Paper Lanterns as Tea Lights Shades - Much Safer Mid Autumn Festival

By
Lighting and putting up the colourful lanterns at Mid Autumn Festival is always a fun thing to do. The adults will guard the kids with the candle lighting and the hanging of the lanterns at first; 30 minutes later it is the adults who can't seem to stop playing with fire.

Paper Lanterns centrepiece

The traditional paper lanterns are our favourite but the problem is: it is extremely dangerous because the candles will either fall off halfway burning and burn the lantern up, or even if the candle manage to burn till the end it might still burn a big hole on the bottom of the lantern.

So I decided to revive these lanterns by cutting out the burnt bit on the bottom and make a large round opening, cup them over some tealights:




and serve as a beautiful centre piece on the coffee table:

Paper Lanterns centrepiece

Now they are a lot safer to handle, and could probably last much longer (and I can reuse them next year!).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't throw away that broken Umbrella just yet. Make a bag with the fabric.

By
Image
A new addition has just been added to our home for old and forgotten possessions, after having a few tweaks here and there. Meet our new shopping bag: But If I don't tell, I don't believe that anyone would've guessed its previous life, would you? Here's a little hint: the material is rain/water proof, and heat resistant to some extent; and is very light. That's right, it used to be my favourite umbrella which was crippled by the crazy wind in Nottingham during my last visit in June (2017). I always have this strange sentiment towards umbrellas, and I get really attached when I find one with prints that I really love (which is often not easy). Most of the time, when one breaks, it's the metal frame that's gone and the fabric is often still intact. And me being me, I absolutely hate to throw it away knowing that it could become something useful, somehow. Of course, there had been numerous deceased brollies in my life but never knew what to do
Read more

Handmade Decorative Lanterns from Used/Old Red Packets Ang Pow

By
Image
Ang Pao envelopes  a.k.a. the red packets , a must have's for Lunar New Year but also a thing that will become clutter over time. We can never get the right amount of a certain design, and we'll often be left with too many unused/odd ones. Although I've handmade some this year but there is still a stack too many from previous years and some of them have specific year or zodiac design on which can't be used for the following year. Growing up, we used to lots of fun making little lanterns with old red packets as festive decoration, and I think it's time to relive that sentiment. Instead of the usual squarish designs, this is one in a spheric form, using just 1 basic modular shape: Cut red packets (ang pao packets) into equal circles (about 8cm diameter) and draw an equal triangle on the reverse side. Fold on the triangle outlines, then glue the shapes together to get these: The 2 round shapes are for the top and the bottom, whilst the long strip goe
Read more

DIY Flash Drive Organizer

By
Image
Due to work, I have to keep quite a few flash drives - each for a different type of job or client - in my bag. Although there are small compartments in my bag, I still find myself having to ransack through other stuff in the same pocket to get to the right flash drive. I've looked everywhere for a flash drive organizer but I just can't find one that I like; and most importantly, I do try not to make unnecessary new purchases. So I went to get some inspiration and help from my sewing box, and made this: I found some fabric scrap big enough for my flash drive organizer pattern, an old zip I saved from some old clothes, and an old and partly used Ikea fleece blanket (which I've used some for the snake stuffed toy ). Here are the few simple steps of the making of the flash drive organizer that's now happily residing in my bag: 1. Little pockets sewn onto the inner layer, then wrapped around with the fabric.   2. Secure the sides with a basting stitch,
Read more