This idea occurred when my sisters and I were planning a party for my fabulous aunt! We were on a budget (but I’m always on a budget so nothing new here), and I wanted to make it nice. I love the branches in vases theme; it looks stunning as a table centerpiece, but if you buy those branches at a craft store, you end up spending hundreds of dollars if you have it, great! Spend till your heart is content. If you’re like me and want to save some money because…life… here is a great idea.
You Will Need:
- Bottle (I used an empty wine bottle but you can also use a sparkly grape juice bottle or a glass vase from the dollar tree).
- Spray paint – I chose gold and white because the party colors were black, white and gold.
- Branches – I went to the local park and gathered branches that had fallen from trees. Look for “y” shaped and slightly bent branches. They will give you that nice full shape in a vase.
- Cotton balls – these are optional but it adds a nice touch
- glue gun – for the cotton balls
You should have seen me in the park collecting branches and looking over my shoulder like some park ranger would come up and say, “Hey, you can’t take those branches!”
Now that you have your supplies for your branch table centerpiece, take your bottle and spray paint it whatever color you would like. Make sure you do this in a ventilated room. Again, I chose gold. My paint job isn’t perfect, and since it’s gold, it gives it a more antique look with a less than perfect paint job. See, art can be about finding the beauty in the mistakes.
Next, you want to spray paint your branches. I like white branches because they look trendy and white matches with anything….that’s right, anything! You can spray them another color or leave them bare if you want to. If you need help picking a color just read my post on picking the right color. This is your design world, and I am just a guide.
Because branches are a porous service, you will have to add several coats of spray paint. Just make sure you paint all sides.
When everything is dry, you can place it in the bottle vase make sure to space the branches nicely, so they are not oddly close together.
Optional Item For Your Branch Centerpiece
Now here is the optional part. You can add “buds” to the branches of your table centerpiece for an additional touch.
Pull off a piece of your cotton ball. Roll it into a tight ball and glue it to your branch.
I glued mine to the natural notches on the branch. If your branch doesn’t have any notches, space the cotton balls at different distances apart. The more uniform and even it looks, the less natural it looks. Branches aren’t perfectly even, and neither are their flower buds, so don’t overthink the placement. Besides, if you mess up, you can always go out and get another branch!
So here is my finished piece! I could have added a few more cotton balls to the middle branch, and I probably will…someday. I also need to iron my curtains, lol! I think that’s an excellent example of how you can always go back and improve on your design. Happy creating!
