store. Love your blog. Motivates me, thank you. Kathy C fr ILLinois

Caseymini said...

Kathy, the bottles were in the nail polish section, on little pink cards of eight bottles. Good luck.

SharonS said...

I've been to four Dollar Tree stores. ONE store had ONE card. Well, it's better than NO cards. The other three stores said they'd never had any little bottles of manicure decorations. But I also found a bag of potpourri that had lot's of elusive "cacti" pieces at the thrift store. Just always have to be on the look-out for parts and pieces...

miniannalee said...

I found these same bottles at my dollar tree earlier in the year. the ones i found were full of micro beads. I went back to get more the next week and they were all gone... I shopped at 5 different stores and couldn't find more and had all but given up when my store got another shipment in. I bought all of them so i've got hundreds of bottles now.. LOL. I had to buy them all I couldn't pass them up for the price. some had micro beads, glitter and other strange sparkles.. I organized them all and dumped all like stuff together into tiny ziploc baggies so i could use the bottles for anything I want. I was actually in the process of moving to my new house when I bought the 20 packages so I haven't done anything with the bottles yet.