kraft-tex Color of the Month: Tangerine
Dec 3rd 2020
The kraft-tex color of the month for November is Tangerine!
Bring the outdoors in this fall with this kraft-tex falling leaves lamp!
We invite you to join the fun and make your own kraft-tex projects each month along with us. If you create something with kraft-tex, please snap a photo of your creation and tag us on Instagram @ctpublishing and with the hashtags, #krafttex and #ctpublishing. If you make this specific project don't forget to tag it with #krafttexleaflamp.
Kraft-tex Falling Leaves Lamp
by Lauren Herberg
Nature’s beauty is always a good place to start for inspiration. The kraft-tex color for this month, Tangerine reminds me of the bright, happy orange that many leaves are changing through this time of year in our part of the world. Kraft-tex is a great material for this project because it has a similar weight and texture to natural leaves yet provides the durability required. This lamp makes for a fun and easy painting project with no real artistic skills necessary. Enjoy the gorgeous colors of fall from the comfort and warmth of your own living room.
Supplies:
1 roll of Tangerine kraft-tex (or your favorite fall color)
Paints in a variety of fall colors
Paintbrushes
Twine
Small size hole punch
Hot glue gun and glue
Lampshade frame ring
Electrical cord lighting kit
LED light bulb
Fire retardant spray (optional)
Directions:
Make Leaves:
1. Print and cut out the leaf templates.
2. Trace templates onto Tangerine kraft-tex. For my leaf lamp, I used 5 Large, 4 Medium, 4 Small A, and 5 Small B Templates. (DOWNLOAD TEMPLATES)
3. Cut the leaves out of the kraft-tex.
4. Paint the leaves with fall colors such as green, yellow, red, brown, gold and bronze. Brush or sponge 2-3 colors on the leaf by starting at the center of the leaf and sweeping out to the tips. Use real leaves as inspiration!
5. Paint the veins of the leaf with a thin paintbrush.
6. Allow to dry.
7. If you plan to place the lamp in a central location where it can be seen from multiple sides, turn your kraft-tex leaves over and paint the other sides so it will look finished from all angles. (I only painted one side of my leaves because mine will hang in a corner and can only ever be seen from one side of the lamp anyway.)
Assemble Lamp:
1. Punch a hole with a small ⅛” hole punch at the top of a leaf.
2. Thread the twine through the hole in the leaf and tie it to the lampshade frame ring. I repurposed the frame from an old chandelier so it already had holes in the ring, but it’s fine if yours doesn’t have the holes. Simply tie the twine to the ring. When you wrap the frame with twine at the end, it will hold your hanging leaves in place.
3. Hold the frame up to see how your leaves will hang and punch another hole at the bottom of the leaf where you want the next one to hang from. Vary the angles that your leaves are hanging to make them look like leaves naturally falling from a tree.
4. Tie the leaves together with twine. Hide the knots behind the leaves and trim the ends. I made 6 columns with 3 leaves each with various sized leaves. You may need to adjust the number of columns and leaves depending on the size of your lamp frame. Place at least a couple of the large leaves at the top to shade the bulb once the lamp is put together.
5. Wrap the lamp frame ring with twine. Hold it in place with a little line of hot glue and wrap the twine on top of the glue. Continue all the way around the frame and hide ends of the twine on the inside of the ring.
6. Insert the bulb socket end of the electrical cord lighting kit through the center of the ring and screw the end on so that the leaf chandelier will hang from the cord. The kit that I used came with the cord entwined in jute rope. You can get a similar look with a simple cord by wrapping it in twine or rope.
7. Insert an LED bulb in the socket. Using an LED bulb is important because this type of bulb doesn’t get hot and reduces the risk of your leaves catching fire from the light. You can also soak your leaves with a flame retardant spray to reduce the risk even further.
8. Hang and enjoy!
kraft-tex Ambassadors
Our talented kraft-tex Ambassadors made beautiful creations with Tangerine kraft-tex!
Visit and support our kraft-tex Ambassadors by clicking on the links below to view their projects and patterns.
1. How to Make a Pumpkin with kraft-tex by Lynn Woll of Create Whimsy
2. Fox Bookmark with kraft-tex (+ Free Download!) by Lolly Palooza
3. In Everything Give Thanks / I Love Fall Wreath by Living Water Quilter
4. kraft-tex Koasters by Sew Little Time
5. How to Make a Leafy Tablescape with kraft-tex by Chardel Blaine of Create Whimsy
6. Give Thanks Journal Cover by Gayle Agostinelli
7. Fall Decor: Making Fabric Leaves with kraft-tex by Lindsay Sews
8. Collapsible kraft-tex Bowl by Haberdashery Fun
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