Victorian Card Luminary

Before I start on the real post, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone for your nice comments and helpful offers over the weekend with my invitation planning! I took the weekend "off" blogging/checking my blog so that I could spend some quality family time (husband-to-be's uncle just went into hospice, plus I'm dog-sitting my brother's sweet boxer -- who is feeling a little abandoned at the moment, it seems, and also stressing my own little dog out by her very presence). I signed on to a wall of comments to approve. :)

But again, thank you! It all means so much to me.

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Bleck - I know you can't see this very well. My phone takes crappy pictures, and the image was a poor test-print to begin with.

Anyway, you are seeing Phase I tests of the possible centerpieces on the non-flowered tables (have I told you about my floral centerpieces "drama"? If not, I'll post the story sometime): Victorian Halloween Greeting Card Luminaries.

I have a huge selection of Halloween postcard clipart, almost entirely of romantic theme, that I've created photoshop brushes from. Really, the mind boggles at why I spend so much time doing things like that.

Anyway, I am planning (not necessarily in this order) to: make slightly orange-tinted versions of these cards, print them on vellum, paste them to wine bottles or other pretty glass containers (cutting of the bottom of the bottles, in the case of the wine bottles, seal the images with modge podge, and 'black out' the rest of the bottles with flat black paint (rolled on acrylic, or spray painted... which could also be done in silver I guess... don't know yet, still testing what looks good).

Things I learned from last night:

• even flat black latex paint can look shiny
• printing the images on plain white paper is simply not translucent enough, though it would work in a pinch
  
• It will probably be better to do a white background (as opposed to the light orange) and let the orange glow of the candle tint the picture
• The pictures need to be higher contrast AND my home printer is out of ink. Which sucks.
• tea-light height lights are a must to light up the whole picture
• If I continue using spaghetti jars, I need to spraypaint some twine either white or silver to twist around the top, thus covering the "screw on" portion of the glass
  
• Bertolli makes the prettiest bottle I've come across so far (as far as spaghetti jars go)
  

Of course, I'm really thinking hard about using LED lights to illuminate these so that I can also use them as little vases, which would mean I have to deal with a little opacity and print them out orange-and-black -- I would like to have twisty branches or vines coming out the top, coated in glitter and possibly dabbed with a little moss and/or some Halloween ornaments. But that would mean careful positioning to make sure no sticks cast a shadow between the light and the image on the side of the jar. Tricky, tricky.

At minimum, the luminaries would be flanked by wine bottles painted black with a white lace pattern pattern stenciled on (haven't tested that yet, but it sounds good, doesn't it?), either used as candle-holders or... if no one feels like it's too dangerous... oil lamps:



Hey, just for fun: an article at weddingbee on cutting wine-bottles