Birch Candle Holders

I've been seeing some birch decor lately, and I really like it.

For instance~this from

Sweet As June,

and this from

The Sherlock's Home.

I think this 

would be fun for spring. 
source

But I don't have a birch tree, and I have to wonder why. Why didn't I realize, 20 years ago, that I would some day want to do a project like this and plant a dang birch
tree?
I reviewed my options.

 I think a crazy lady sawing the branches off of birch trees in the park might be frowned upon.
Asking random neighbors to saw off a branch for me seemed a little off, too. 
I'm not about to buy a birch branch.

But when I was visiting my mom and dad, I noticed that their neighbors hadn't thrown out all debris from their fall clean up.

They had birch branches!

(I did ask them before I grabbed them and ran laughing like...well, a crazy lady.)

I wanted to make something simple out of them. Candle holders!

First, I cut the branch into random lengths.

 Then, because our drill has been decommissioned, I used my Dremel to hollow out spaces for the candles to go.
Be sure to wear gloves when using a Dremel~it's like a dentist's drill and could do some real damage very fast.

 (It almost looks like I'm using it, doesn't it? I did, but
not for the photo. Too much sawdust was flying around to get a really good picture.)

Then I used the sanding attachment to smooth out the holes.

(Again, no picture. Sawdust.)
Once the messy work was done, it was on to the fun stuff.

 I hot glued the candle holders to a white enamel platter I got at a flea market a few weeks ago.

 I put some gold berries around the base of the candle holders for some bling.

(I got them on clearance at Micheal's last year after Christmas.)

I had a bunch of white tapers I got at an estate sale, and I melted some wax in the holes so the candles would stick and not fall over. (Falling lit candles. Huge fire hazard.)

Then I put it near our table, 

should we ever want to eat by candlelight. 

(It could happen.)

I like how they turned out.
Rustic, but just enough glitz for me.

If you have some bigger branches, pillar candles would look nice, too.

My branches were too narrow for that.

This was a really easy project. 

Not much skill and absolutely NO money was required since I had everything on hand.

Thanks for reading!