DIY wax paper capiz shell chandelier

I pulled a little "While you were out" action on Craig the other day to surprise him for his birthday. It will be 10 years this year that we've been married, and we have always just had an "it will do the job" kind of bedroom. No personalities, or fun details that made us love the room, and that had to change! I've been on pintrist a little, and looking around for ideas. I Saw this idea on http://www.designsponge.com/ and knew I HAD to try it! And I've got to tell ya...I LOVE the way it turned out!

I had a bunch of projects for my made over bedroom, so I'm going to show you one at a time how to do them (for the ones I took pictures of during the process), and at the end of the week I'll show you the before and after shots of my room:)

I'm excited:)

The First project was to get a Capiz Shell Chandelier, but have you priced these babies out? Anywhere from $250- $3,000! Um, ya...that's about $245 out of my price range...for the cheapest one. But don't you fret my frugal friends, My "Capiz chandelier" Cost me under $5. You heard me...UNDER $5!

So, Here is what you need:

1 roll of wax paper

1 roll of contact paper

1 3/4" Circle punch

lamp shade

sewing machine

and a little patience

I didn't have a lamp shade on hand, so I went to DI and found one that was the right diameter for the right price (.75). I cut off the fabric so we were left with the metal skeleton of a lamp shade. My sister couldn't find a lamp shade that was the right size for her light, so she got a hanging metal planter, and that worked to.

Now (sorry, I don't have a picture of this) you are going to layer your wax paper and contact paper like so: Bottom contact paper, 3 sheets of wax paper, 1 sheet contact paper, 3 sheets wax paper, 1 sheet contact paper on top. After you have your layers, you will iron the paper, and I had my iron set on high. This will make the 3 sheets of wax paper stick together, creating the capiz shell illusion. Save the wax paper, and discard the contact paper.

Side note, I tried breaking up a brown crayon, and melting it between the layers of wax paper, and it looked really cool. In the end, I preferred all white for this one, but if you want color, it might be fun to play around with:)

Now, you will use your 1 3/4" circle punch and cut out LOTS of circles. You can decide how long you want your Chandelier to be, but for my room, I did 12 circles per strip. I organized the circles with muffin tins, so they would all be the same length.

Next, you just feed the wax paper circles into your sewing machine (Chain linking). I linked 12 circles together, then let a little thread out, then linked the next 12, over and over.

Now, you decide how many levels you want your chandelier to have, I wanted 3, so I added a level with a wire.

Now you get to drape your circle chains over the lamp levels, leaving 6 circles on either side of the wire...make sense?   My chandelier is the same diameter as my light fixture, so I was able to slide my chandelier wire under the fixture to hold it up. If your Chandelier is bigger then your light, you can purchase hook screws for  a few cents from most any hardware store.

If you make your own Capiz Shell Chandelier send me a picture:) I would LOVE to see how yours comes out.