Thread: Dollar Tree / Big Lots 2011 items

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need to buy black spray paint for my pink flamingos. Although I have found out where I live they arent selling any yet... But I found mine in Canton, Ohio when I was visiting for the night. I hate that not all DT sells everything at the same time.

Just got my email newsletter with the advanced sales flyer from BIG LOTS! for 6/5-6/11 the other day and it has the Decorative Lawn Fencing on sale for $5 a pack (reg. $6-8, usually 4 to 8 sections per pack depending on the design). In the past, the price has gone back up after this Springtime sale.

For those new to the forum, there are quite a number of HF haunt fences that have been built using the Big Lots fencing (kind of edging really) to top their DIY fences for a more decorative finish. For a photo of the fencing material check out the Big Lots ad for that period, it's on Page 1 at the bottom.

In the past the fencing went on Clearance after Summer (maybe at 50% off orig. price, so you'd save a few more dollars per pack) but you run the risk of it being sold out by that time (I remember a few posts from people who said they waited too long) or pushing your fence project to early autumn. Now really isn't a bad time to buy some, especially if you will be building a fence in the next few months.

For newbies here's a few link to fencing built with the BigLots fencing:

Style 1:

Lancekik
make them scream
Mikon

Style 2:

BR1MSTON3

Style 3:

There was another fence I really liked done by Dr Frankenscream (on another board that unfortunately no longer links to his fence photos) that kind of had a New Orleans look using still a different style fence edging from BigLots. His vertical PVC bars were closer together and match the position of each design on the edging. He painted the fence a brownish-black color and highlighted it with a rusty look. Very cool. He is a member here but hasn't posted anything.


update: I did find a link to a Flickr account with some pics from 2009 of the haunt yard Dr Frankenscream did. There are some closeups of the fence style further down the page Here's a link to his photo page.

And if I'm not mistaken someone else used this same BL fence top on their fence. I'm picturing moss and maybe some cobwebs added. No clue who this was though.

I hope to make my fencing this year and bought some Style 1 last year. I plan on cutting off the top hoop on mine and just leaving the spikes. I also have still yet a different style not pictured above to work with.

Stopped by a BIG LOTS! today and found some nice things for my prop building and general halloween stuff.

First, picked up this "dremel-like" tool set to use for my foamboard work. For $10 I'm hoping I will more than get my money out of it even though it's not a Dremel brand one. I've been wanting a Dremel set for tombstone and facade work but there always seems to be something else I need to pick up instead. BTW I'm pretty sure this is a featured item in their flyer this week, along with some other advertised power tools, so it will probably go fast. Here's a picture of the mini drill set:



Also picked up two 25-inch wagon wheels ($16 each) for a carnival/circus wagon holding wild gorillas, an old railroad-looking metal lantern ($7) that I'll hang on the wagon (or use in graveyard setups), an 8 x 4 inch door knocker for use on a haunted house entry door ($5), several floating flower lily pads ($1 each) for my hippo or croc scenes, some drooping faux wisteria bushes for use around my tropical skull island haunt ($4) or at the entrance to a cave, and several DVDs ($3 each)--Poltergeist, House of Wax, Willard, and R.L. Stine's Haunting Hour...well, just for fun!

If you are interested in the BL wagon wheels for your own haunt, check to see that yours comes with the wooden center wheel peg attached to the wheel in the event you want to attach the wheel onto something (like a circus wagon). BTW if you are looking for larger wagon wheels than the 25-inch that Big Lots! carries, I found 31 inch ones at Kmart (and Kmart.com), and on sale right now for $14.99 (no peg included).



Felt it was a good hunting day today.

Originally Posted by Ghost of Spookie

Stopped by a BIG LOTS! today and found some nice things for my prop building and general halloween stuff.

