Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Ruffled Lace Tabletop Lighted Tree

7:00 AM Gail @Purple Hues and Me Creative Craft Hop, lighted cone tree, Ruffled Lace 3 comments

This stunning ruffled lace tabletop lighted cone tree adds a touch of festive charm to your holiday decor. It's not only visually appealing but also has added festive charm by lighting up and changing colors! It will definitely be the standout piece in any home this holiday season.

Layers of gathered lace cascade around, creating a light and airy texture. When lit, each lacy layer captures the light beautifully. Fantastic for enhancing the glitz and glamour of any holiday setting.

I'm sure you're wondering how I came about making something like this. It all started with me going through old craft items to see what to keep and what to throw out. First, I "found" a large stash of lace trim that looked too narrow to do anything with. But being the crafter that I am, I was quite hesitant to get rid of it. Then I came across a pack of clear craft plastic stencil sheets and I knew exactly what I would do with both the lace and one of the plastic sheets.

But before I tell you more, Welcome to this months' Creative Craft Hop! The hop is co-hosted by Sara @Birdz of a Feather and Donna @Modern on Monticello who take turns every other month! The lovely and talented Donna is our host for this month! I'm so glad you're here checking out our creative projects for the month of October! If you're joining me from Sara's amazing Polymer Clay Coffee craft - I know you were blown away with her imagination and creativity! And at the very end of my tutorial, I will be sharing our entire list of all the incredible creative crafters who joined us this month! Be sure to check out each and everyone of them - and plan to be impressed, too!

So let's begin with what you'll need to make this lovely Ruffled Lace Tabletop Lighted Tree!

Materials Needed:

Clear Craft Plastic Sheet -16"x24"
Rotary cutting mat
Wide Cellophane Tape
White Lace Trim
Gorilla Super Glue w/brush
Scissors
Mini Glitter Bow Stickers
LED Multi Light Puck

Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, this post may contain links. I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you! Plus Google Adsense provides a platform for me to monetize my content by hosting ads from Google's network of advertisers. The money I earn helps pay my crafting expenses. Thanks so much for your support!

How To:

First, we'll need to make a cone tree out of the clear craft plastic sheet. I know you've seen cone tree instructions on drawing a circle and cutting it in half and using one of the halves to "roll" it into a cone shape. But, I wanted to use all of the plastic to form a tall cone so I began by placing the plastic sheet on a flat surface, like my rotary cutting mat, ensuring it’s free of wrinkles or creases.

Then position the bottom edge of the plastic at a slight angle to the rolling direction—creating the conical shape. I gradually roll the plastic around together, applying even pressure with my fingertips to avoid creasing. Be sure to maintain the same amount of tension as you roll, ensuring the plastic forms a smooth, continuous curve of a cone shape. Pointed at the top, while gradually widening to the bottom.

Satisfied with the shape of the cone, while still holding the cone shape together, secure the side edges using wide cellophane tape.

Then cut off the excess plastic on the bottom so the cone will sit flat on a table.

How cool does this look! Quite nice and it's 23" tall!

Perfect size for a tabletop tree!

Now, it's time to add the ruffled lace trim. Starting at the bottom of the cone, brush on Gorilla Super Glue in a straight line around the cone every few inches, then apply the lace trim on top of the glue. Making sure the lace trim is straight first following the bottom edge of the cone.

Once the lace trim is glued down, cut off excess lace at one of the decorative folds applying more glue on the lace to seal.

Continue brushing on glue and adding the lace trim to the plastic cone, creating a lovely look of ruffled lace trim.

It was easier for me to brush on the glue and add the lace trim with the cone laying on its' side.

Smoothing the ruffled lace down on the glue and . . .

cutting off excess lace . . .

all the way up the cone!

I love, love, love how this ruffled lace cone tree is coming together!

Spiraled ruffled lace, from bottom to top! Looking quite beautiful!

Now let's add some tiny decorative glitter stick-on bows I found on sale at Hobby Lobby for a little over one dollar to spice things up! Oh, and if you look on Amazon for the bows - they're over eight dollars for the same bows!

Placing the bows randomly throughout the ruffled lace tree!

How fabulous does the tabletop tree look lit in different colors!

Red

Green

Purple

Blue

Just perfect as a Ruffled Lace Tabletop Lighted Tree!

