"Birch Bark" Painted Vase

I'm starting to wrap up my fall crafting and lean more towards Christmas. But I thought I'd sneak in one more  fall-type craft that I've been wanting to do for a long time, this "birch-bark" vase. It might not look like birch bark to everyone, but it sure does to me.

Luckily, depending on how you fill the vase, it can be used year round. In fact, it gives off a bit more of a winter vibe to me than a fall one. What say you?

I've seen this idea all over the place - check out a couple of versions here and here - and knew I had the perfect vase for it. I bought this 12" vase at one of my company yard sales, for $1 or $2 I think. Don't you love the height and the thick, heavy glass it's made of?

I liked Emily's (Merrypad) way of spray painting with shades of brown first to give a more natural bark look rather than having it be clear in the unpainted spots. I used two colours, Rustoleum's espresso and nutmeg, both in a satin finish. You know, I kind of like how the browns blend and wouldn't mind having a vase just like this.

Once it was dry I added rubber bands in a random non-pattern and then started spraying on very light coats of white. True confession time - I was so excited to get to the painting that I accidentally started spraying on the white before I put the elastics on. Thank goodness it was just a little mist in one spot when I realized what I was doing and stopped. Tom says he wished he had the camera ready because the look of horror on my face was priceless.

Several coats later I let it dry completely and then snipped off the rubber bands. The edges where the elastics met the glass were a little rough in places so I sanded them with a high-grit sandpaper. There are imperfections where the elastics were, but I think that makes it more natural. Have you ever seen a perfect tree?

There isn't a lot of foliage around to decorate with this time of year, so I snipped off some branches from our tree out front. The tree has these crazy wiggly branches and the leaves always look like they're dying for a drink. If you know what kind of tree it is, please let me know. I also added in some orange and red berries from the dollar store.

This is one of my favourite projects. I think it's the clean lines that get me. And birch trees are my absolute favourite tree in the world. In fact, we're considering pulling out the crazy, drama-queen-looking-for-a-drink-of-water tree out front and replacing it with a white birch next year.

And even though there are brown undertones, the light does still pass through the glass and give it a glow in the afternoon.

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I'm linking up here this week!