I am constantly collecting ideas for parties and weddings and other various events. I came across these adorable faerie lanterns and after drooling for a few minutes I got to down to figuring out how they were made.
I'm a big one for saying, I could make that, no need to buy! Then I never end up with whatever it is and instead have paved my road with good intentions and not much else. (and believe me, good intentions are no replacement for a decent winter wardrobe.....Brrrrr!)
I decide to set off into the cyber world and see if I could realistically make a set of six of these for less then $115.
Item one: Jar $4.75
It looks to me like it's a quart jar and after looking a few places the average seems to be about $4.75 for 6.
Item 2: Handle $10
After looking at the picture bigger it appears to be brown floral tape wrapped around wire, both of these items come in at least 5 yard packages and are less then $5 apiece. So, let's just say $10 for the handles, a package of each.
Item three: Wooden Hearts $1.75
You can get ten wooden hearts for $1.75, and we will allow for some messing around with the wood burner and say we need all ten.
Item four: Moss $10
The brown moss is way cheaper, but the green looks so much better. I'm not sure how much is in each jar, but think two one pound bags will be enough.
Item five: Mini Battery Powered Christmas Lights $35
By far the most expensive item and the one you are most likely going to have to buy online. They run about $3.75 a string and 6 sets would be $22.50, but since we are assuming online ordering I added some shipping cost in.
The grand total? $48.95!
So, yes Veronica not only is there a Santa Claus, but this time I could actually make this item for less then I could buy it! =)
I'm putting some links for the sites were I found the light *snicker* because they seem the most difficult to find. If you are planning an event and know you want to make these, after Christmas would be an excellent time, all those good sales on the decorations!
The craft items should be readily available at a craft store, and the jars at any grocery store. Come to think of it, I may have seen the light *snicker* at Micheal's for those little snow villages?
The craft items should be readily available at a craft store, and the jars at any grocery store. Come to think of it, I may have seen the light *snicker* at Micheal's for those little snow villages?
masked ball
Sometimes as I wend my way down the paths of faerie I wonder, are all the warnings I've gotten about fantasy true? Am I being ungodly and a bad witness by reading faerie tales? Hopefully this post will shed some light on what I've discovered!
The gospel does have many of the earmarks of a faerie tale. In faerie tales you have the poor boy who becomes rich, the leaden cabinet which turns out to have the treasure in it, the ugly duckling who turns out to be a swan, the frog who becomes a prince. Then we come to the gospel, where it's the Pharisees, the good ones, who turn out to be the villains. It's the whores and the tax collectors who turn out to be the good ones. Just as in faerie tales, there is the impossible happy ending when Cinderella does marry the prince, and the ugly duckling is transformed into a swan, so Jesus is not, in the end, defeated. He rises again. In all these ways there is a kind of faerie tale quality to the gospel, with the extra ordinary difference, of course, that this is the faerie tale that claims to be true. The difference is that this time it's not just a story being told-it's an event. It did happen! Here's a faerie tale come true.
By confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happens, you would fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them or make them endurable. For in the faerie tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime. It would be nice if no little boy in bed, hearing or thinking he hears, a sound, were ever frightened, I think it better he should think of giants and dragons then merely burglars. And I think St George, or any bright champion in armor, is a better comfort then the idea of police.