Gloriously bare. That’s how I would explain the state of my house right after the holiday decorations were packed up. And it stayed like that for about 24 full hours before my inner Tinkerbell decided it was time to wave the magic wand and glitter things up again.

Still exhausted from mommy holiday duties, I didn’t want to take on a project too big. As I meandered through Thrift Town’s housewares department, an idea struck when I came upon the shelves of vases and hurricanes, all priced at right around a buck each. I grabbed five specimens and headed for Home Depot.

At Home Depot I purchased some chicken wire fencing. I needed this not only for my vases, but also for a separate frame project, as well as a floral arranging project that I will debut in next week’s blog. Here’s all the supplies needed for the project:

My thought was to create metal cases to fit around the vases/hurricanes in order to give the glass some depth and interesting lines. The candle flame will dance nicely off the reflective metal as well as the glass. Here’s the step process:

1. Measure the length of chicken wire. Once length is determined put on a pair of gloves and grab some wire snips (or heavy duty scissors depending on the strength of the wire), and cut the metal to your desired specs.

2. Wrap the metal sheet around the glassware and secure the ends together using small pieces of wire. I used the wire that came wrapped around the chicken wire I purchased so I wasn’t out any money. Once twisted into place and secured, cut excess wire off.

Uh, someone needs a mani stat!

3. Pop your candle in and you’ve now got a nice and unique piece that will look great on a bookshelf, mantle, entry or side table, or as a centerpiece. I made five of these and total cost was less than $15 for the glassware and wire.

I used square chicken wire. You could also use other types of metal sheeting. Some come in a decorative clover pattern (which my local store was out of!), and you could always spray paint it to match your house decor. These would look great in bright colors and also I believe in gold.

Here’s the link to this DIY as seen on Good Day Sacramento:

http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/9690434-thrifty-thursday-diy-metal-votives/

Happy thrifting!

Gina Doglione-Nielsen is featured every week on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursdays, and owns GNJ Consulting which handles Public, Social, and Media Relations for Thrift Town Stores. Gina lives in Northern California with her amazing husband Josh, and is constantly on the go with three “very active” and “strong personality” bambinos; aka Team Nielsen, and loves every minute of it.