I have seen such beautiful creations all over the ‘net and Pinterest. My friend, Sherry, handmade some breathtaking centerpieces for a friend’s shower from pieces of china and crystal. So, when I volunteered to coordinate decorations for my church’s womens retreat, I knew what I wanted to make.
For the past six months, I’ve been going to garage sales, goodwill, and shopping from Craigslist for those perfect dishes and pieces of glass. Friends have given me pieces from their personal stashes, and I’ve even hit a Dollar Store or two. The process if fairly straight forward and the secret ingredient …. E6000!
This is the most amazing adhesive I’ve ever worked with!
Stack and glue your pieces together, let them cure overnight, and you have a new creation by morning. My favorite part about using the old china is that they have so much character — several cracks in the glazing, little chips along with rims, or wear marks from years of use. We’re a lot like those plates; God takes our imperfections, mistakes and bad choices, and transforms each us into a beautiful and unique creation.
Of course, all the components for 40 centerpieces take up quite a bit of room …. my son graciously let me use one of his extra bedroom shelves to store the boxes of dishes and glassware through Christmas and I got to work in early February. So, this picture shows what my dining room looked like for several weeks. I set up my folding table as a work spot and the buffet was loaded with finished pieces. I had several ladies praying for these babies, because my Great Dane/Mastiff dog Apollo has a LONG tail and it hits right at table-top height. But, no breakage!
The aqua sets were one of my favorites.
After a precarious 90-minute drive to the coast last Friday (thank goodness for bubble wrap, study boxes and LOTS of aprons to tuck in between the pieces), here are a few in the dining room at the retreat center.
In the top, we set African violets with the pots wrapped with tulle (not the best shot here). That was my friend Dayna’s idea – she so creative!
I made a few with just teacups and sweet little houseplants inside (my friend Michelle the florist planted those and added the ribbons/butterflies).
And I used a couple to decorate the welcome/registration area.
Our theme was “Hope Remains” and the brochure featured a crocus. So, for a favor, I found these little burlap bags online which a group of us stuffed with flower bulbs and a little tag with planting instructions. We made sweet bookmarks for everyone, too.
What weighed heavily on my heart was that all decorations are at a cost-recovery basis, which means that I needed to re-sell the centerpieces as keepsakes to recoup the costs. What if the ladies didn’t like them?? Or what if they liked the idea but wanted to just make their own? Or if they couldn’t figure out what to DO with them. So, I set up a Pinterest board with ideas on “Uses for Cake Stands” and then made a QR code for the tags so gals could quickly see why this was the best thing ever! =) Afterwards, when I was looking for a little gift for my mother-in-love for watching my daughter over the weekend, I realized I should have suggested these sweeties as the perfect thank-you gift.
The centerpieces were a big hit and, yes, most gals wanted to know how I did it and of course I revealed my “secret ingredient” so they could make their own. While I didn’t sell all the centerpieces, I sold enough to recoup most of the costs. AND, the rest were used for another ministry event this past week. In fact, they needed five more so I whipped those together after bible study on Tuesday for the Wednesday event.
These beauties will be used for one more event this month and then we will offer the remaining for sale again to a different set of ladies. I hope they are a blessing to all. And I’m already thinking about next year ….
