Cheap, Easy Christmas Crafts: Holiday Luminaries

Tin cans, such as soup cans, vegetable cans or coffee cans

Paint in festive holiday colors, such as red or green (optional)

Nail

Hammer

Holiday cookie cutters (optional)

Paper

Permanent marker

Tape

Dish towel

News Paper

Tea candles

Gravel, pebbles, or sand

Directions:

Clean and save your old tin cans. Fill them with water and place them in the freezer for 24 hours.

Make templates for your tin cans. You can free-hand it, but simple shape cookie cutters make an excellent template if drawing is not your strength. Simple shapes such as bells, stars, snowflakes, snowmen, and candy canes work best.

Try to stay away from complicated shapes, such as reindeers and Santa shapes, as they usually come out distorted in the finished product and are difficult to make out. However, if you become very adept at the art of tin can luminaries, all it costs is a used, recycled can to give it a try.

Trace your cookie cutter lightly with a pencil on white paper; alternately, use a stencil or free-hand the design. Go over the shape with a permanent black marker.

When you are ready to proceed, take the can out of the freezer. Make sure it is frozen solid. At this point, you'll want to work quickly to get as much as possible done before the ice begins to condense and melt.

Wrap your template around the can, making sure the design doesn't fall across any "seam" on the can. Cut the paper if necessary to fit it. Tape the paper to itself in the back- don't tape it to the can, the water will prevent it from sticking.

Bunch up a towel and place it on the table. Lay the can on the towel to prevent it from skidding around on the table.

Take the hammer and the nail. Place the nail on your template line and hammer it though the can to create a hole. Move the nail about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch on the line and make another hole. Continue to do this, following the line of the template.

The closer your holes are together, the better your finished product will look. To make it look nice, keep the holes evenly spaced.

Pat the template occasionally with the edges of the towel to remove condensation and absorb excess moisture. The faster you can work, the better; just don't hit your finger with the hammer.

When you're finished with the pattern, remove the template. Empty the can. Run it under water if the ice is still in a big chunk.

Dry the can thoroughly.

You can set it out as-is, or you can paint it, if you like. Take the can outdoors and place it on newspaper. Spray paint the can all around the outside. Allow it to dry.

Take your nail and carefully poke through the holes again that the paint has covered over, being careful not to scratch the surface. If you would like to give them a nice, lustrous sheen, spray it with acrylic sealer spray and allow it to dry. Remember, however, that they are specifically made to display at night. Most of the time, just the light of the candle through the holes will be visible. If you're setting them outside, or somewhere very dark, don't fuss too much with decorating the outside of the can. If, however, you plan to keep them indoors and leave them out during the day time, you might want to take this extra step to make them look nicer when the lights are on.

Place some pebbles, gravel or sand on the bottom of the can. Put a tea candle inside and light it. Set your luminaries somewhere safe, such as lining an outdoor walk away from any hanging brush or trees, lining your mantle or hearth, or along a stone or brick wall.