Repainted Dollar Store Butterflies

I just couldn't leave well enough alone...so I repainted these metal butterflies for my garden!

Before.......................................and after.

I found these metal butterfly stakes at the local Dollar Store and immediately made plans to repaint them for my garden.

I used two colors of spray paint to give me more of a turquoise color to complement our front deck.

Using a fine paint brush I followed the contours of the stamped metal. I added the tiny vein details to each wing then added some white dots. You can see the veins in this close up but not so much when it's outside in the yard. I also added a bit of glitter paint.

Wow! I love the pop of color against the bright green. Notice you can't really see the glitter when it's outside. But in my colorful colorful garden this blue butterfly really holds it own!

And here is the Monarch version of my Dollar Store butterflies. What a fun project this has turned out to be!

DIY Butterfly Wind Chime Dollar Store Crafts

For Mother's Day this year I went shopping for a wind chime for my mom's deck. 

Guess what, you guys? Nice wind chimes can be expensive if 

you want one in a larger size or theme!

Off I went to the Dollar Store. 

I knew there had to be something there I could use to MAKE a pretty 

wind chime that wouldn't break my budget. I bought...

five filigree metal butterflies with colored marble accents. 

The pretty colors seem to be powder coated 

and they are brushed with a coppery paint finish. 

A small silvery wind chime with purple plastic gems with a light tinkling sound.

A hanging planter basket so that I could use the light weight chains.

The hanging planter had 36" of chain, just the amount I needed!

 I grabbed a few things from my stash I thought would be useful but 

in the end didn't use much more than what I'd bought. 

I used some recycled wind chime parts and

 lightweight split rings in the end. 

Easy peasy!

The ring at the top is salvaged from an old metal planter 

and is far heavier than the rest of the components put together. 

It will last for years!

It is 30" long from top to bottom.

Oooh aaah!

Originally I added way more embellishments in the way of beads and 

bangles but it was way too confusing to the eye. So busy.

At least in this case, less is more. 

I dry brushed some copper Patio Paint over all the dark metal areas and it looks great.

                              I could not be happier with the way this wind chime turned out!

This special project for my mom cost less than $10 and a couple of hours of my time, most of that spent hanging things on and taking them off til I was finished. 

The tools I used were a pair of needle nose pliers and a pair of wire cutters. 

Next, I'm thinking of making some driftwood themed wind chimes using 

the bamboo wind chimes from...The Dollar Store!

Stay tuned for that blog post!