Think Outside the Box - Candelabra Sleeves & Post-It Note Trick

One of the problems I ran into on my chandelier restore that I wrote about earlier this week, see here, was the candelabra sleeves.  Some of them were missing, and the ones that remained were so brittle they basically fell apart in your fingers.  No problem - just buy new ones, right?

  Not!  I searched and searched, but couldn't find this size anywhere - not even the internet.  I finally decided to just make sleeves out of something else......and another search began.  I'm not kidding when I say it took me weeks to find a solution.  After trying one thing after another, I finally found a less than perfect fit with the cardboard tube that comes in foil purchased at the $ Tree.  It was less than perfect because I still had to cut it down the side to fit it over the socket.  Once cut, however, it fit snug and held the crystal bobeche' in place perfectly.  

Since segments of cardboard tube are not terribly attractive on a chandelier, I decided to cover them with vintag-y,  light blue, letter scrapbook paper.  

Lavender Tub Tip:  Rather than measure and cut all of those rectangles, I just measured what size they needed to be and cut several at one time using my Silhouette Cameo machine.

Lavender Tub Tip #2:  When I was gluing the rectangles onto the sleeves, the edges didn't want to stay together.  By covering the glued seam with the sticky edge of a Post-it note and pressing it down well, the edges were held tightly shut until the glue dried.  Because of how Post-it notes are made, they came off the scrapbook paper quite easily and left no residue behind.

It wasn't my plan to have custom candelabra sleeves, but now that they are finished - I think they add a nice touch.

What have you created out of necessity?

Isn't it amazing what you can come up with 

when you're in a bind?

Ellie