Thursday, March 25, 2010

Spring Candle Centerpiece

Well, it's time to show what I made for Living with Lindsay's 2nd Annual $5 Dollar Challenge.  I was really excited about this when I first heard about it and I was anxious to get to the dollar store and get started.  However, once I got there my brain just couldn't think of anything I wanted to make.  'Wanted to make' being the necessary component because whatever I made I wanted to like and keep it.  Two more trips to the Dollar Tree and the same problem kept occuring.  Finally some acceptable ideas started to germinate and this is what I came up with. 

First I bougt a glass bowl and candles in the candle section, some curly ribbon in the giftwrap section and some cards in the...yep, you guessed it, the card section.  So all-in-all this project ended up costing only $4. 


First I measured everything because I needed to know how big to cut my cards so they would fit and still have space in between each one to let more light shine through.

Buying these in a package of four made this project possible.  Otherwise I would have gone over budget if I had had to buy them separately.

Then I cut out the card portions that I wanted.

Then I measured the center point on each side, marked it and punched holes.  I used the first one I completed as a template for the others.

Next I cut out the center of the heart with an Xacto knife.  I use a glass cutting board because it seems to make the blade cut more smoothly. 

Originally I had planned to only cut out the heart, but then I decided it needed a little more so I cut out parts of the top.

Now I was thinking it looked pretty good, but wait.  What about the wings?
Love it, love it, love it!

Now that my hands and fingers were worn out from cutting all that out, it was time for tying it all together.  I had measured earlier so I knew about how far apart each piece needed to be.  In the end I only had to do a little finessing to get the spacing just right. 
I used this crazy curly ribbon that I wasn't sure would work out, but I think it fits the final product perfectly.
(I took this photo after I had already cut off my four pieces.) 

I just tied a regular bow and let the curls do their thing. 

I tied them all together in a row.

Then I tied them onto the bowl.

Then I added candles (I ended up using tea lights) and lit them.
Here's the daytime photo:
(Oooh, I love how the light peeks behind the wings.)

And now my favorite...night time:
Oooh...Aaah...

Seeing the finished product makes me wish I had put it on a little pedestal candle holder and glued them together for added height.  Perhaps I will do that later.  I also might add a little glitter to the flowers on the wreath.  We'll see.

I think this fits well for Spring, but it would also do well for a wedding. 
From start to finish it took me about 1 1/2 hours to make.  Of course I was figuring everything out and taking photos with my left hand (incredibly difficult) so I'm sure it could be done in less time.

It was fun.  Thanks Lindsay.  I'll be looking forward to next year. 

Also, in all that time of thinking about what to do, between trips to the Dollar Tree,  I came up with three other ideas that I'm going to be working on.  If you liked this one, maybe you'll check back later to see what they are.

16 comments:

  1. Beautiful! I love how it looks with the light shining through too! I am a sucker for pretty candle holders!

    Great job!


    Blessings, Grace

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  2. What a great project! You are a clever and crafty girl. Happy Spring!

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  3. You've got a great project and I think this would be a great decoration idea for a wedding reception!

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  4. Very creative! Lindsay's contest is so fun, isn't it?! I had the same experience that you describe--I ended up coming up with more than one Dollar Tree project too!

    Amy

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  5. So very pretty and delicate - I saw some note cards and couldn't figure out how to use them - nice job.

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  6. That turned out great! I really like how it looks at night. I will have to try your trick of cutting on a glass cutting board.

    Thanks so much for stopping by!

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  7. Hello Tina,

    You told you tried to e-mail me a message and it was unable... did it was a comment or a real e-mail? I tried to send me an e-mail through my blog and it worked, but if it was a comment, did you wrote that silly "word" that appear correctly? It working well, if the problem keeps happening let me know.

    By the way, I read this post and saw it when you first published it and I guess I leave it to later because i had my driving lesson and I probably I forgot, but I love the idea very much, I love to see this creations processes step by step.

    Much love and have a lovely weekend,

    Joana

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  8. Oh wow, this looks lovely!
    I'm not that creative, actually. I see something and sometimes I even have an idea what to make out of it but I guess I'm not creative enough to see something and create a totally different item. :D

    Aw, thank you. I actually don't even remember where the glass container is from, I found it in my room and it felt as if it's always been there. :D I'll post pictures when I bought/ found flowers for it.
    I miss hunting for eggs a bit but the weather normally hasn't been good enough to do this outdoor and indoor started being boring after a while, my brother and I grew up and we finally stopped hunting at all. We'll both get clothes this year- a dress for me, shirts for my brother. When he was in kindergarten, mum, I and the two kindergarteners prepared an egg hunt for all the kids, too, not far away from here and we had lots of fun. Especially because nobody really knew how many eggs there actually were. :p

    Ha ha, well, as I said, if you feel like e-mailing me rather than posting a comment, then do so. :) I usually check my mails at least every second day, every day when I have lectures because we often get information this way when a professor is ill or a lecture hall is not available.

