DIY Gold Mercury and Gold Ombre

Um...how is Thanksgiving only a week away?!?  It's even relatively late this year, and I'm still in shock that we're already here!!!  We will be hosting the big dinner at our house this year, so I've been busy plotting menu, decor, seating, and all things Turkey Day!
As I started coming up with inspiration for place settings and tablescapes, I was instantly drawn to metallics, especially when mixed with natural elements (kind of like our mantle...which works so I won't have to worry about changing it!).  I actually have burlap tablecloths on hand, so I won't have to worry about that part either.  But I did need some things for table centerpieces.
So I headed out to the Dollar Store and picked up some taller vases and smaller vases.  I also picked up a can of gold spray paint, so I could get all this glass looking gold!
While I did find some tutorials for the mercury, I pretty much winged it on both projects...and they both turned out pretty good (I think).  So here's the basics of how to do them:
Gold Mercury
Spray the inside of your container with gold spray paint.  Repeat 3-4 times.  Allow to dry 10 minutes or so in between coats.  Allow them to dry for at least an hour. Use a spray bottle to squirt apple cider vinegar into the vases or just put a little apple cider vinegar on a paper towel.  Either way, you're aiming for random areas where the paint will flake off when scrubbed.  I had read of people struggling, but mine actually came off easily...almost too easily, so if yours does that, just scrub at your own discretion.  Spray the inside again with gold paint, and then repeat the vinegar removal process, choosing some new spots and some old spots.  I did this 3 more times total, but just kind of wing it and stop when you're satisfied with how your "mercury" looks.  I suggest putting a candle in it (I used an electric one), so you can really see how it will look all lit up when trying to decide if you're done!

Gold Ombre
These were inspired by some silver ombre drinking glasses I saw at Target.  I loved them, but I'm not really doing silver...and Josh probably wouldn't have been a fan of me buying all new drinking glasses for Thanksgiving when we already have some!  So, I decided to recreate the look and make them vases instead.  So simple by the way.  Basically, I taped off each vase at about 4 inches down (I didn't measure...just eyeballed it) and gave it few coats of gold spray paint, letting it dry about 10 minutes in between.  Then, I taped off another few inches down, and just gave it one light coat of spray paint...from about a foot away... and voila!

I was so excited about my new gold accessories that I decided to give my Thanksgiving table (well one of them...we have 16 people coming so far, so we're going to need to bring in a couple more!) a test run.  

It still has a way to go obviously...like adding actual flowers to the vases and candles to the votives, jazzing up the runner (which is really just wrapping paper), adding some pizazz to the place settings, and hopefully even finding better/larger pumpkins (or something else) for the center, but I think it's working out pretty well!  And considering everything was either previously owned or from the Dollar Store, I'm feeling pretty good about our budget for it as well:)  With a week to go, I'm thinking we may actually be ready when the big day arrives!