Easter centerpiece

Recently we were asked to come up with centerpieces for a women's luncheon at our church. The challenge was we needed to be able to make 15 while being very cost conscious. We, of course, added obstacles of our own like it needed to have some height so it didn't get lost in the large room and we wanted each of them to be the same, but different. Here is what we did.

We cut dead Magnolia branches in different sizes and tied them into a cross with raffia. Then we wound thin dead oak branches into a circle for the crown of thorns and tied those with raffia. If there were any little branches going off of them we clipped them short so they looked like the thorns. We placed very large palm fronds under each one to fill the round tables. You can't really see it from the photo, but the branches even had lichens on them which greatly added to their visual interest. As you know, I like working with items from nature. It is always cost conscious and has a natural beauty with no product waste when you are done. We gave them away after the luncheon, but I had to keep these three to photograph. When I saw them together like this, I knew I had to post this as an Easter centerpiece. Simple, beautiful, meaningful.....check, check, check.