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

Quote and Candle Holders

I was at a garage sale with my sister (who got me into all this crafting and thrifting and re-purposing!! Thanks! I love it!) and we found these candle holders. They were so pretty! A really classy tan/gold color with black de-stressing, curvy and loopy with pretty leaves! They were only $1 so of course you all know what I HAD to do!!! I brought them home with me, not knowing where they would end up or what they would be used for, but knowing that someday I'd figure that out! It actually didn't take me too long to figure out that I wanted them on the wall in my bathroom surrounding a quote. I got this idea like 5 months ago but I only just finished because I had trouble getting my quote. I couldn't get my vinyl order to come through so I decided to come up with an alternative to vinyl.

Materials:
~ Candle Holders
~ 8x10 frame
~ Fabric
~ Paper/Pen (I used a scrapbook pen)

The first thing I needed to do was come up with an alternative to vinyl for my quote. I needed this because my order wasn't going through. I also thought though, now next time I move (which hopefully won't be for 2 years! Cross your fingers!) I can take this project with me. I saw these way cool things on a blog (here) called Porcelein Markers. Basically you kind of make your own vinyl, she made some dinner plates. So I went and bought one at Michael's but it dried up insanely fast! (I got the Porcelain brand anyone know about these things?) I had bought an 8x10 framed mirror at Dollar Tree and I couldn't even finish the quote. L.A.M.E.
I didn't let that deter me though :) I decided just to write it on my own so I got out some printer paper and wrote it with my best penmanship! It did look a little plain though so I added some fabric yo-yo's to give it some pazzaz.

I love these things! They're super easy too! Cut out a circle of fabric twice as big as you want your final yo-yo to be. Take a needle/thread and go up and down around the outside edge. Pull the thread until the fabric gathers into the center. Tie it up! That's it :)
(follow tutorial here if you want more detailed steps)

Here's the quote, I love this quote! Read the full thing here (I left out a few sentences)
(Sorry, I don't know why the yo-yos are purple in this picture, they're really red! It's the same fabric as my shower curtain! See that project here)

This did come with little glass containers to put in the candles and I actually bought some. But I decided it was just a bit too much with the candles, so I just left them out :)

Looks great with the shower curtain doesn't it?!

What do you think of the final product? I would say my bathroom is done, but I'm sure I'll think of something else to add to it later! :)

Total Cost:
~ Candle Holders: $1.00
~ 8x10 frame: $1.00
~ Fabric: $0.00
~ Paper/Pen (I used a scrapbook pen): $0.00

Quote and Candle Holders: Total Cost ~ $2.00

Feather and Candle Block Frames

Haha, sorry I don't have cool names for any of these! This one was so much fun though! I found these block frame things at DI and knew they'd make a great craft. So I bought them and went to Hobby Lobby to figure out what to put inside!

Materials:

~2 block frames (do these have an official name?)

~2 feather flowers (again--do these have an official name?)

~candles

~paint

~paintbrush

I wanted to paint these block frames brown but I only had $1.36 left in my budget so I bought some paint for 71 cents and then used a sponge as my paint brush! It actually ended up making it look kind of like a stain which was cool. The original color was pretty, it just had some dings and I wanted it a little darker to match my room better. I think the sponged on paint worked quite nicely :) Next I cut the stems off the feather flowers so they would fit inside the block frames and I even had to trim one to fit inside the smaller frame. The candles I bought were the perfect size but they came in way ugly aluminum covers. So I took them out and threw the cheap aluminum covers away! I decided though, that without the wick (which came out with the aluminum), the candles looked like small bars of soap. I needed to somehow replace the wick. So I cut up the stem that I had taken off the feather flowers and stuck them in the middle for my homemade wicks :) All I had left to do was drill everything in place! So I got my husband's drill bits and started making the holes. I stuck everything in and voila! Beautiful new frames to put on my walls! What do you think?

Don't they look SOO much better painted?!

That cheap aluminum HAD to go!

Aren't they absolutely beautiful! I LOVE them! I hope I'm not bragging, I'm just so excited they turned out so well!!

Cost:

Block frames: $2.00 for large, $1.50 for small

Feather Flowers: $2.12

Candles: $0.77

Paint: $0.71

Feather and Candle Block Frames ~ Total Cost: $7.10

Christmas candle decoration

So I actually made this about a month ago, and I know it's past Christmas, but I thought I'd post it anyway :)

Materials:
~old Currant Juice bottle (sparkling cider or champagne would work too)
~dryer sheets (crazy sounding, but it totally works!)
~glitter spray paint
~ribbon (left-over ribbon from another project)
~candle
~fake cranberries

So I had this old currant juice bottle that I wanted to use somehow but I didn't know what to do with it. So I kept it in my bedroom for about 2 months until I came up with this idea. I went and bought a branch of fake cranberries (you know those cranberry Christmas decorations?) at the craft store for something like $4.00, a candle for 25 cents, and a can of glitter spray paint for $3.00. I knew I wanted to put the cranberries inside with something that looked like snow so I was looking around for ideas of what I could use when I saw an old dryer sheet in my garbage! I grabbed it, scrunched it up and put it inside the bottle and it totally worked! So I cut stems off the cranberry branch, glitter sprayed the dryer sheets and the candle. The candle was a tiny bit too small so I wrapped a rubber band around it so it would stay in place. Then I tied the ribbon around it :)

Here are the pictures of the progress and the beautiful end result!

Christmas Candle Decoration ~ Total cost: $7.25