Sunday 23 January 2011

Luminaries

This Luminary was created from a strip of black card 8 1/2" x 3 1/2" it was scored at 2" 4" 6" and 8"
The top edge was punched using Stampin' Ups lace edge punch the windows were punched using the largest circle punch stampin' up sell .
I cut vellum squares to fit in the windows and stamped them with black stazon ink using the baroque motif stamp set from SU.
When the ink was dry I stuck the vellum into the windows and completed the project by joining the two ends together.
Placed my Tea light inside and photographed it.
I recommend the use of the battery operated tea lights for indoor use, my tea light was only lit for a few minutes but I still managed to get hot wax on my work surfaces , the table cloth and me.

Here is a little about the history of luminaries I thought you may find interesting .

Christmas luminaries are traditionally used to light homes, sidewalks, pavements during Christmas. The tradition of lighting candles in paper bag is part of American Southwest. These luminaries are in number of hundreds and thousands, which are lit on Christmas Eve. One can trace roots of traditional luminaries in form of candles placed in a mini, sand-filled, brown paper bags in sixteenth century. This tradition of luminaries came into existence through Spain, where bonfires were lit on roadside and churchyard so that people find way to reach midnight mass held during winter festival of Las Posadas.
Through Spain, this tradition reached Mexico and parts of America. People even light luminaries in respect of Mary and Joseph, who are searching lodging to give birth to Christ during night. The same tradition is followed even today in modern times. People decorate homes, fences, roofs, sidewalks, etc. with help of luminaries, which help the tourists to get to their destinations safely during Christmas nights. The other word for luminaries is farolitos, which means little lanterns in Spanish. Chinese lanterns were used in nineteenth century to decorate entrance of home in some parts of America. Many people opted for paper bag as they were affordable in comparison of Chinese lanterns.

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