inspiration monday

have you discovered creativebug?  it's a fabulous site that hosts a variety of fabulous workshops....and when i saw this free workshop taught by kelly wilkinson,  i was instantly inspired to add my own Christmas touches and a few variations!  here's how, using some tracing paper, Christmas themed rubber stamps, a large acrylic stamp block, staz-on ink, waxed paper, and washi tape.... 

first, arrange your stamps in a shape that can be easily stamped many times

 to create one large repeated image, and then place them onto your acrylic block.

decorate a piece of square tracing paper (mine measures 9"x9")
 by stamping the images in an alternating pattern using staz-on ink,
or another permanent ink that won't smear on the tracing paper.

(you may want to place a piece of scrap paper under the edge
of your tracing paper to protect your surface.)

cut your tracing paper in four equal pieces

(my four stamped pieces measure 4.5"x4.5")

now stack your four papers on top of each other and secure them by placing 

a few pieces of low-tac tape around the edges to keep them from shifting.

cut a template from scratch paper and place on top of your
decorated papers and trace around the edges.

now carefully cut out your shape using an exacto knife.

(you can cut all four papers at the same time since the tracing paper is so thin)

cut 8 pieces of waxed paper that measure 1/2" larger than your
stamped tracing papers (my waxed papers measure 5"x5").

center one piece of stamped tracing paper between two pieces of

waxed paper,  matching the edges and corners. 

do this for all four pieces of your stamped tracing paper.

now quickly run a hot iron over the entire area of your waxed paper.

the heat will melt the wax, enabling the layers to stick together.

lay your squares next to each other and join them together with a piece of

washi tape.  fold the tape ends to the inside, and place another piece of tape

on the inside to cover the seam.

fold at the seam and burnish using a bone folder.

do this for all four pieces until you have a square.....
place a battery-operated candle inside and enjoy!

and here's another variation!  use crayons to draw an image onto the tracing paper.  

then place between two sheets of waxed paper, iron, and add washi tape to the 

edges.  the wax of the crayon will melt when you apply heat from the iron, giving

it a bit of a watercolor effect.  

this would be a great project for the kids!

(for safety, they can do the coloring, you can do the ironing!)

these sweet little lanterns are quick and easy to make.....
have fun creating them and coming up with even more variations!

{for more details and instructions on how to create these lanterns using dried flowers,
click here to watch the free video by kelly wilkinson over at creativebug!}