Crafty Centerpiece

Lately it seems that I’ve been doing lots of crafty projects.  In fact, I’ve been hoarding coupons for Michael’s and JoAnn’s!  It’s true.  When I was younger I loved arts and crafts time at school; I was the nerdy kid known to stay inside during recess messing with pieces of colorful construction paper while everyone else played kickball.  Apparently the bug has bitten me again—although I do enjoy getting outside to play these days.

My latest project is a use-what-you-have DIY centerpiece.  While I really liked our table décor, it felt too fallish in the midst of the budding trees and bright colors popping up all over our neighborhood.

Plus, I was a little tired of moving everything on and off the table every time we eat dinner with a large group—something that is becoming more and more common (hurray for friends and the ability to host events!).  I wanted something simple and springy.  Most of my DIY inspiration comes from other bloggers these days, and I’ve been eyeing these mini topiaries over at Little Blue Prints for awhile now.

Aren’t they adorable?  But since we’re trying to save money to work on the outside of our house (paint, landscaping, etc.), I wanted to use materials that I had on hand.  That’s when my brain finally registered the large clay pot that’s been sitting empty in our backyard for over a year—whaalaa!  It turns out that the woman who previously owned our house was a serious gardener who loved clay pots.  Last summer my mom and I found a bajillion of them nestled beneath the pine needles in our backyard.  Turns out that she also never raked up her pine needles… While we gave away most of the pots for free, we did keep a few of the nicer ones.  I decided that it was the perfect size for a chunky tabletop centerpiece.

This is seriously one of the easiest projects ever.  I feel a little awkward even giving you the instructions, lest you think I’m insulting your intelligence.  All that said, a little tutorial never hurt anyone, right?

So here’s what I did:

1.)    Sprayed off said clay pot using a hose in the backyard

2.)    Perked it up with a few coats of Rust-Oleum Almond Gloss spray paint that we had leftover in our basement

3.)    Crumpled up old newspaper to create a thick base layer in the bottom of the pot

4.)    Glued fake (would it sound better to say “faux,” or is that completely dorky?) moss that I bought with a 50% off coupon at Michael’s to the top of the newspaper

5.)    Stuck a few felt pads on the bottom of the pot to keep it from scratching the heck out of our table

6.)    Ooohed and ahhhed over our fresh new centerpiece!

A few things to keep in mind… First, never buy anything full price at Michael’s or JoAnn’s, because they always have coupons available in the mail or online.  Before heading to Michael’s for the moss, I did a quick Google search to see if there were any coupons available.  I saved 50% just by taking a few minutes to look around the web.  Second, I ended up buying the moss table runner instead of several separate packages of moss.  By cutting it up, I gained a lot more moss for my money.  I also realized that I could peel the table runner apart, which thinned out my moss, but also made it more pliable and expanded the amount I had to work with.  Finally, table runner moss is held together by a piece of green netting which unfortunately shows through at times.  To hide the netting, I simply glued miscellaneous pieces of moss over it.  I did the same thing over any seams that showed.  Trust me—this is a messy project and you will have plenty of rebellious moss to cover any imperfections that you find.

Cost breakdown:

• Large clay pot: came with our house—free!


• Spray paint: leftover from another project—technically free!


• Newspaper—we actually don’t pay to get the paper, but occasionally they leave one on our porch anyway, so we just save them for projects like this—free!


• Moss table runner--$6 after 50% off coupon


• Total: $6

This project took a bit of finagling, but with a few minutes of extra work I was able to create a unique and inexpensive centerpiece just in time for spring!

P.S. I also bought a hot glue gun at JoAnn’s for this very project, but I didn’t count it in the cost breakdown since I’ll use it forever.  Luckily I had another 50% coupon, so it cost me less than $7!