Please enjoy visiting all of the talented and creative crafty bloggers who joined this months' Creative Craft Hop listed below:

Santa's Naughty Or Nice List On Ribbon

DIY Painted Gingerbread Bird Ornaments

Pottery Barn Cloche Dupe for Fall (Plus 3 Ways to Style It)

Polymer Clay Coffee

Ruffled Lace Tabletop Lighted Tree

And don't forget to PIN!

Saturday, September 26, 2026

Maple Leaf Taper Candle Holders

7:00 AM Gail @Purple Hues and Me Do It Over Designers Blog Hop, Free to Five Craft, Maple Leaf craft, recycle/upcycle, Soda Can craft 10 comments

I'm back with another DIY recycle using soda cans! It's a bit different from the crafts I've made before. This time, I'm punching out maple leaves using a leaf punch instead of hand cutting the designs out from the soda can metal. Then using the maple leaf punch-outs to enhance taper candle holders I got free from my neighbor. She was moving to Texas in a U-Haul so she had a "take what you want" (free) giveaway since she had limited space to transport her things. And among some of the items I got were several taper candleholders. You can read about what I first made with some of the candleholders here.

For this project, imagine a fancy design of maple oak leaves, crafted from soda cans and wire branches intertwining along the metal taper candleholders for an inviting serene look. These unique pieces blend found items (taper candle holders) and reused/recycle materials (soda can metal). Making them a conversation starter, promoting sustainability while adding a unique, warm and welcoming look to my home. And when the flameless battery operated tapered candles are lit, they give off an inviting serene and tranquil feel. Pretty neat, huh? And doesn't that sound amazing, too?

But before I get started with the "How To," today I am taking part in the "Do It Over Designers" project! In case you didn't know, the Do It Over Designers is a group of talented bloggers who love to recycle/upcycle/DIY, hosted by Anne @The Apple Street Cottage. It happens the 4th Saturday of every other month and it's all about taking something old and/or unused and 'doing it over' into something new. Sometimes Ann has a theme for the Blog Hop and for September, Ann decided on the theme, "Free to 5" - where we take something we've thrifted/yard-sales/found on the curb for $5 or less and transform it!

I hope you'll visit all the super creative bloggers to see their amazing "do over" projects listed at the end of this post.

So lets' get started with how I made my "free" Maple Leaf Taper Candle Holders!

Luckily, I had everything on hand to make these lovely, budget friendly dramatic fall designs!

Materials Used:

Soda Can Metal
Maple Leaf Punch
Utility/X-acto knife
Scissors
Parchment paper
Iron
Soft layers of styrofoam packing
Embossing tool
Brushed Metal Gold metallic acrylic paint/paint brush
10 gauge gold wire
Wire cutters
Loctite Super Glue Ultra Gel
Flameless Battery Operated Taper Candles

How To:

In case you don't remember what the taper candleholders I got from my neighbor looks like, here is a pic of the ones I'll be using for this craft:

These candleholders certainly lets me unleash my creativity while crafting unique pieces that add a warm and inviting feel to any area of my home for Fall!

And I'm so glad that I was able to use some of the leftover soda can metal from the previous project I made of oak leaves as seen here.

Plus, using some of the left over cut-out leaf pieces to punch out the maple

leaves.

And I had a few solid flat pieces of soda can metal that I cut out previously to punch out the maple leaves, too.

In all, I had fifteen maple leaves punched out for this project.

To help make the leaves lay flat, I heated up an iron to the maximum "linen" heat. Then, placing parchment paper over the leaves and letting the hot iron sit on top until it automatically turned off. Once the iron had completely cooled off, I removed it and the parchment paper to see the flatten leaves.

Then, using a thin, soft sheet of styrofoam packing, for each punched out leaf, I laid the leaf on top and using an embossing tool to apply a firm, steady pressure to go over the center spine and side veins directly into the metal.

Once the leaf lines were applied, it was time to paint the front and back . . .

of the leaves using Brushed Metal Gold Metallic paint.

While the leaves were drying, I was laying out the design of one branch using 10 gauge wire.

Once satisfied with the branch design and a little bit of tweaking, it was time to glue the off shoot branches to the main branch or stem using Loctite Professional Super Glue Gel. And it didn't take long for the glue to seal the off shoot branches.

Next, it was time to glue on the maple leaves.

One leaf at a time.

I'm really loving how this leaf design looks! Once dry, it's time to glue it to the tallest taper candle holder.

Since the area of the leaf stems against the wire branch was so narrow, I used what I could find to hold them in place until the glue dried. Taping with masking tape just didn't work.