I had so much fun making this cute Easter centerpiece craft! Using all materials that I bought at Dollar Tree, I was able to put this together very quickly.
My mom, sister, daughter and I decided to have some fun one day at the cabin. We had a friendly competition to make a craft item using only things purchased at Dollar Tree. This was my project!
Variations
I love how cute and clever this is. I’ve seen variations of the wheelbarrow idea, but I haven’t seen anyone else use trowels for handles. The other projects I’ve seen have used anything from dowels to paint stir sticks for handles. I like the look of the trowels but if I was more adventurous I would probably remove the spade (the shovel part). I’m not sure how I would attach it then. I really need to learn to weld. Ha ha ha!
I used hot glue to attach the base, handles and planter. However, my husband recommended using a bit better glue or adhesive such as JB Weld. But, I’m not sure I even care if it stays together longer than Easter dinner!
I’ve also seen people use different things as bases. For example, I’ve seen them done with mason jar lids as the wheel. It was very cute, but I didn’t find mason jar lids at Dollar Tree so I couldn’t use that for our little game. Of course, you can do whatever you’d like!
Materials List
Everything was purchased at Dollar Tree, for $1 each.
- 2 garden trowels (small shovels) for handles
- 1 Fluers & Jardin (Flower & Garden) planter
- 2 shelf hangers found in garden section for base/wheel look
- 1 bath poof of whatever those are called, unraveled for a whimsical base
- 1 floral block (green foam thing)
- 1 Easter Lily fake plant
- 1 Greenery fake plant
- 1 pack of fake floral moss
- 1 set of candy carrots (I got the ones shown in first picture above, but you could use either)
- 1 stuffed bunny rabbit plush
- Total: $12 or less
Instructions
- Place floral block inside planter
- Cover with moss (optional) and greenery, arranging as you like.
- Insert Easter Lily (either into foam block or alongside it, whatever looks best!
- Insert carrots (I used two) into foam block. I had to press really hard and kind of screw them into place.
- Write “Carrots” on one or two of the chalkboard signs and place in floral block.
- Put bunny into planter so his butt is sticking out.
- Steps 8 and 9 kind of happen simultaneously and you need some coordination to get it just right. You might want to ask someone to help you, because two hands aren’t quite enough!
- Attach the two shelf brackets to bottom of planter with rounded parts close together on one end and the other end spaced apart as wide as the planter. In other words, kind of make a triangle with brackets rather than set them close together.
- Attach two garden trowels to the shelf brackets and then to the planter.
Conclusion
As I said before, I used hot glue and it did not hold up. Then, I tried velcro to attach the shelf bracket to the trowels and planter. It sort of worked but really isn’t strong enough. I was trying so hard to use only Dollar Tree materials that I might have sold myself short. Something stronger like Loctite or JB Weld would probably work much better.
They had different color trowels, so if you’re not wild about the green you could choose something else. They also had pink bunnies instead. I liked these bunnies because the tail was so cute. The other plush toys they had were different and not quite as good for a nice bunny butt effect.
