The Weirdest, Best $6 This Mom Has Spent in 2020 Was on Con-Tact Paper

I bought a roll of clear Con-Tact Paper, cut off a poster board-sized piece and peeled off the backing, before taping it to the wall. My daughter had zero interest in attaching pom-poms to what she calls the “sticky wall,” but that’s the beauty of this project: Any craft supplies you have on hand can work, and at this point, I’ve tried them all. Now, whenever I’m in a Target or Dollar Store, I scour the crafts and party supplies sections for potential additions.

Some favorites include:

• Table confetti (sold at dollar stores, I’ve found all kinds of foam animal shapes—they’re supposed to be scattered on tables at parties to liven up your tablescapes, apparently)
• Construction paper cut into shapes
• Bulletin board cutouts
• Coloring book pages
• Popsicle sticks
• Pipe cleaners
• Scrapbook die cuts
• Puffy stickers (not that you need stickers for this, but they’re fun)

Depending on your child’s age, you’ll want to be wary of any potential choking hazards and keep an eye on your kid, so he or she doesn’t sample the supplies.

Once the sheet of paper starts to lose its stickiness—or starts looking a little grimy—you can just take it down and replace it. After two months of near-daily use, I’m still finishing up that initial $6 roll. My daughter may not devote half an hour a day to rearranging and redecorating the wall—most afternoons, it’s more like ten minutes—but I can’t say she’s gotten as much use out of the other quarantine purchases I’ve made. And I’ll take little victories wherever I can find them these days.