Happy Holidays To One And All

Since our family dinner will be on the 26th, I still have a few days to prepare... so today I finished this year's table decoration for the seven of us who will be together Boxing Day at daughter's home:

Individual lanterns for each person's place at the table. Since it is made from chipboard and cardstock, a battery-powered candle was essential ;)

I didn't have Tim Holtz' cool new lantern die, so I used the next best thing... his awesome window and window box dies! I also used my 50% off coupon to get 12 battery-powered tealights at Michaels... the only new thing I purchased for this project - the rest of the supplies were from my stash.

I thought it would be easier to paint them before they were cut, so I got out seven sheets of chipboard, painted both sides a primer of white, then a layer of silver acrylic paint. Then I cut each 12 x 12 sheet in four, making them the size of the die and ran them through my Cuttlebug. I also found some thin plywood in my stash and made seven wooden bases, 4 by 4 inches each and also painted both sides silver.

I didn't know what to do for the roofs though, so I Googled some lantern images and found this shape... I played around with the design and made a template to cut and score 28 pieces, gluing the tabs to create removable rooftops (so the candle can be lifted out and turned on or off).

Once I had all the parts ready, the production line assembly began. My 12mm Scortape was perfect to attach the window boxes to the bottom of each window. I clipped off the decorative edge of two of the windows in each set, as well as the bottom edges of the other two. That way, they would fit snugly together.

I think I found these plastic bags at a thrift store a long time ago; I thought they would be perfect for protecting ATC cards; little did I know they would also be the perfect width for window panes in this project! All I had to do was cut them down to 4 inches long.

Then I used my Scortape to attach the windows together, as well as adhering the plastic to the back side of the windows.

I used Glossy Accents and fine fake snow (I had picked up from the Dollar Store months ago) to create frost in the windows and on the roofs.

After taping and gluing the windows to the bases I added some Buffalo snow inside and out, a battery tea light candle, a pine cone and holly for decoration. I had exactly seven wreaths and hung them from silver thread too.

I hope everyone enjoys this year's take-home Christmas craft... a tradition I love to continue!

Happy Christmas! Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season.