Upcycled Halloween Decor – From Tired Vase To Creepy Candle
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The Elusive Noodle
On a recent trip to the grocery store, I noticed that the pasta aisle was nearly empty. What the what? I needed a specific noodle, and it was nowhere to be found on the shelves of my local market.
I remedied this minor irritation by choosing another in-stock noodle, but I also grabbed some linguine, spaghetti, and rotini noodles that weren’t on my list- just in case.
Was this pasta paucity due to a sincere shortage or a clever marketing gimmick? Hmmm.
Starting To See A Trend
Once again, I ran into this issue while searching for a tall cylinder glass vase for my Halloween project. This vase is one of the most common, uninteresting, easy-to-locate pieces. Or so I thought.
The first stop was Hobby Lobby. I just knew they had these. I looked high and low and finally had to ask for help only to find they were out of stock.
Back in the car, I searched for other local sources of this vase which sent me to Walmart. I’m grumpy just knowing I might have to go to Walmart, but the app confirmed these to be in stock, so to Walmart, I went.
The app lied. Walmart was also out of stock.
Where else could I go? Dollar Tree? Nope. Dollar General? Nope. JoAnn’s? Nope.
Running out of options and patience, I decided to stop at my favorite thrift. As I approached the vase section, I could see that today was not my lucky day: curved vases, wide vases, but not a single clear glass cylinder vase. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. A tall vase covered in gold with polka dots. I discretely grated my nail along the outside and scratched through the coating. This will do!
After happily paying the 99¢ plus tax, I brought the piece home, grabbed some cotton balls, 100% pure acetone, and got to work.
The gold paint easily wiped away, revealing the elusive clear glass cylinder vase underneath—the perfect specimen to craft up some haunted decor.
A quick clean-up with soap and water…
… and, it’s good as new!
(And I didn’t even damage my manicure.)
I hope this little hack is helpful the next time you stumble across a thrifty find you want to upcycle into Halloween decor such as these Halloween Haunted Candles.
Maybe these shortages will continue to make me up my game and think outside the box when I’m creating creepy projects.
Either way, I’ll have plenty of pasta for a while.
Until next time, happy haunting.
