Tutorial Tuesday: Finally a decoration for my mantle

I have lived in my house for two years and have not put a single decoration on my mantle. I have put a lot of other things one it (flat surfaces sometimes collect junk in my house), just not decorations. Well when I finally got to the Dollar Tree, the closest one is an hour away so I don't get there super often, I remember that I saw several of these candle stick and vase combos ( I don't know what to call them, it there is a special name, please let me know) so I thought that I would give it a try.

I'm sure that you have seen these in several places, so here's my take on them:

This is how I made them:

1) I got 2 vases and 2 candle sticks

2) I have a ton of rub-ons (back from when I was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator) so I thought that they would look cute on the glass. I cut out the rub-ons I wanted to use

3) Then using a Popsicle stick, I transferred the rub-ons onto the glass

4) I wanted more color, so I spray painted the candle sticks brown and the beans that I used to fill them brown

5) Using an epoxy glue, I glued the two together. I let them dry with the books on them over night.

6) I decided to fill them with beans. I got the idea here. I'm obsessed with matching decorations with the colors in the room, so I spray painted all the beans. I used black beans for the brown and red beans for the red. It happened to be pretty cold so it took forever. I love the colors of the beans, but I'm not going to do it again.

7) Once I was finally finished spray painting the beans, I filled the vases. I just held the vase at an angle and filled it, switching from red to brown.
This was a super cheap and easy craft and I love the outcome. I'm so excited to finally have decorations on my mantle!! I have loved them so much, I have already made 3 sets of them and plan on making many more!