Paper Bowls and Candle Holders

I apologize for my absence, but life decided to get in the way of blogging.  I have lots to post about though.  I have several projects that I have done recently so I'll catch you up over the next few days.

These were actually my mother's idea, but I cam over and helped her make them one day.  They are super simple!  Start by cutting colored cardstock into strips.  We used our paper shredder (which I think gets more craft use than practical use) so it was super fast.  Then take whatever you are using to shape your container.  To make the votive holders we used Chinet plastic cups (the little clear ones) because we have 30 million of them.  You could also use bowls.  I'm not sure what my mom used to make the square one.  Point is you can use pretty much anything.  We then covered our base with plastic wrap to make it easier to take off after it is dry and the paper has shrunk a little.  Then mix a little bit of water with some Elmer's glue.  Dip the strips in the glue and place them around your form.  Depending on the look you are going for you can put them on as think as you want.  For the votives I wanted a little more open space for the light to come through so I left more gaps.  Just make sure the strips are all connected so that nothing falls off when you take them off.  Then when you are done, let them dry and carefully remove the paper from the forms.  Here are a few examples of what we did:

This square one is just the right size for coasters.

This one is slightly heart shaped which was not on purpose but turned out really cool.  It holds, among other things, my Ipod case, a Chik-fil-a cow and our Bluetooths (Blueteeth?).

This is one of the votives.  I used two colors of paper on this one.

Here is another votive--you can see how many gaps I left in this one.

This project is super super easy and doesn't take too long other than drying time.  They are great for holding all kinds of stuff from candy to electronics and so on.