Twinkly Tealight Holders

Back in December, when I was drowning in a sea of tinsel, wrapping paper, and pine needles, I'd seen a brilliant post over at Christina's blog A Colourful Life (http://christinascolourfullive.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/sunday-evening-catch-up.html), and then, another lovely post on a really similar theme over at Gillian's Tales From a Happy House blog (http://www.talesfromahappyhouse.com/2014/12/alpine-tea-light-holders.html).

Both posts featured empty glass jars of some type, varying colours of tissue paper and watery glue .... the making of tealight holders. What fun :) I mean, who wouldn't enjoy designing a tealight holder and then making it in the comfort of your own kitchen with Christmas sweets to hand ? The answer to that question is that apparently 11 year old boys with autism don't enjoy it. Tantrums a-plenty. The mess; the scissors being too blunt, too big, too small; the paper not cutting right; the colour being wrong; the pieces not being square ..... but you live and learn, eh ?! So it was just us girls then.

We set about making a design each on paper first. Mainly so I could gather all the necessary materials without twenty questions at the same time.  And if you are a 10 year old girl it is practically the Law that all design type projects require One Direction pencils. Luckily Little Miss has a few.

Little Miss was the self-proclaimed expert, having done decopatching (to use the grown-up term) at both school and Brownies. She is the most laid back of my children and just got on with it, a lovely quick sketch of a rainbow and then she just dived straight in. 

Little Tomboy is a bit fussier, and wanted a very precise design (oh groan - precise usually spells disaster in 7 year olds I've found - expectation rarely matches end result. I helped her design a Stampy-Cat face (those of you with Minecrafters may know what I'm on about) which luckily she was very happy with once its decopatching interpretation was complete.

I went for a sort of glowing heart against a cool blue backdrop. No sketch. Life on the edge. All we needed was some  empty jars (rummage in the garage), ordinary tissue paper (rummage in children's craft box), children's paint brushes (rummage in paint sets and give several brushes a good wash - yuck), and watered down PVA glue. I was fairly unscientific, I used maybe about 1 part water to 2 parts PVA but I think I should have made it more watery. Another lesson learned! Our materials were gathered, we got stuck in to choosing paper, and then chopping it up.

Then it's just a case of pasting and layering. I guess there are a million and one ways to achieve differing effects, but we kept it simple. Paste some glue over an area of the jar, lay on a small square, paste some glue over it to sort of seal it, repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Totally relaxing, really calming, very zen. You can't really go wrong. And if you do, just pick it off, or cover it up, or go with the flow and change your design as you go along.

Loads of fun. I may or may not have continued on my own for an hour after Little Miss and Little Tomboy wandered off .......

I did another 4 (yes, f.o.u.r) jars, er, I mean tealight holders, one to represent each season. 

For winter, a blue background with a few stars twinkling through. 

For spring, some tulips against a light greeny-blue background.

For summer, greens, blues, and pinks in a rainbow affair.

For autumn, orange, red, and purple to resemble fiery tones.

As the afternoon grew darker, and I realized I really should stop messing about and cook something for tea, I called it a day - it was time to light the candles - hurray :D

Aaaah lovely. Don't you love the soft twinkliness glowing through the semi opaque layers of colour. Very calming, and soooo pretty :)