Making Tin Punch Tea Lights and Lanterns
Easy Candle and Lighting Crafts for Home Decor and Holidays
Oct 28, 2009
From tea lights to outdoor lanterns, creating tin punch havens for glowing lights provides simple holiday decorations and easy gifts. With the help of tea lights, miniature votives, and low-watt Christmas bulb strings, beautiful tin punch patterns can bring a holiday display to life.
The projects are quick and require only a few supplies and a little time invested in choosing a pattern. Basic safety precautions and additional tools may also be needed, such as a pair of protective glasses and tin snips for removing any sharp metal edges from the finished product.
The Steps to Make Tin Punch Lights:
- Fill the empty can with water, then freeze.
- Wrap the pattern around the can, then punch the design with the hammer and nail.
- Remove the pattern, melt the ice, and let drain and dry.
- Fill the can with its lighting device ( string of lights, candle, etcetera) and add finishing touches.
Garden Lights Lantern
Perfect for a deck table, porch rafters, or a window sill holiday display, this simple lantern design works both indoors and outdoors. An empty aluminum coffee can be tin punched using a pattern, either basic or elaborate, then filled with a string of clear or colored Christmas lights which shine through the holes
The lanterns are a safe alternative to candles for windowsills, decks, and patio tables with electrical outlets close by; it can be easily hung from porch rafters or decorative hooks to support a larger lantern made from bulk food cans. Large and medium-sized lanterns can provide soft light in a dormitory setting or "book nook" corner of a room.
Tea Light Votives
Mini soup and sauce cans are the perfect size for housing tea lights or votive candles. A simple tin punch design along the top outside of the can creates a beautiful pattern. Fill the inside of the finished light with sand and place the candle in the middle; the flame's small glow should shine through the holes along the top edge.
For a decorative finishing touch, use colored sand, rice, or gravel to form the bed for the candles; add glitter to the sand for a sparkling snow bed for Christmas candles.
Mini Lights String
Instead of votive candles, use clear Christmas lights and form a lighted garland instead of individual ornaments. Use a drill and a bit identical in size to the Christmas bulb socket to make a hole centered in the bottom of each can. Fit the tin-punched cans over each bulb socket as a lantern hood, then plug the cord in and let the light shine through the pattern.
This design is best for short strings used to decorate windowsills and doorways and perfect for stringing up as a garland along a mantlepiece or shelf. The design is impractical for use as Christmas tree lights or other grand-scale projects, so keep the lights for small-space decorating needs.
Adapt empty cans of all shapes and sizes for unique craft projects using tin punch patterns. The finished products are perfect for holiday decorations, home decor, and even handmade gifts for friends and neighbors.
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