Moroccan Lanterns

I had the fun of decorating for a Moroccan-themed party.  You can view all the decorations by visiting this post.  But for this tutorial, I'm going to show you some of the pieces I picked up, all from thrift stores, to make these wonderful lanterns.  Most of the pieces, including the vases, were a dollar or less.  I have quite a stash of costume jewelry to choose from...yeah!  So, each lantern easily cost less than $5 to make, with most of them coming in around $3!  All of the flower vases, and many of the other pieces were turned upside down to make the lanterns.  All of the pieces were glued with E-6000 glue.  Once finished, the lanterns sat on top of small battery-operated LED lights.  Simple, but very effective!

  

For this one, the votive holder was kept upright, while the perfume bottle was turned upside down.  The neck of the bottle rested in the votive opening.  Earrings were glued to the top of the perfume bottle.

The brass goblet was turned upside down and fit over the top of the wooden finial.  The earring and chain were glued in place.  The base of the lantern rests unglued in the planter opening, accommodating for the LED light.

The small vase and silver cap are turned upside down and glued.  The earring and chain were glued in place.  The lantern sits unglued on top of the candle plate.

The green votive holder was turned upside down and glued in place.  Is was adorned with a decorative metal piece and silver bracelet.

The small vase and metal votive holder are turned upside down.  An earring was added to the top.  The lantern sits unglued on top of a planter that has also been turned upside down. 

The perfume bottle is glued to the opening of the gold votive holder, then both are glued to the vase.

The brass votive holder is turned upside down and an earring is glued in place.  The clear votive holder is turned upside down and glued to the brass piece.  The whole piece is then glued to the vase with the flower chain added as an accent.

The crystal votive holder is turned upside down and glued to the bottom of the metal votive holder.  An earring is glued at the top.  The whole piece is then glued to the vase.  The lantern sits unglued on top of the candle plate and trivet frame.

An earring is glued to the top of the brass candlestick, which is then glued to the bottom of the metal votive holder.  The whole piece is glued to the vase.  Dangle earrings are glued to each side of the lantern.  The lantern sits unglued on top of a mosaic tile candle plate.

 I hope this has helped you to visualize how these lanterns were put together.  It was a lot of fun mixing and matching pieces.  Lanterns like these, especially in the same color theme, could really make a statement at a wedding reception!  Have fun and be creative!

Ombre-dyed Sheets

In decorating for a Moroccan-themed party, I dyed some cast-off hotel sheets with an ombre effect.  Hopefully, the following directions will help you better understand how I accomplished the task!

This is the finished look we are going for...

You will need:

cotton sheets

3 colors of dye (I used Rit Lemon Yellow, Sunshine Orange, and Wine)

3 large buckets (I used 5 gallon buckets)

very hot water

rubber gloves

Start by gathering the sheet down the center.

Pick up the sheet at the center.

To help you visualize what you will be doing, the folded sheet will be dyed as shown:

Begin with the yellow.  Dip the folded center into the dye bath for a few minutes.  Remove and wring out the best you can.  Caution: It will be hot!  (Disclaimer:  The following photos don't actually show a dye bath...you will just have to imagine that it exists!)

Dip the center section of the folded sheet into the orange dye bath, overlapping onto the yellow.  Remove after a few minutes and wring out the best you can.  You will now have one last section of sheet without dye.

Dip the remaining portion of the sheet into the wine dye bath for a couple of minutes, overlapping onto the orange. If desired, you can remove most of the sheet from the dye bath, allowing the edges of the sheet to sit in the dye a little longer to make the edges darker.  Wring out the best you can and transfer the sheet to a sink.  Rinse with cool water.  I personally didn't rinse until the water ran clear, like it says to do, because I wanted to retain as much color as possible.  And, since I didn't plan on washing these sheets any time soon, I figured it wouldn't hurt.  I did run them through the spin-only cycle of the washing machine and then put them into the dryer.

When finished, your sheet should look something like this:

The existing hem on the sheet created the perfect casing to use in gathering the sheet.  I used a strip of foam core, because I already had it, but a dowel, wood slat, or even a strip of fabric would work to gather the sheet.  It was then pinned to the wall and topped off with a decorative foam core top.