Lots of tea light holders

These vellum candle shades are one of my all time favorite Cricut projects - very simple to do and so pretty.  You can read about how to make them at THIS POST.

Do you remember the candle holders I made for Halloween using the orange lids from Tropicana Orange juice bottles?

(Just click the photos to go to the original posts)

The orange color was perfect for Halloween and I collected some extras thinking that I could spray paint them for Christmas.

Well, here is some good news - if you buy the "orange juice beverage" that comes in this bottle it already has a red top - perfect for Christmas versions of the tea light holders.

I  have another idea for a way to use two of these bottle tops together - any guesses?

Today we will take a day trip to Toledo.  Everyone tells us it is a beautiful city with lots to see.  We will be trying out the marzipan candy that is made in all sorts of interesting tiny shapes - and yes, I will take photos!

(I am on a trip to see our son and daughter-in-law in Spain this week.  I wanted those of you on the email subscription to have something arrive each morning as usual, so I am sharing photos and short updates.  If I have internet access and time I will try to add some new photos from Spain when possible.  I have lots of crafty projects lined up to tackle when we get back, so stay tuned!).

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Spiderweb Tea Lights (with files)

Last week I posted some tealight holders for Halloween.  The bases are actually the lids from some Tropicana Orange Juice bottles - a great way to recycle.  If you missed this post you can find it HERE.

On the original tea lights, I used vellum rolled into a cylinder and embellished with punches and Creative Charms gems.  These are fast and easy to make.  I mentioned that you could design covers to cut on a machine and had several requests for files.  I decided to make a file for the Cricut and one for the Silhouette.

 For the Cricut file, I used a rectangle (from the George cartridge but you can substitute any rectangle) and the spiderweb from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge (this cartridge has lots of great extras on the feature keys).

I have used this spiderweb before for other projects and I set the size at 2 1/2 inches since this size had cut well in the past.  The overlaps for welding are very tiny but they cut neatly.  The base rectangle is 6 inches by 1 1/4 inches.

The overlap needed to make the six inch strip fit the juice lid holder is about 1/4 inch.  I added some strong adhesive along the edge and rolled up the base.

 Here is the spiderweb in the holder without a vellum liner.  I don't really like the look of the plastic flame from the battery operated tea light.  Of course it would be too dangerous to use an open flame candle, so I decided to use some vellum again to mask the plastic flame.

 The vellum softens the effect of the flame and gives more of a glow to the light.  I could have made the black collar a bit shorter but i wanted to be sure that there would be a good amount of overlap for the adhesive.  If you prefer to have the black band hidden,you could start with a shorter rectangle.

For the Silhouette version, I used the spiderweb that is one of the free designs included with the Silhouette Studio software.  I have cut incredibly tiny lines with my Silhouette SD so I tried a smaller size spiderweb for this design (about 1 1/2 inches tall).  This spiderweb is not slanted so I could make more of a grid pattern with the webs.

These very thin webs cut beautifully.  I used ordinary black cardstock that is usually sold quite inexpensively in packs of 25 or 50 at the big box craft stores.  I set the Silhouette at "Medium Cardstock" but I left on the pink cap that is used for heavier cardstock instead of changing the cap to yellow.

Once again, I didn't care for the exposed look of the plastic "flame" so I added a vellum liner.

The vellum gives a more finished look to the candle.  I found it easiest to simply roll the vellum a bit tighter than the spiderweb cut and slip it inside. 

When I added the adhesive to the edge of the vellum rectangle, I left a little bit exposed and then I could push the loose ends of the webs against the adhesive to keep everything in place.

Here are the two lights side by side - the different styles of spiderwebs create a different effect for each light.

The light in the center is the first one that I made with a spiderweb strip from a Martha Stewart border punch.  There are many more variations possible - so have fun experimenting with whatever tools and machines you have!

I have files to share for the two examples in this post.  I made the Cricut file in Design Studio but saved it as a .gypsy file so you can use it with Design Studio or the Gypsy.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email.  If you download the files and use them, I'd love to see your web candles!

Spiderweb Tea Light  (Silhouette)

Spiderweb Tea Light (Gypsy)

It was another lovely day here and we saw lots of colorful foliage on our way to visit family.  When we got home, I made the Swedish Apple Pie (recipe was in the post HERE) and remembered to take a photo of the finished pie - so easy to make and super delicious!


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Upcycle a Bottle Top with Creative Charms

Upcycling combines crafting and recycling to create new, interesting and useful things from ordinary objects that might otherwise be thrown away.  Today is my day to post on the Creative Charms blog and I shared these tea light holders made from a very ordinary object.

