Dollar Tree Spookathon & Pottery Barn Knock Offs

Here is some more of my Pottery Barn Inspiration.

I am definitely in full mode with my Halloween decorating!

When I saw these chalkboard rocks over at the Pottery Barn website I was in LOVE! Chalkboards are all the rage these days and how genius to create chalkboard rocks to write or design whatever your little heart wants. Swoon!

Photo from Pottery Barn

Well unfortunately I didn't swoon at the price....$16.00 for these Chalkboard Rock Fillers (that's a set of 4) Oh how generous of them, they do include a piece of chalk with all four of them! Can you believe it...for 4 rocks! Well there is no shortage of rocks here in Minnesota. So this was the first project I set out to conquer.

I stoped in at my local landscape materials dealer (Pozanc's). They have always been reasonable & whenever we are in the market for rocks, mulch, dirt, etc we always go there because they are a local mom & pop type establishment & very nice to work with.

Now they usually sell you a bobcat loader full or 1/2 a bobcat loader, but obviously I didn't need that many! :) I took one of my reusable cloth shopping bags & asked how much to fill it 1/5 of the way up. He looked at me kinda funny so I explained it was for a craft project. He thought about it for a minute and said 50 cents. 50 cents I said SOLD!!!! I thought that was VERY REASONABLE! Here is half my load!

Here's the other half drying on a towel after I washed them up. (I forgot to take a picture of the bag before I washed a few of them! Oops!)

I thought it was a SCORE!

Then I pulled out my trusty chalkboard spray paint & painted away. And WHOLA! Chalkboard rocks for the bargain price of 50 cents! I already had the paint!

After

Now you see that cool Apothecary jar that my beautiful new rocks are displayed in, as well as the others you see in the background? Well those aren't from Pottery Barn either. But here are some of their versions.

 Photo from Pottery Barn

Their version of the Apothecary Jars & Voluminous Canisters range in price from $39 to $69! OUCH!

Well being the thrifty lady I am, I would N~E~V~E~R pay that kind of price for a vase.

I have seen SEVERAL tutorials out here in blog land on making your own Dollar Store version of these, like this tutorial, over at Design-Aholic. So I set out to watch for some good deals on vases & candle sticks at my local thrift stores. I did find several of both ranging in price from 30 cents to no more than $2. I also picked up a few vases at the Dollar Tree in the medium height for $1 a piece.

Vases & Candlesticks~BEFORE

I used my trusty old Gorilla Glue and glued the two pieces together.

Used some books to give some weight to the vases for the glue to dry. Then WHOLA! 

Very reasonable priced Apothecary Vases! Each for no more than $3. Can't beat that!

AFTER

Now, this is what they look like all together with the fillers!

AFTER

Thanks Pottery Barn for your awesome inspiration once again! Thank you Dollar Tree & Salvation army for not making me go broke accessorizing my home for Halloween!

Skulls from the Dollar Tree (They also glow in the Dark)

Crow from the Dollar Tree, along with the nest & rock filler.

(*Pottery Barn also has a crows on their website, but their version is $3.50 and looks much smaller!)

Corks I had from my wine drinking habit..heehee and the skull I got from Menard's $1.99.

It is Fiber optic and changes from Red, Green, Blue.

Rats I got a set of 6 (3 black, 3 gray) from Walmart for $2 in their Halloween section.

*Pottery Barn has Sisal Rat filler too,

but theirs is $12 for 6.

Now on a side note. I LOVE the fact that the majority of this display I can use in the future & for other holidays & events. The Apothecary jars I can just change out the fillers from holiday to holiday.

The chalkboard rocks I can also change out each holiday or event!

Gotta LOVE multipurpose craftiness!!!!

Enjoy!

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