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*** Please excuse my terribly bland and awkward blog appearance. I'm working hard on making it look pretty . . . it's QUITE time consuming!! ***

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Show Us What You're Workin' With Wednesday #2

First off let me apologize for being MIA this last week. We are in the process of moving, so I have been busy trying to get things organized so this move can be as smooth as possible. I have a lot of projects in my head so I PROMISE I won't leave you again :)

So, the time has come for my 2nd "Show Us What You're Workin' With Wednesday" party. I still can't believe how many of you FABULOUS darlings actually linked up ...23 TO BE EXACT!!! I am honored that you linked up and hope to have you back every week to come. I really want to feature a few of your projects and I will for sure get to that first thing tomorrow morning, but for now let's get to this weeks project ...


This SUPER cute, SUPER easy and SUPER-DUPER cheap t-lite chandelier. Ok, I've always wanted a cute little t-lite chandelier, but I've never wanted to spend $40 on one when I knew I could make one for tons less. I only ended up spending $3.00 for this because I had everything on hand except for the metal hoop. Now, for the tute:


I started with this 20" metal hoop from the craft store. They come in all sorts of sizes, how cute would a cluster of 3 smaller ones hung at different heights be??!?!!? OOOOHHH I'M SOOO DOING THAT!! I spray painted it white, do you think it's time for me to get a new piece of cardboard? YUCK, it looks so messy!!


I have a bunch of these little gems from my Pier 1 days. They are only $.50 each, so even if you aren't a crazy person like me and don't have a stockpile of them, you can buy them without breaking the bank.


I chose to use 8 holders for this chandelier, but you could always use less or more, whatever you like best!! The bottom of the t-lite holders aren't completely flat, there is a bit of a rim around the edges so to level it out I hot glued circles to the bottoms. I just used my hole punch, but if you don't have them you can just as easily trace the circles and then cut them out by hand.


Now it's time to glue the holders to the hoop. *** This picture was before I glued the circles to the bottom, but you get the idea. *** I turned the holders upside down and spaced them out evenly around the hoop. I just eyeballed it, I don't really have the patience to bust out the tape measure and make it perfect, but more power to ya if you want to measure.


I busted out my gorilla glue epoxy and glued these babies to the hoop. I used a scrap piece of wood to put over the top of the hoop once everything was glued and added some weight to help keep the connections tight between the t-lite holders and the hoop, while the glue dried. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? I would have taken a picture of it, but my "weights" were Ghetto!!! Seriously, I used my sewing machine, my cricut, and an old licorice tub full of glass gems ... SOOOIF THAT'S NOT CLASS I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS!!! I let it dry over night.


After the glue was dry, I didn't like the "wet" look the glue still had so I cut out 8 more paper circles and glued them over the hoop. It looked a lot better this way anyway, because it covered the hoop too. Now it's time to add some ribbon!!


I actually had a tutu that I started making a while back and never finished, so I decided to use the ribbons and tulle from that to make this little beauty. I'm all for recycling and re-using stuff I already have around the house, and it cut down on production time since all the pieces were already cut. BUT, I'm sure that most of you don't have half finished tu-tus lying around, so cut the ribbon/tulle between 24" and 30" unless you want all the ribbons hanging at the same length. To attach the ribbons/tulle fold the piece in half and bring the ends up through the loop. You can always just tie them on if you like, I just happen to like the look of doing it the other way.


Keep tying the ribbons on until you get the desired look you want. Now cut 4 pieces of ribbon at about 32", these will be what you use to hang the chandelier. I spaced them out evenly, burned the ends and glued them onto the hoop. *** I took 2 inches of one side of the ribbon under the hoop and hot glued it to the longer side of the ribbon. *** You could also hand stitch it if you want, but this chandelier is very light and the hot glue does the trick for me.


I took the ends of the ribbons and tied them in a knot and hung her on the ceiling. Since you cut the ribbons at 32" you can choose to hang your chandy at a variety of heights leaving as much or as little of the ribbon tails hanging down as you like. Put some t-lites in, light 'em up and enjoy the pretty glow of your new chandelier!! Not too shabby for 3 bucks, right??!!

I'M THINKING ABOUT GIVING THIS AWAY AS A GIVEAWAY, WHAT DO YOU THINK? I HAVE NO WHERE TO HANG THIS SINCE I DON'T HAVE A LITTLE GIRL ... HAHA. LET ME KNOW!!


A FEW TIPS:

* Make sure to fray check or burn the ends of all your ribbons to help prevent fraying
* Make sure to not glue your hanging ribbons right next to a t-lite holder, you don't want to start a fire :)
* HAVE FUN and if you make one of these little darlins', let me know, I WANNA SEE!!!!

and you know I gotta show some linky love ... I'm attending these parties!!


OK, NOW ITS PARTY TIME!!! THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR JOINING ME THIS WEEK, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!


9 comments:

  1. The tea light is DARLING!!! It is something I have never seen before. All 3 of my daughters dance and they all share a bedroom too. I just may have to follow your tutorial and make one myself. So CLEVER!!!

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  2. Hi Jessica, I love that chandelier, with all the tulle and glowing T-lights, however I keep fearing about starting a fire anyway, so wouldn't dare to make one even if I love it so! Awesome idea, though! I came from Someday Crafts party to check this out, but saw our party and couldn't but help linking..Hope you like it!

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  3. Found you thru Someday crafts! Love the chandelier, wish I had a girlie space to hang something like that but there is a whole lotta Y chromosomes in my house :)

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  4. So pretty! When I have a daughter, I'm making one for her.

    Thank you for linking up to A Little Craft Therapy with Life in the Pitts.

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  5. How cool! {and I am loving your blog name...I was called "bucket" when I was little!}

    m ^..^

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  6. I'm late, I'm late...for a very important date!! I hope it is ok that I'm joining you and hope to join in more in the future. It is so nice to find you and participate in a great meme.

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  7. Wow! That's amazingly creative and beautiful!

    Thanks for linking up to Make it Yours day!

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