Pottery Barn Style on a Dollar Tree Budget

I am so in love with this little project! Last week I was cruising around Life as MOM's Frugal Friday link-ups and came across Myra's Dollar Tree Hurricane project over at My Blessed Life. Just to be fair, Myra got this idea from Decor Chick who got it from Anne over at Get Your Martha On, who apparently saw it on another blog but she can't remember where...so to whomever came up with this idea originally - we all thank you!

{UPDATE} I believe I have discovered the original creator of this project - Melissa @320 Sycamore. You can find her project here - thanks Melissa for a GREAT idea!

If you like the look of these...

Williams-Sonoma pictures

...then you are going to love this easy, cheap project! After reading Myra's tutorial,I ran out that afternoon to our local Dollar Tree and was able to find everything I needed to make my own hurricane lanterns (Peter already had the glue). In the end I was able to make seven lanterns for around $12.50 (quite the savings since one 20" hurricane in the left picture is running $118 at Williams-Sonoma!). I started with these...

...which were these...

...and these (after I Goo Gone-d the bottom and washed them)...

...and after Peter came to my gluey rescue, they looked like this...

...and up close the ones on the table look like this...

...and the ones on the small side table look like this...

And yes, if you're still reading, I love them. Now, let me assure you that these are certainly the $2-3 versions (and not even close to the $118 version from W-S), but on the bright side, if one breaks, my wallet won't cry out in pain. They do the job and I'm guessing that with them all filled up with fall-ish decor, no one is going to look at them and think, "cheap". It took me about an hour total time (with Peter helping) to clean off the stickers and decide which bases to use and then sand and glue.

On a practical DIY note, Peter suggested sanding the bottoms of the candle holders (both the bases and the top holder) with sandpaper to rough up the edges before gluing them together. Although the other blogging crafters used Guerrilla Glue for their projects, we used plain old Super Glue (because it dried clear instead of white), and so far so good. We'll see how long they last. 

If you're looking for an easy decorating project that will cost you very little out of pocket - I'd say this is a winner. I got everything I needed for this project (minus the glue) at our local Dollar Tree store {happy dance}! You might even have some of the stuff lying around at home, and what a great way to give it a new life this fall. Happy Crafting!