DIY Grocery Store Centerpieces

Holiday entertaining can often be overwhelming. After making countless trips to the grocery store, who has time to take on a craft store shopping list as well? As a result, we often settle for whatever decorative elements we happen to have on hand — the same vases we’ve been using for years, filled with the first flowers spotted at the grocery store checkout line. Sometimes the most-interesting decorative elements are made with the most-ordinary materials. In this case, regular brown paper lunch sacks are transformed in one simple step, and when filled with monochromatic bunches of flowers in a holiday color palette, they are instantly taken from drab to fab.

By Camille Styles, photography by Molly Winters

Brown paper lunch sacks, a red ink pad and a rubber holiday stamp are all the materials you’ll need to create this unexpected table centerpiece. The instructions are simple: Press the stamp into the ink pad, then mark all over the paper sack in no particular order. Be sure to do this on every side of the bag so that the final product is pretty from every angle.

Once the ink is dry, carefully roll over the top edge of the bag two to three times to create a cuff. Bunch together your favorite grocery store flowers (we love alstroemerias for their vibrant color, low price and long shelf life) and slide them into a glass jar with a few inches of water. Slip the jar into the decorated bag, then set it in the center of your holiday table.

Most of us rely on coffee filters to prepare that essential cup of joe in the morning, but because they are so affordable and pliable, and they come in different sizes, coffee filters also make great craft materials! This simple project calls on the old snowflake-making technique we all learned in grade school to create a perfectly seasonal table runner; because this centerpiece lies flat, it’s sure to leave plenty of room for lots of yummy food.