My First Autumn Decoration

I have made my first Autumn decoration, it is an Acorn Candlestick, and it turned out so well that I thought I would share it with you. This decorative candle cost me $2.00 to make plus hot glue and collecting some acorns.  I had purchased the vase and  candlestick from Dollar Tree a year ago for a different craft idea.  I found them last week when I was cleaning out a cabinet.  I had seen several things on Pinterest in using these items and so I combined a couple of the ideas into my creation.  I got the idea of using acorns when I was walking up from the cottage and noticed all the acorns laying all over the ground.  I started collecting the "perfect" acorns (the ones that had their caps on them) but there was not a lot of perfect ones.  I did notice several caps and capless acorns and decided that I could glue the caps on the acorns and make them "perfect".  After collecting the acorns I knew there would be some kind of bugs in them so I used Google to look up on how to prepare acorns for crafting.  There were several sites with several different instructions and I finally found one that would work best for me; a craft magazine site.  So, with my supplies ready to go I got started on my Acorn Candlestick Holder.  I will post the instructions below but before I do that let me give you some tips for the project.  First of all, collect all different sized acorns and different colors (greens to dark browns) and make sure to collect several different sized caps too.  The acorns will have to be cleaned before using and you cannot collect enough.  So, with that said, onto the instructions.

Supplies needed:  acorns, glass vase, glass candlestick holder, an oven, tin foil, cookie pan, hot glue gun and glue sticks, Pledge wipes and paper towels.

Instructions:

Collect acorns, line a cookie pan with foil and place the acorns on the lined tray.

Bake the acorns at 175 degrees for twenty minutes in the oven.

Let the acorns cool then separate the "perfect" acorns, caps and capless acorns

With the hot glue gun begin to glue the caps to matching acorns.

With a pledge wipe clean the acorn then polish it with a paper towel.  This brings out the acorn's colors and puts a protective coat on the polished acorn.

Place the candlestick holder into the vase then begin to place the acorns in the vase.  The vase will be easy to fill in the beginning with the acorns but as you get closer to the top it gets a little more difficult.  This is where the smaller acorns help.

Once the vase is full add a tea lite candle and the project is done.

I loved the candlestick so much that I am going to make a few more.  This project is not limited to acorns; dried beans, un popped corn kernels, small pine cones and candy would also work.