    Really, that's no problem. I know what it's like when you have something in mind and no time for it. I shouldn't spend so much time online, after all. This week I watched movies and tv a lot (I'm always so terribly lazy when I'm on vacation *sigh*), sewed, started working on some other things.
    You're really homeschooling? It's not allowed here, also unschooling. The main problem here is that we have lots of muslimic immigrants- especially those they don't want to have in Turkey anymore, the conversatives. However, the government eg is afraid that those immigrants and also a lot of German natives would take their kids out of school if they have the choice. Well, there IS a possibility to do homeschooling but then your child has to be really ill, handicapped, normally, and isn't able to visit a normal school.
    It's a lot of work, isn't it? I know that my teachers already had a hard job teaching two subjects in different age groups/ classes.
    But it's really nice that you had to think of Joana and me. :)I thought of you, too, when I went shopping and saw all the crafting stuff.

    Yes, you might be right. Although I do know some people who do some crafting from while to while, too, but wouldn't care too much about handmade gifts.
    Ohoh, I'm going to watch Alice in Wonderland next week with my whole family, in 3D, and I'm overexited. I asked for watching this movie since it came out here but my brother had to write exams so he should have spent his time on learning (he actually didn't, he never does, but nevermind :p) so we decided to go when he's on Easter vacation.
    I even saw merchandising in some shops here- merchandising! We normally don't have such things here as long as it's not about Harry Potter or twilight. Not in my city, at least. But I saw T-shirts, necklaces, make up, even socks and purses. If only I had the money. . :D

    Yes. :) I'm really glad about that, too. I usually pick my pen pals very carefully, chat with them for a while before I agree on sending letters because I want to make sure that this will last and that they're worth the time I spent on writing to them. But I have a good feeling regarding Joana, she's such a sweetheart. :) I still make bad experiences, even after all those years, but I learned to handle them. And yes, it's indeed a nice way to bring conversations to a deeper level. You're right, not everybody is interested in our conversations and there are also some things I learned to not discuss online. :D
    . .

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  9. Oh, my boyfriend is British. This is still very fresh so none of us will move during the next months and that's why we can't see each other that often. We started as pen pals some months ago. Funny, isn't it, what happens when you don't expect it coming. :)I can tell you more if you'd like to hear the whole story but then I'll really send an e-mail. :)

    Yep. *sigh* see, as a law student I pay lots of attention to the choice of words if I have to. . and it made me suspicious that they said it's about green, blue and red envelopes. So I naturally asked myself what happens with the other colours. :D

    Really? Well, I understand that it's more fun to watch action movies at the theatre but I also enjoy watching fantasy or comedy. But to be totally honest, many movies here contain at least a bit of action.
    Hm, no, I haven't seen Enchanted April, not as far as I remember. But after all I just watched my first Audrey Hepburn movie a week ago so it's no big surprise that I left out lots of interesting movies so far. :D

    Yeah, I have quite some German books on my list but I'm surprised by the number of English ones, to be honest. I just realised how many English novels I own. :D It's funny that you mention Jane Eyre as I just bought a copy three weeks ago, with Matt. I wanted to read it for ages but never bought it- and then, on my way back from university, there was this young woman on train, having this amazing Jane Eyre copy. Since that day I looked if I can find it in one of the bookshops in Cologne and I finally saw it. I'll post a photo of it later -and now I'm waiting for having time for reading it. :) Right now I'm reading a book about forensic medicine cases, published by a professor who's teaching at my university. He might be my professor if I find the time for picking up his forensic medicine course for lawyers one day. I'm thrilled to do it but if you completed the lectures you're going to see a necropsy, maybe even an autopsy, and I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. So I might wait another semester or two.
    That's a nice idea! I'm just afraid that people lose interest once I blogged about a German book or two they wouldn't be able to read. But I might just do it. :)
    Wait, Animal Farm is by George Orwell, isn't it? I had a really ambitious English teacher, I loved his lessons, and he made us read a lot of first chapters from several utopia- dystopia novels. I remember that we also went through Orwell, that's why I bought 1984, but I guess Animal Farm I only heard about when I prepared for my oral English exam.
    No, it's going to take place the weekend before or after lectures start, I guess. It indeed gets harder and harder to buy fabric here. Many small shops close, people prefer buying cheap things than spending time on making them themselves. . sadly. I love the idea of sewing things for my family.
    Enjoy your evening and have a nice weekend,
    Tanja :)

    PS: and now I finally figured out that comments have a limit regarding the letters. XD

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  10. Candlelight is so delightful! I'm so glad to hear your creativity is blossoming!

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  11. Wow ~ what a great project! It looks so Romantic and Elegant!!! Judi

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  12. Wow! That is amazing. You are one creative lady with an exacto knife. I love the little wings on the birds.

    - The Tablescaper

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  13. What a cute project! It is SO pretty with the light shining though! :)

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  14. LOVE this!!!
    I, like you, have several more ideas for crafts after visiting my local dollar store! =)

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  15. Very elegant and a lovely idea... the cards would make a pretty garland too...love this idea!

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