Easter Tablescape For A Worthwhile Give-Away

 

Recently I was asked to decorate a table for a drawing that’s to be done in a couple of weeks at Christian Community Action’s Resale Store for an Easter giveaway.  The tricky part was that I needed to by most everything from the resale store and make it look “pretty” enough for an Easter tablescape.

The purpose is to draw attention to CCA Resale and show patrons just what they can do with these recycled items.

So I perused the store one day to see what goodies they had…

Items I could use to create an inviting Easter table.

But, as so often happens in resale stores like this many times it’s difficult to find complete dish sets, although they do have them from time to time.  I actually came across one of them at my trip to the store that day, but didn’t care for the look and I wanted to show how fun and interesting it can be to mix and match.  Also, to show it’s not necessary to have the perfect, complete set of dishware.  And, I wanted to go more whimsical and fun than stuffy, formal and serious so I opted to go a different route.

I scoured the store and picked up some odds and ends to play with.

Found these great rattan chargers.  Terrible color, but sturdy and great looking.  And, this greenery was in good shape – just in the wrong container.

Found four polka dot plates I loved, and three cream plates.

I was happy to stumble across some “Easter colored” salad plates, four black bowls and other cool stuff.  I laid them all out on one of the tables for sale at CCA and started playing with everything to see what I could come up with.

I decided the chargers were a must….

They just needed to be painted.  So I spray painted them black with some paint I had here on hand at my house….

Spray painted come candlesticks black, too.

Then I painted this white bunny a cream color with some cream paint I had here.  Great for our Easter theme and perfect to help recycle a new look for the greenery I found.

I used good old Rust-oleum.

When I had everything put together as best I could my hubby helped me take it to the store and set up.  This green runner was found on my first trip to the store and worked perfectly for bringing in the Easter green.

I began layering all my cool finds and added yellow ribbon just for a little Easter punch.  (I got the whole roll at The Dollar Store for –yep – a dollar.)  Here you see a layered place setting using the black charger, polka dot plates, cream salad plate, black bowl.  I had four of these place settings.

Because I didn’t have enough for a complete set of six I opted to use this place setting for the two at each end.  How fantastic are these striped mugs?  Again….CCA Resale!  There were only two, but that’s okay, because they worked for these two place settings just fine.  Would have loved to have more, but oh well…….it still worked out.  Notice the layers here:  black, cream, yellow, cream, black and cream stripe.

Notice the little cream and green stand?  I found eight of them!  But, I only needed six to use at each place setting.  I bought a bag of eight styrofoam eggs from The Dollar Store – yep again – for a dollar! – to place on each one.  The purpose is to make them into place cards!  In each black bowl I placed small Easter globes from The Dollar Store for a fun Easter touch.

I clustered the candlesticks to one side and placed the greenery in the bunny and lifted it up with an upside down bowl (which I placed under the runner so it wouldn’t show) to give it a little height.  The balloon is just another fun touch from The Dollar Store.

CCA had these candle Easter eggs – three of them! – perfect for my candlesticks.

They also had this cream bunny basket I tucked in between the candlesticks and the arrangement.

I played with it at home first to get the look I wanted…..

Before I  set it up at CCA.

I forgot the yellow napkins so I’m gonna dash back up there and add them.

So there you have it.  Everything with the exception of about eight dollars worth of Easter stuff from The Dollar Store was CCA items!  See how much fun you can have “on the cheap”?  Not only are you helping to support CCA and keep them in business, you can really have some fun by creating a new look with someone else’s castaways! 

Happy Decorating!