Dress Up Your Vases With Craft Scraps

Knick knacks from the craft bin can give your vases an updated look.

One of the primary tenants of being green is using what you already have to refresh and update your decorations. If you're getting tired of your home accessories, skip the trip to the store and instead get creative with what's in your junk drawers and craft bins.

Here is an idea for one such update. Using some wire that's been tucked away in a drawer, some beads from a past craft project, and a little imagination, we've given old vases a whimsical new look.

Materials: Vases, glasses, or other containers that have lost their luster Craft wire of most any gauge—18 gauge is used in this project various beads wire pliers

Step One Cut a length of wire. The length will vary depending on the size of your vase and how you want to shape your wire. About 12-18 inches is usual.

Step Three Slide a bead, or two or three, on the short wire, and wrap it with the wire pliers into a coil (or any other shape you'd like). Entwine the beads in the coil in various spaces as you roll the coil.

Step Four Using your fingers, spiral the long wire around the top of the vase like an orbit. You can keep it close to the neck, or make it high above the rim of the vase. Start wide and get narrower. At the end of the upward spiral, put a bead on the wire and wrap it in the wire so it stays at the end. Coil this somewhat tightly, as this will hold the stem of the flower.

Step Five Try placing a flower in the vase and shape the wire until it holds the stem correctly. Set your vase somewhere where your gorgeous work can be enjoyed!