I stopped at the local thrift store the other day and found this wrought iron candle centerpiece. Cost=$2.00

It came with plenty of dust, a few rusty spots and some very old looking silk flowers. Seems pretty easy to get this thing looking like new. I'm thinking some paint and new silk flowers will do it.

Step 1-take a "before" picture. Well I forgot to.......ugh, I hate when I do that.

Step 2-clean it and then spray with Rustoleum. I picked a black metallic shade and it came out great.

Step 3-throw out the old flowers but then decided to keep the Styrofoam holder for my new flowers.

Step 4-cut and arrange the flowers so they look good. Ok.....now a visual.

Here is the base of the centerpiece. It has the original Styrofoam in the center, so I've come along and added some green and brown leafy stuff. Using wire cutters I trimmed all the greenery down so it sits low in the centerpiece.

Below, I'm just adding some simple flowers as a point of interest. I used floral picks. This allows you to cut the flower short and stick it into the center. Technically you really should wrap the stick with floral tape, but in this case you're not going to see it.

Below is the arrangement completed. I thought it came out very pretty considering is cost 2 bucks and only a few more for the flowers. The candles were the most expensive part. Try to ignore the fact that the candles are still wrapped in cellophane.

It actually came out pretty impressive in size so I think it may be destined to reside in the dining room, although my original intent was for the screened in porch.

Someone asked me the other day where I get some of my ideas from. It just takes imagination and vision. I look at something that may be considered old, damaged or used and I envision what it will look like after it's repaired, repainted or revitalized. With this project it was just a matter of a good cleaning, a new paint job and fresh silk. Now maybe I'll go and straighten out the candles!!!!

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Creating Silk Flower Arrangements

I enjoy having silk flower arrangements around my house. To have them created in a retails store or purchase them already completed can be very expensive, so I make them up myself. Easy enough to do, I just select a main flower, some greenery and sometimes dried flowers. After a few years they get so dusty and tired looking so I just pluck them out of the container and start over again. There are many tricks to putting these arrangements together but I just do it the easy and cheap way.

I always hot glue a Styrofoam block or cone into the bottom of the container first. For this simple project have the following together:
1. Hot glue gun
2. Styrofoam block or cone
3. moss
4. all your flowers and greenery
5. wire cutters
Next I select my main flowers, cut the to size (I vary it, tall, medium and short) and stick them into the Styrofoam as pictured below.

Then plug in all the green stuff……

With the addition of moss along the bottom you won’t see any of the Styrofoam.
Pictured below is another one I put together for my dining room.

None of these arrangements will cost a lot of money to put together, especially if you have a coupon or buy when the stores put silk flowers on sale. I happened to purchase all of these flowers at Michaels Craft Store. They were having a big sale on their silk flowers so I took advantage. Don’t think you have to have formal training to put these arrangements together……….you don’t. You can do this!!!

www.michaels.com

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