Handmade Holiday, A glowing wax lantern

Today I finally got around to making this glowing lantern for my Mom for Christmas.

I followed this wonderful tutorial from Rae @ Morningsunrae. I have been wanting  to do this for some time now, I got myself a brand new crock pot from a fellow Freecycler, (love love that that group, 

all giving and receiving) and I received the beeswax that a bunch of us mamas ordered from a local farm at a good price. I was a bit concerned about dipping the ballon, but followed Rae's direction and dipped a leaf first to check the temperature, and after the first couple of dips, Kaleena took over. The children were fascinated with the warm softness of the hardened wax, 

and the smell in the whole kitchen was just delicious.

Kaleena also wanted to prick the hole in the balloon which sent a fountain of water over the sink.

I used the technic mentioned at the bottom of the tutorial, standing the lantern on a hot pan for a second to shape the bottom, and later to smooth the top edges. I dipped the pressed flowers into the wax and then added them to the side of the lantern before dipping the whole thing again. I think I dipped too many times as the flowers almost disappeared, yet once a candle is lit inside they show up nicely.

For the first try I think it came out very nice, 

and it will look pretty on my Moms breakfast table back home.

Besides a few little remaining projects that pretty much wraps up my 

Christmas gifts for this year, pretty much....

~with love and gratitude~