A Christmas Carousel with a Color Changing Tea Light in the Base

A Christmas Carousel with a Color Changing Tea Light in the Base

This project makes a beautiful gift for someone special. Insert a color-changing tea light into the bottom of the box to illuminate the base. 

It takes about three to four hours to make the carousel but it is a labor of love. I suggest making it over the course of a few days.  Applying the embellishments to the bands might be a little challenging.  It can be eliminated if you want the process to go a little faster. Overall, take it slow, let the glue dry and enjoy making it.

Video of the Color Changing Tea Light in the Christmas Carousel Base

 I used 65 lb foil cardstock from Michaels for the gold and red foil.  I used Neenah brand WhiteGold metallic cardstock from Office Depot. I used Cricut brand Foil Acetate for the center column and transparency film for the base. I bought the coloring changing tea light at Dollar Tree.

I used Aleene's tacky glue in a glue bottle and Glue Dots to adhere the pieces together.

Here is the PDF.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hgMR7YOS3Fe43vpXQOb19df8TYnQvyTe/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wx74O9hHUpXTexFJVxFfkaC6PryXooTU/view?usp=sharing 

Here is the SVG if you do not have a Silhouette paper cutter.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11ss0O8bphrCmaWrYZ4O3JCBOU6QQAf3a/view?usp=sharing

Make the Bottom Round Box

  

Strip used to create the side of the box.

Apply glue to the tab on the side of the strip.  Adhere into a circle. When gluing the tab, align the edge of the paper with the dotted line on the tab.  Bend the tabs at a right angle to the sides. Apply glue to these tabs.  First on the inside tabs and adhere a circle, and then to the outside tabs and adhere a circle. 

Completed bottom of the box. 

Make the Carousel

Make the carousel canopy with the contrasting color.  Glue the wedge shape to the edge where there is a tab.

Use the spacer piece to align the next wedge shape and glue the wedge down. Repeat for the rest of the wedge pieces

Apply glue to the tab.

Adhere the canopy piece into a cone.

Glue the embellishment onto the larger band.  I used transfer tape to move the embellishment from the Silhouette mat to the larger band. 

The larger band is for the carousel canopy.

Glue the embellishment onto the smaller band using the same transfer method as above.

The smaller band is for the carousel base.

Glue the corresponding embellishments to the center of the scalloped bands. Do not apply glue to the very end of the embellishment (the side opposite the tab) because you need to insert the tab later. Set the bottom band aside.

Bend the top ledge piece at a right angle and apply glue to the opposite side as shown above.

Adhere the ledge piece to the inside of the band.

Apply glue to the underside of the gold spokes.

Adhere the gold spokes to the top of the carousel.

Glue the band into a circle by apply glue to all of the semicircle tabs and adhere the carousel canopy.

Glue the scalloped edge piece to the inside of the canopy.  You might have difficulty with this piece if you use thicker foil paper (make the length of this piece a little smaller in the Silhouette software) The sizing of this piece is measured for Michaels foil cardstock. 

Turn the canopy upside down and apply glue to the inner edge of the scallops as shown above.

Adhere the top circle of the canopy.  Notice that there is a slight buckle in my photo.  This is because the paper I used was thicker than the Mchaels Foil Cardstock.  The buckle will not effect the way that the carousel looks.

Completed Carousel Canopy

Bend the ledge piece at a right angle and apply glue to the edge opposite the scallops.

Adhere the ledge piece by aligning the scallops.

Bend into a circle and glue the tabs underneath the gold embellishment. Set it aside so that the glue dries successfully.

Glue two of the reindeers together but not the tabs of the poles.  Glue on the reindeer noses to either side of the reindeer.

Glue the reindeer to the base by inserting the tab and gluing the tab down on either side. Make sure all of the reindeer are going in the same direction.

Use Glue Dots to make the center column into a tube.

Insert the center column into the base.  I used Glue Dots to adhere each tab.

Insert the top circle into the center column and align all of the poles.  Glue the poles down.

Use Glue Dots on the center column tabs to adhere them.

Apply glue to each of the scallops.

Adhere the reindeer assembly to the scalloped ledge.

Glue the carousel canopy to the top of the reindeer assembly. Please note that the oval crowns align at the top of each reindeer pole. I realigned them after I took the photo.

Bend the center axle into a tube and glue it together.

Insert the washer and glue the points of the start to it.

Slide the acetate circle with a hole in the middle of it, over the top of the axle.  This will create a sandwiched washer once the bottom solid acetate circle is attached next.

Make the finial for the top of the axle. The key to making this is to glue one tab at a time and set it aside to dry.  If this is too hard, a bead can be a glued to the top of the axle. (The axle will need to be cut.) Here is an example with beads at the top of the axle. https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-leprechaun-carousel-box-for-st.html

The solid acetate circle is attached with Glue Dots as glue does not adhere well to acetate.

I used 4 one inch Glue Dots to adhere the center axle assembly.

Slide the center axle assembly through the center of the canopy.

Final assembly.Glue the finial to the top of the axle. 

Insert the color changing tea light into the box base.

A Christmas Carousel with a Color Changing Tea Light in the Base

As a side note, my inspiration for this carousel came from a carousel that I purchased at Walmart.  It is shown above on the left.  My version required lots of math from calculating the height and radius of the cone (carousel canopy) to the proper spacing of the flourishes. The flourishes on the two bands of this carousel took over eight hours to design because small design iterations changed the size of the design repeat. I could not stretch or decrease the size of the repeat because the flourish would then become distorted. The flourishes that I made have a nice wave-like flow.