Getting Ready for Christmas - Tealight Holders

I am joining in with Fiona again but am running a little late.

A couple of months ago an email landed in my inbox asking for people who would be interested in running an activity for an Earthcarers Christmas workshop. The idea being to demonstrate how inexpensive gifts could be made fairly easily. I remembered a Mothers' Day activity I ran last year and thought this would make a great Christmas gift. (Just to let you know that I found this over at Noodlehead - make sure to check out all of the fabulous tutorials)

The first part of the task was to get hold of timber. Buying new timber was never an option so I needed to start thinking about how I would get hold of the materials. I tried a couple of salvage yards but they only really seemed to have jarrah, which is a really hard wood, too hard for this activity. I was sent from one possibility to another and ended up at a sawmill. They let me drive up to a pile of offcuts at the back of their yard and fill the boot.

I chose the pieces that I thought would be the easiest to use and headed over to see Dad. He is one of those mechanically minded people who can build amazing things. He has the right tool for just about any job, as well as the skills to go with it. Every time I use his tools, it reminds me that I want to read What's Mine is Yours.

He cut the pieces to square the corners and then taught me to sand and router the blocks. It was such a lovely way to spent time together in him man cave.

So last Saturday I loaded his ute and headed to the Karrinyup Community Centre. 

It was a slow start to the morning so I decided to use the time to mark where the holes needed to be drilled. This preparation made the 'making' time of the activity a little shorter and more people managed to make a tealight holder.

Dad suggested we put a piece of tape on the 38mm spade-bit drill to the depth of the candle. This way we knew when to stop drilling and the candle would sit at the right height.

All that was really needed then was to sand the holes and either stain or oil the timber.

This piece was oiled. I am not sure what the timber was but with the oiling it looked absolutely beautiful.

 This is one that I had prepared earlier to show what they look like lit. I had stained this one with a jarrah stain.

It was such a great day and thankfully the rain didn't get in our way too much.

Have your Christmas preparations started yet?

Take care