First, picked up this "dremel-like" tool set to use for my foamboard work. For $10 I'm hoping I will more than get my money out of it even though it's not a Dremel brand one. I've been wanting a Dremel set for tombstone and facade work but there always seems to be something else I need to pick up instead. BTW I'm pretty sure this is a featured item in their flyer this week, along with some other advertised power tools, so it will probably go fast. Here's a picture of the mini drill set:



Also picked up two 25-inch wagon wheels ($16 each) for a carnival/circus wagon holding wild gorillas, an old railroad-looking metal lantern ($7) that I'll hang on the wagon (or use in graveyard setups), an 8 x 4 inch door knocker for use on a haunted house entry door ($5), several floating flower lily pads ($1 each) for my hippo or croc scenes, some drooping faux wisteria bushes for use around my tropical skull island haunt ($4) or at the entrance to a cave, and several DVDs ($3 each)--Poltergeist, House of Wax, Willard, and R.L. Stine's Haunting Hour...well, just for fun!

If you are interested in the BL wagon wheels for your own haunt, check to see that yours comes with the wooden center wheel peg attached to the wheel in the event you want to attach the wheel onto something (like a circus wagon). BTW if you are looking for larger wagon wheels than the 25-inch that Big Lots! carries, I found 31 inch ones at Kmart (and Kmart.com), and on sale right now for $14.99 (no peg included).



Felt it was a good hunting day today.

Wow! What a haul. I'm definitely going to have to be stopping by BL soon. Thanks for the info.

Sorry, late to the thread, but in late May, I went to 5 different dollar stores and found 1 still carrying the solar dancing flowers, so I pick up a few of them. I'm working on swapping the flower out for something... different. I will post a write up on it once I'm done, but if you're lucky you can pick the solar flowers up on ebay for $1-$2 including shipping. They're decent quality, and I wish I'd picked up a few more. Went back last week but they're out.

Originally Posted by scaringyou

Sorry, late to the thread, but in late May, I went to 5 different dollar stores and found 1 still carrying the solar dancing flowers, so I pick up a few of them. I'm working on swapping the flower out for something... different. I will post a write up on it once I'm done, but if you're lucky you can pick the solar flowers up on ebay for $1-$2 including shipping. They're decent quality, and I wish I'd picked up a few more. Went back last week but they're out.

I'm jealous! I think I was the first one to post about those, maybe in Feb., but only once saw them in my DT, and stupidly thought I'd go back that week and pick some up (short of cash at the time). Forgot about them and when I remembered and checked back told just about as fast as the came in they flew off the shelf. A few weeks ago I checked again and saw on the website that they were sold out online for the season, but the stores were supposedly stocked. Off I went to about 3 different locations and placed phone calls to maybe 4-5 more and poof all gone! Kicking myself for not charging a few when I saw them, although I'm sure there's a min charge amount. Probably could have asked them to hold for me while I went to an ATM. Oh well, maybe next year. The manager told me they were a great sales item for them.

I saw the ones on eBay but don't feel comfortable ordering from China. Others being sold cost more and then shipping gets you in the pocketbook. I think they would have been a cute project, but that's the way it goes sometimes. A cute item with haunt potential for just $1.

What kind of ideas were you thinking of for the ones you got Scaringyou?

Ya, the employee there was more surprised than me that they still had them. He said they normally fly off the shelves, which I found weird because I'd never heard of them carrying them before... The only thing I can think of is that they quickly sold out of their initial stock, and so they reordered some before they completely sold out online. But it took a bit to get them in stock. And by the time they got them, everyone looking for them had already tried and had given up looking. I seriously lucked out finding them...

My idea for them is pretty cool if I do say so myself... I don't want to give too much away until I have things figured out a bit more with the mechanics of it (because I might need to change things around). But I will say it will be completely unrecognizable as being a DT solar flower based prop/toy.

I'm intrigued! Hope you will consider taking pics along the way and maybe putting up a PropShowcase or a Tutorial.

BTW welcome to the HF.

I recently came upon this thread about the Moving Eye Portrait and a link to a Giant 3-D moving eyeball that could be made to attach to your window (Dave Lowe's project). It was really cool in that it appears that the eyeball follows you as you move across the window. Well yesterday I was in a DOLLAR TREE and saw these clear acrylic oval bowls that I thought would make great 3-D moving eyes (hey, for a buck each why not a pair of eyes!). They reminded me of giant eye wash cups.

they makes me think that too. LOL!