Use A Dollar Tree Pool Noodle To DIY Gorgeous Light-Up Floral Decor

Thanks to their versatility, pool noodles have become the floral decor equivalent of the all-in-one tool. Keep 'em whole, and they do one thing. Cut 'em up, they turn into another. That's what makes them so useful when you're constructing something like a DIY candleholder vase. And when you bring Dollar Tree into your creative process, you know that you're going to end up with a budget-friendly candle display that's darn purty, too.

A colorful foam pool noodle from the dollar discount store is the first item you'll need for this DIY. It gives height to the decor piece (though the pool noodle is cleverly concealed inside a glass vase, thanks to some well-placed Floral Garden Gerber daisy bushes). As for the candle itself, DT has many options for you to choose from. Keep in mind that a piece like the Luminessence white LED pillar candle is fairly wide — 2.5 inches, at least. Because of this, whatever Dollar Tree vase you choose for the candle display needs to be wider than that. Fortunately, DT has about as many vases to choose from as it does candles. As such, your best bet is to test out which candles fit into which vases while you're still in the store. 

Finally, like most pool noodle hacks, you'll need to have some tools to take this project from idea to reality. A ruler, a utility knife, and a pair of scissors allow you to trim the pool noodle and the flowers. You'll also need a single bamboo skewer. This makes working with the flowers a little easier when it comes time to press them into the vase.

First, the pool noodle needs to be trimmed down. It should be tall enough to become a hidden height booster for the candle. Ideally, when you place the candle on top of the noodle, the top of the candle will stand about an inch below the rim of the vase.  The height of the noodle will vary, based on the size of the vase and the candle. Place the noodle in the vase. Next, snip the heads off of eight to 12 flowers. Push the florals down around the pool noodle with the skewer so that they rest between the walls of the vase and the pool noodle. The florals should hide the pool noodle. Finally, place the candle on top.

For a simple design, you can use just a single flower type. However, the arrangement gets additional visual depth and texture if you mix flowers. And to make the florals look more natural, add some greenery, too. The fern leaves in the Floral Garden artificial green foliage picks work nicely here. 

If you'd like to maximize the mood of your candle decor piece, make a double-glass display. This design puts a single, smaller votive candle (in its own small glass jar) inside a larger vase. To do this, make the DIY up until the point where you add the candle. Instead of dropping an LED candle inside, add a Luminessence glass votive candle instead. The votive candle's glass container should shield the flowers from the heat of the flame. A DT glass cylinder vase is wide enough to fit the votive candles inside if you'd like to try this version of the candle craft.