Our Hallowedding: Crafting Made Simple

To say that October is a busy month for us is somewhat of an understatement.  Not only do we have our impending Hallwedding quickly approaching, but I'll be heading to Vancouver this weekend to spend Canadian thanksgiving with Mr. Doxie and his family, Saturday night is our engagement party (our first wedding-related event), and then I'll have to scramble to get my house future-in-law ready for Mr. D's arrival with his family.  As in, deep cleaning everything and finishing all of my half-painted walls. 

I'll let you in on little secret:  I have a tendency to procrastinate.  (If Mama Doxie's reading this, she's probably thinking that that's the understatement of the century!)  Having put every other task off until the last minute, I knew that my Hallowedding craft projects needed to be quick and simple.  And preferably cheap.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you wonder to yourself, "Why didn't I think of that sooner!?"

I had that exact revelation just a few days ago when I decided to attempt to make some plain-jane, glass candlestick holders black.

Obviously I've used spray paint before... I've had the occasional picture frame that needed sprucing up.  However, I've never really considered it to be an important tool in wedding crafting.

This idea arose from a Target Hallowedding decor hunt in which I found some black candlesticks that dripped red wax.  Target also sold a neat black candelabra, but for the amount of use it would get, it just wasn't worth twenty dollars.  I bought the candlesticks in hopes that I would find some awesome Halloweeny candlestick holders.  When my search was unsuccessful, I decided to try to find something at Goodwill that would be cheap enough to try to paint.  I had no idea whether or not glass was spray-paintable.

I picked up four candlestick holders at Goodwill for $2.75

I picked up the cheapest gloss-black spray paint at Walmart for $.96, went home and crossed my fingers that the paint would stick to the glass!

And stick it did!  I think they turned out great.  You can hardly tell that they were painted; they look like black ceramic!

I was so impressed with the results that I painted this vase I've had in my pantry forever.  Previously, it was a nasty puke-brown color.  About $.10 worth of paint and it's something I'll continue to use in my living room, even after Halloween.

These projects were so simple and inexpensive, and I can't wait for people to see them in action.  My favorite part about crafting for our Hallowedding is that I'm getting a lot of ideas for our actual wedding in May.  Now that I know that I can successfully paint glass, my vision of white ceramic centerpiece vases and bowls are now well within reach. 

Have you had any crafting revelations recently?  How about something that turned out awesome for just pennies?