Our balcony has been opened up for renovations... quite a bit. The view has been opened up as well, so long as you don't mind seeing it from the bolted screen door.

Mind that first step...

This past week was my last chance to use the balcony before it got shut down for the reno, so I decided to move myself and my tea outside for a craft project I had seen on Re-nest a while ago; tin can luminaries!

Here's what you'll need:
• Empty vegetable pet food or soup cans, cleaned out and labels removed
• Water
• Nail
• Hammer
• Scrap paper
• Ruler
• Tape
• Spray paint (optional)

Instructions:
1. Pour water into the empty cans and place them in the freezer. (Don't fill the cans all the way to the top, since water does expand when freezing! Leave some room!)
2. While the water is freezing, draw the design you want on the scrap paper. You can also use simple clip art.
3. Once the water in the cans is fully frozen, you can tape your designs to the can.

 Note the towel.

4. Use the hammer and nail to punch holes along the lines of your pattern.

 Hammer time!

5. Once finished with your pattern, you can spray paint the cans or leave them unpainted. The last step is to place a candle inside and, voila! you have your first luminary.

 Not bad eh?

I free-handed the designs, working with the dips and ridges of my soup cans. I think it helped me keep some symmetry for my decidedly straight designs. I also took a folded towel, draped it in between my knees and cradled the tin can in the towel. I found that this really steadied the can and insulated my knees from the cold and gradually melting water. One of my cans also expanded and split from the ice. Another stretched out the bottom. The first issue can be ignored as another area for light to go through, the second problem can be hammered out until flat again.

That's the split I was talking about... it let's light out of the back of it, that's my excuse.