Tuesday 7 June 2011

Tea light holders

It is coming up to the summer solstice / midsummer / Litha, it's celebrated on the 21st June and is the longest day of the year, so we thought we would make some Tea light holders from old, recycled jars to use in the garden. In the lovely summer evenings these lanterns look very pretty hanging from branches, and give the garden a magical touch.


This craft can very easily be done by children, but it does require that an adult first makes the handle from wire if the children are very small. The wire handles above were twisted by my husband and he has used various methods and wires to do this.


This one is the simplest one, the wire has been wound round the top of the jar, twisted together and then the handle has been looped through and bent up.


This one has had a loop incorporated into wire each side of the jar and then wound round and fastened off. The handle has then been added as shown above.


This handle on this jar has been made by twisting the thin copper wire salvaged from a coil in the back of an old computer power supply. So choose your method of fixing and type of wire and once this part has been done anyone can decorate the lanterns, even small children or they can be left plain.


The blue jar has been sprayed with glass paint to give it this wonderfully deep colour and it is quite possible to use stencils to get a design on the jar but we have chosen to add star shaped sequins. We call this one 'the starry night lantern'.


Next we tried to make a lantern look like it was surrounded by fireflies, some have been stuck on the jar and some have been suspended on wire to give the illusion that they are flying around the flame. So this is 'the firefly lantern'.


We decided to leave the little hexagonal jar plain as the light reflects nicely and the last jar was decorated with leaf skeletons as you can see below. The photograph enlarges if you click on it, in case you need a closer look.


The decorations are purely personal choice and you could really go to town with this and be as ornate as you like,my daughter was considering jewels. This is a lovely way to recycle jars and they make a nice touch to the garden.


This is the starry night lantern hanging in my willow tree in the grotto, looks lovely all lit up but my photographs after dark did not come out too well. If you are hanging the lanterns please be sure you do it safely, make sure they can't be knocked down and smashed, or that pieces of the tree will not catch fire.


The lanterns after dark look really quite beautiful and definitely add a touch of magic and a hint of romance.

25 comments:

  1. :)

    Another great idea, and cobalt blue just happens to be my fav colour so I'm really liking the starry one.

    Do you know, I think you could write an excellent children's (that adults would enjoy too!) craft book. Just a thought . . .

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  2. thank-you for visiting and your wonderfully kind comment :)

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  3. Gorgeous! What a delightful way to create lanterns for the yard. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  4. I love these lanterns, especially the one with the suspended fire-flies. I bet they look wonderful on a summer's evening.
    x

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  5. thank-you for reading and your lovely comments :)

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  6. Oh my these look so pretty and have me running off to look in our jar cupboard. My son would adore them too!


    Thank you for linking up to Kids Get Crafty!!! Always a pleasure to have you stop by!

    Maggy

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  7. thank-you for reading, we love your link ups :)

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  8. Wow! Those look amazing!!!! How clever are they? The firefly one is definitely my favourite! Thank you for linking up to Handmade Thursday! :)

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  9. thank-you for reading, lots of people love the firefly one, I think that one is my daughters favourite too :)

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  10. those look fab and a grt way to recycle :)
    @missdaisy32

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  11. think these are so sweet you could do all sorts with them.

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  12. thank-you both for reading and your very kind comments :)

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  13. They are so beautiful and a much more romantic use for old jars than we tend to use them for - making pickled onions!!

    I love the blue starry night ones. Great idea. x

    @missielizzieb

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  14. thank-you for reading, we love pickles too, I've tried to use the ones that don't reseal properly for the lanterns :)

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  15. They look great lit, I can just imagine how wonderful it must be out in the garden with them hanging from the branches.

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  16. they do look really magical, thank-you for reading :)

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  17. Thanks for sharing. I love these they are so cute and magical. I will have to try some of these with my kids.

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  18. Found your sweet blog today and wanted to say hi!

    I love your candle jars, so cute and useful!

    Bee happy x
    Have a delicious day!

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  19. thank-you for visiting and your lovely comments :)

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  20. I just discovered your blog and thought I'd stop by and say hello :) Those look so pretty! I'd never thought of spray painting the jars. I've got a lilac tree in my garden that these would look lovely hung off, thank you x

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  21. thank-you for your lovely comment, I think the lanterns would look wonderful in a lilac tree :)

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  22. what a lovely idea!
    i was trying to think of something for my garden for this solstice...guess what i will be doing tomorrow!

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  23. thank-you for visiting, they do look magical in the garden after dark :)

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  24. Your tea light holders are so pretty! It's a lovely idea for the summer solstice and a great use for empty jars! Thank you so much for sharing this with the All Year Round Carnival. :) I've featured your post here: http://sunnydaytodaymama.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/all-year-round-week-nineteen-7-summer.html

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    1. Thank-you, I have been really enjoying all the carnival posts :)

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