Coffee aroma reindeer tealight holder

This project started out with someone wanting to make a garland for their bedroom for Christmas (it was not me!). I got roped into it because I am gullible when it comes to children wanting to do crafts! It turned into a pretty tea light holder that yesterday turned into one with a coffee aroma. Perfect for gloomy winter days.

You will need:

1 A4 sheet of coloured paper (or letter size if you are in the USA. Your garland will be a bit shorter.)
1 metal lid from a jam jar
Strong glue (we used Uhu)
Transparent, non-flammable paper (about 1/2 an A4 sheet)
A thin tipped black felt tipped pen
5 - 6 white jewels and one red one
2 handfuls of coffee beans
A tealight

Method:

We started with the reindeer and found him (and a few other friends) at this website https://www.woojr.com/christmas-paper-chains/christmas-paper-chains/ . We printed out this template and followed the instructions to make the garland (the instructions are on the template) using brown paper. Cutting it was rather fiddly so we took turns to cut it out. If you want something quicker you should consider the snow man or the Christmas tree.

After the garland was cut out I was deserted! The reason being that the garland was too short to go across the door and there was no way that my child was going to cut out a second one (very low attention span!). I did not want to trash the reindeer because they looked so cute.

Using a thin black felt tip pen I gave the reindeer some eyes and then stuck on the jewels for the noses. I was constantly visited by my daughter so that she could give me advice, which is why one of the reindeer has a red nose (Rudolf of course!).

I then rummaged around in our box of jam jars to find a lid that was the right size to wrap the reindeer around. I also found a piece of transparent paper left over from making tiny origami lampshades for a string of fairy lights.

I measured the circumference of the lid and cut out a rectangle from the transparent paper that was a centimeter longer than the circumference and as wide as the reindeer were tall. Then I stuck the reindeer to the transparent paper and the transparent paper to the rim of the lid (the inside of the lid upwards). If you want a sturdy construction you might use a glue gun to secure the paper to the lid.

Finally, we put a handful of coffee beans in the lid and settled a tea light on top of them. Now we have a wonderful coffee smelling tea light holder!!

You can use any of the templates above and any coloured paper, be creative! We'd love to see your products.