Friday, November 14, 2008

Frugal Friday...Pioneer Christmas Decorations

On Wednesday I told you all how this Christmas we were sort of going with a theme, a Pioneer theme that is. My girls are having a wonderful time learning about what the pioneers did for the Christmas holidays. One of the really neat things is that the pioneers used what they had and made things from scratch, which is a great lesson in frugality! I plan on sharing many of our projects up until Christmas, because a lot of these are just easy, non-expensive ways to celebrate the holidays, plus a lot of fun.

Our first project were these tin can lanterns:

We've been saving soup cans, vegetable cans, tea canisters anything that is metal. Em takes off the label, rinses them out, and then fills them with water. We put them in the freezer to harden.

This is my outdoor freezer, please excuse the dirt. I believe the girls were stockpiling some mudpies in here!

Anyways, after the water is good and frozen you can make your designs. You might want to lay can on a towel to help keep the can still. Using a pin, make little dots on can in whatever pattern you like.

Now you take a nail and hammer gently through each dot. The frozen water inside helps the can to hold its shape during this process. You can use different size nails to make things even more interesting if you like.


To finish drain ice from cans and place a tea light inside. We're going to line our walkways with these so we'll add some sand to the bottom to keep from blowing away!


I just love the pretty patterns they cast. This has been so easy and didn't cost us much. Weren't those pioneers smart?!!!

For more frugal tips head over to Biblical Womanhood.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sooooo pretty! I think we'll try this too. Thank you!

Pat's Place said...

Wow! Those are beautiful! I like the one with the cross. I LOVE your ideas!

MiddleEarthMusician said...

Great idea, thanks for sharing!

Kara said...

Thanks! Em designed and made all of those:)

Amy said...

Those are so pretty! I love the idea of filling w/water and freezing first!

Pat's Place said...

Y'all have inspired me. Just wait to see what I have come up with for YOUR Christmas gifts!

Tanya said...

that's so fun! I remember doing these as a kid. You've inspired me. My kids will love pulling out a hammer to do something creative.

Life in the Crazy Lane said...

Those are so great!

Anonymous said...

these are great. :^)

i saw a great idea somewhere that i want to use - after a big snow, press cans down into the snow along your sidewalk to make holes at least 6 inches deep, then put tea lights inside - illuminates the snow, too!