Our family likes Tropicana orange juice.  It used to come in cartons, but just recently it started to appear in these bottles.

The only identifying mark on the lid is on the top.  This will not be seen since the top becomes the bottom for this project.

As soon as I saw these new lids an idea popped into my head - the pointed pattern on the outsidemade me think of Halloween...

...and the center circle was just the right size to hold a battery operated tealight!  There is a slight gap between the inner screw top and the outer lid - perfect to hold a piece of vellum upright.

I measured carefully and determined that a piece of vellum cut at six inches and overlapped by about 1/4 inch to form a tube would fit neatly in the gap.  For the first light, I cut the vellum at 6 inches by 4 inches.

I punched a spiderweb strip with the Martha Stewart Deep Edger Spiderweb punch.  I used some Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive along the center line to adhere the strip to the vellum.

I placed the trim on the vellum at about an inch from the top and 1/4 inch from the side edge.  Then I used my adhesive tape gun to place adhesive along the short edge.

I rolled the vellum into a cylinder and stuck the edges together.  Then I trimmed off the excess spiderweb border.

I added some large gradient gem stickers to the triangle sections of the lid.

Then I added some tiny gem stickers to the tips of the triangles. 

I used the punched trim to keep this project very simple.

 

You could easily design a shade similar to the one I did several years ago with various Halloween images (you can read more about this lantern HERE).

For the second light, I used a piece of vellum six by three inches and punched the top with a Martha Stewart border punch of spiders.  I added little black gem stickers to the spider bodies.

For the third light, I cut the vellum at two by six inches and added some leaf shaped gems and sequins from the  Fall Medley.  I attached these to the vellum with glue dots and left a short gap for the 1/4 inch seam.

I added an extra sequin leaf over the seam so the pattern would be consistent.

You could make these without the orange juice lids but they add color and a firm base to each tea light.  If you wanted to make these for another holiday, you could spray paint the lids to make the bases in your chosen color.  I think they would look nice in gold for Christmas.

I used different colors and varied the placement and sizes of the gems on each holder.

The battery operated tea lights stay cool and there is little danger of the light touching the vellum since it sits in a separate channel.

The other project I posted for Creative Charms is this Autumn card.  I have always liked the word art on this Cuttlebug folder.

I started with some ordinary kraft cardstock cut at 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches and folded in half for an A2 card.  I placed the front of the card in the Cuttlebug folder and embossed the design.

Next I colored the words "Autumn" and "Blessings" with my ProMarkers so they would stand out on the card front.

I used Cinnamon for "Autumn" and Walnut for "Blessings." It is fairly easy to stay on the embossed area and slight wobbles won't matter in the end.

The next step was to spray the entire card front with Glimmer Mist.  I used my favorite color, "Sun Sisters," which gives a lovely sparkle and glow.

I used my embossing heat gun to speed up the drying of the glimmer mist.

The inside of the card is not very attractive after coloring and the spraying warped the cardstock just a bit so I added a liner to the card.

I cut a piece of ivory cardstock at 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches and folded it in half.  I added adhesive all over the top and centered the liner in the card.  Then I closed the embossed card top over the adhesive and fixed the liner in position.

The back part of the liner stays free and allows space for an extra message.  Since it is not attached to the back the card will open and close easily.

It is very hard to capture the sparkle of the Glimmer Mist in a photo but the effect is very pretty and it totally changes the look of the raw kraft cardstock.

The  Knitter's Garden - Orange Flowers looked too much like Spring for this card so I added  Amber Vintage Brads and an Amber Vintage Marble Brad to the centers.

The flowers take on a more elegant look with the brads added.

I filled in with some leaf sequins from the Fall Medley .  Everything is attached with glue dots - first the gold leaves and then the flowers.

Creative Charms Mini-Giveaway winner...

The winner from the comments on my last Creative Charms posts chosen by random.org was Yelowflower

Could you please contact me with your mailing information as soon as possible?  I'll be sending you...

...an assortment of leaf gems and sequins to use for your own cards.

Please stop over to the Creative Charms blog HERE to see all of the Design Team projects.  Be sure to leave a comment on my post with these projects. Once again, I'll  have little giveaway for someone who comments here or on the Creative Charms blog (leave a comment in both places to double your chances).

You do not have to be a blog follower to win, however, if you like my blog and want to show your support for my work, please do follow or subscribe.  I also have a Capadia Designs Facebook page HERE and if you "like" that page you will see my daily posts in your news feed.

I wonder how many of you will start looking through your fridge for bottle caps to alter - do you like orange juice?  If you do some upcycling be sure to let me know and send a photo if you can.

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