Potpourri in a Vase

I got some beautiful potpourri in a gift bag a couple years ago and love how it looks so I've saved it. I had it just in a pretty glass I have but decided to change it up a little.

Materials:

~ potpourri

~ candles

~ vase

~ toothpicks

~ SWIMMING NOODLE -- yep, that's right. A swimming noodle :)

I wanted to fill a small square vase I had with the potpourri and candles but it didn't fill it up very much. So to add some filler space I cut up a swimming noodle. I was worried that the pieces of the noodle would get moved around once the potpourri got poured in so I stuck the pieces together with toothpicks.

This way they held together real well.

I also stuck toothpicks through the candles where the wick used to be and then stuck them into the tops of the noodle pieces. I poured in the potpourri and I was done :)

Total Cost:

~ potpourri: $0.00

~ candles: $0.00

~ vase: $0.00

~ toothpicks: $0.00

~ swimming noodle: $0.00

Potpourri in a Vase: Total Cost ~ $0.00

Apples in a Vase

I was in charge of decorating the tables for a dinner last night. The theme was apples so I bought some different colored apples and just stuck them in vases. I was going to add something else to it but I liked the crisp look of only the apples.

How much easier can you get? And it makes a great centerpiece for early Autumn. Use as many vases as you want.

Total Cost:

~ apples: $5.00

~ vases: $0.00

Total Cost: Apples in a Vase ~ $8.00

Bathroom Craft

Remember in my shower curtain post (seen here) I mentioned that I knew my bathroom desperately needed something above my toilet and that I had something in the works? Here it is! But I do need some advice, I'm not quite sure what to do about one part of it so I need to know what you think looks best.

Materials:
~Wire Knick-Knack (for lack of a better name)
~Glasses
~Beads
~Spray Paint

I found this wire knick-knack thing (I don't know what to call it sorry) at DI and it came with this weird-looking handle that I took off right away!

Isn't that thing weird? The whole spring-thing is beyond me. My knick-knack looks much better now :) And I'm sure it's glad to be rid of this handle! I know I would be!

Then I spray-painted the whole knick-knack black. Sorry I didn't get before and after pictures of that, you'll just have to believe me that the gold wasn't working! And the black totally does :)

I got three blue-tinted glasses (that I will be using as vases) I got two small ones (one is shown above) and a large one. I was planning on putting these inside the three sections of my knick-knack thing. Now I just needed to find something to put inside the glasses. I thought about potpourri but I didn't know if I'd be able to find the right color, I already have some in my living room, and I just wanted to find something a little more unique. I found two HUGE strands of beads! The beads were a few different shades of red and I thought they'd look so perfect with my shower curtain and rug!

At first I was a little worried that they might look like cranberries and the whole thing would look like a Christmas decoration. But then I thought maybe I could spray-paint half of the beads black and then I'd have both black and red beads. I spray-painted a few just to see how it would turn out and here's where I need your advice!
The beads didn't spray-paint very well just because they're round and the paint drips around kind of funny. They're too small for me to paint one side, flip and paint the other. They actually do look kind of cool but I'm wondering if they look too "summer camp crafty" or if it really does look cool. Do you know what I mean? So here are my options and what I like and don't like about them. Will you please help me decide?! :) Thanks!!!
1. All red beads
~~ Like: It's easier than spray-painting half the beads
~~ Don't Like: Maybe too Christmasy?
2. Half black beads
~~ Like: It won't look too Christmasy
~~ Don't Like: Hard to get the paint even
~~ Don't Like: It might look funny to have the oddly-painted beads

So what do you think? I'm leaning towards one but I want to hear what you all think. Leave a comment and let me know :) Thanks everyone!

Bathroom Craft:
~Wire Knick-Knack (for lack of a better name): $1.25
~Glasses: $1.75 total (50 cents each for the small ones, 75 for the bigger one)
~Beads: $2.00
~Spray Paint (my husband had some leftover from some projects): $0.00

Bathroom Craft: Total Cost ~ $5.00

Vases

This was one of my favorites! I really like how they turned out. We have a bookshelf in the corner of our living room with nothing on top of it. Since it's in the back corner it's not a huge focal point so I haven't really worried too much about putting something on top. But I realized that it would look a lot better with something on it, and besides, I needed a new place to put a craft :) So here's what I came up with...

Materials
Vases (large, medium, small but all same shape)
Fake flowers
Fake grass
Hot glue gun

So first of all, since I got the vases at DI I put them in the dishwasher to get all the spots and stuff off them. I was surprised how clean they got! I hadn't realized how dirty they were! I bought two stems of fake flowers at Hobby Lobby and cut them up into their little branches so I had some of each stem in each vase. My favorite part was when I thought to put the grass on the outside of the vase. I had thought about buying a necklace or beads or something to put on the outside, but I LOVE the grass look! I bought a huge thing of fake grass, really I don't know what I'm going to do with all of it! I cut off 7 blades for this project and put a small dab on hot glue every so often on a blade of grass and wrapped it around the outside of the bottle. Be careful not to put too much or you'll be able to see the glue. My small and medium vase each have 2 blades of grass wrapped around them but the large one has 3. There isn't a lot in these vases but I like the openness that they have. This project did cost more than anything else I've made but for my birthday I got some craft money from my sister. Thanks so much!! I put it all towards this project and am so glad that I had some extra money! Anyway, enough of my blabbing...take a look!

Vases right after they came out of my dishwasher

Vases with the flowers inside (sorry the lighting is weird on this one)

Here's a close-up so you can see the wrapped around grass. I started with the thick end and put that at the top of the vase, then I just slowly wrapped it around and down.

Here they are on my no-longer-empty bookshelf :)
(sorry about the lamp in the corner of the pic!)

A closer-up picture of the finished product. What do you think?! Like I said, this is one of my favorites :) I L-O-V-E the grass look!

Total Cost:
vases: large ~ $3.00, medium ~ $2.00, small ~$1.00
yellow flowers: $3.00
red flowers: $2.00
grass: $3.50

Vases: Total Cost ~ $14.50