Holiday Project: Shiny Metal Light Collars

Whether you use them at Holiday time or all year long, these mini-light collars are simple to make, and they make a beautiful, sparkling display. Never throw out the metal cups from your tealight candles again!

What You’ll Need:

- One string of mini-lights. White light is nice, because it allows you to see all the
colors in your finished collars.

- Metal cups from used-up tealights. You’ll need one for every light there is on your
light string.

- Sharpie marker.

- Scissors. These should not be your expensive scissors, by the way.

- Paper hole punch. You need one that makes a hole at least 3/8” diameter.
An old-fashioned paper punch will work better than a craft-punch for this project. And your punch should be pretty heavy-duty.

- Glue. Use a glue for non-porous surfaces, like E6000 or Aleene’s Jewel-It.

- Shiny things, such as glitter, flat-backed gems, beads, sequins, etc.

A word of caution!!!
We’re working with metal here, and metal can be sharp when cut. So, be very careful when handling the tealight cups, and you might consider wearing protective gloves. Children should do this project with a parent.

How to make it:

1. Make sure your tealight cups are clean. If there’s some residual wax clinging to them, pop them in the freezer for 15 minutes. The wax will shrink and pop right off. (Thanks, Martha.)

2. Hold a tealight cup so the bottom is facing away from you, and you’re looking at the top edge. Use a Sharpie to divide the edge up into equal (or sort of equal) sections. Make a little mark on the rim of the tealight cut for each section. Depending on your design, you might make five, six, seven, eight, or more divisions.

3. Take your scissors and cut into the side of the tealight cup at each of your dividing marks. Cut all the way down to the bottom of the cup.

4. Now, you have a tealight cup with “spokes” cut into it. Carefully bend each spoke outward, so your tealight cup begins to resemble a starburst. (Again, be very careful of the edges!)

5. Using your hole punch, make a hole in the center of your flower. You’ll probably have to bend a couple petals out of shape in order to manuver the punch into the center, but don’t worry. You can fix them afterward. The hole you’re punching is where the mini-light bulb will stick through later.

6. Using your scissors, carefully shape your spokes into whatever petal design you like. They can be round, or pointed, or notched — you name it.

7. Now, have fun gluing all kinds of shiny objects to the center of your flower, around the hole you just punched. Go wild with colors and patterns. The shinier your center, the more light will reflect from the mini-light bulb and the brighter your collar will be.

8. Repeat this process until you have a collar for every mini-light on your string.

9. Pop a collar onto each mini-light, and use the string to brighten up anything you like.

Some Uses:

You can use a string of these lights on a large houseplant or tree. You can use them to line a picture frame, or use them to line a dressing-table mirror for maximum glamour. Use them at the edge of a shelf. String them around a lamp base.

Or, leave off the minilights and find other uses. Wouldn’t they look great on top of a birthday cake, with a little candle in the center of each one?

Some Variations:

You can always skip the hole-punching part, and use this process to make metal flowers with solid centers. Then you can glue them to all kinds of things, such as candles, gift boxes, frames, vases, baskets — you name it!