Hello all! I'm delighted to be back in the Designer Spotlight for the second of my October guest posts for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. I was so inspired by the fabulous Mood Board which forms this week's challenge theme prompt... and I love where that inspiration took me! There will be a YouTube Few Minutes of Fun video later this week with the full process for these altered candle lanterns but, for today, I hope you'll enjoy taking a look at the finished results here.
This week we're inspired by a gorgeous autumnal moodboard - and we hope you will be too. Do check out all the incredible projects over on the main challenge blog - as always, the team have created some glorious makes to get your creative juices flowing!
My project is a three dimensional one, inspired by the candles, the autumn leaves and fir branches, the black-framed umbrella with those wonderful raindrops... well, almost everything really.
Here's that mood board so that you can see for yourselves what I'm talking about from here on in! As soon as I saw the candlelight and those vintage spectacles, my brain went straight to candle lanterns. I've altered a lot of old jars to create candle holders over the years... but you can never have too many candles, right?!
As I mentioned, there'll be a video where you can follow along the whole process coming out this Saturday (I'll add links to that here once it's live), but for now, here's a quick outline of what I did. First I made sure my jar was nice and clean. And then I glued on some of the gorgeous Tim Holtz Idea-ology Halloween Collage Paper using some matte medium.
I have to say, I don't find this paper particularly spooky - it's simply beautiful with its mixture of text, music, organic natural elements and decorative ironwork.
I love the ornate iron gates. And the imagery includes some greenery which works well to echo the shadowy fir branches in the left-hand picture in the mood board.
I wanted some shimmering autumnal leaves too, of course. Those glowing leaves on the left of the mood board were the second thing to catch my eye after the candlelight...
I always have a big batch of them cut at this time of year, so I had some ready to go. (You can watch a YouTube video for those too, right here.) As well as the Bigz Layered Leaf die, these are a mixture of the Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits sets Fall Foliage and Leaf Fragments layered up together.
There's Distress Mica Stain - Jack O'Lantern and Flickering Candle - in amongst the Distress Spray Stains - Vintage Photo, Crackling Campfire and Rusty Hinge, as well as many more. With all the shimmer on the leaves, with either the sunlight or the candlelight catching them, they even have that glow that you see on the mood board. (This is the large Layered Leaf Bigz die, which comes with its own embossing folder to create the texture.)
Not only did that give me a nice neat finish around the screw top part of the jar, but it also echoes the gold frames of the spectacles... especially when seen from above!
The black metal spokes of the umbrella inspired me to create some wire handles out of simple garden wire, and I thought I'd like some raindrops too, like the ones shimmering on the clear plastic of that umbrella.
So I dug some round droplets (flat-backed) out of my stash and used Glossy Accents to stick them onto the jars, in fairly random places.
I love the additional texture they add but even more than that I love the way they catch the light as the jars move, and as the candles flicker.
Because, of course, that's the magic moment with these jars. They look good in bright sunlight when they seem most solid...
They look good when the light is behind them and you can really appreciate the translucence of the collage paper...
But maybe they look best of all when those tealights are lit and flickering away inside!
I'll be sharing a Reel of the daylight and nighttime looks over on Instagram, but you can also see the candles lit in the YouTube video from Saturday onwards.
I hope you'll be able to take advantage of at least one of those options to see these candle lanterns in action, moving from day to night...
I hope that's given you a kick start of inspiration for the beautiful challenge Mood Board this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. As always, the incredible team regulars have offered up a wealth of wonderful projects, so do make sure you hop over to check those out. As ever, they'll be spotlighting some of your creations at the end of the week, and of course there's the usual Simon Says Stamp voucher to be won in a random draw, so that you can treat yourself to a little shopping spree!
I can't wait to hear what you think of these lanterns - I think they're some of my favourite candle jars that I've made - and I hope you'll join us this week in creating something inspired by this beautiful autumnal Mood Board.
And just to tempt you even further to visit the YouTube Few Minutes of Fun episode on Saturday... you'll see more than just these two lit up at the end!!
Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy crafting, all!
If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others.
Plato
I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.
Emily Dickinson
If you light a lantern for another, it will also brighten your own way.
Nichiren