These ice luminaries are so easy to make! At this time of year, the days are so short and it’s so cold outside, that it’s kind of fun to take advantage of it, and do a craft that is perfect for both cold and dark weather! (Because honestly, how many activities can you really do with that combination??)
How to make your own Ice Luminaries
All you need are some balloons, some battery operated tea lights (I got mine from the dollar store) and some really cold weather! That’s right, frigid weather is perfect!
Fill up the balloons with water. As you can see, we really don’t have the ideal tap for making water balloons. You need to cover the whole nozzle with the balloon, otherwise the water will spray everywhere and they won’t fill.
Fill up the balloon to be as big as you plan to have your ice luminary:
You can make yours bigger, or smaller, but if they are going in the snow, small isn’t great since they will end up sinking down. They also have to be big enough to completely cover the tea light. You can see compared to my hands how big I made mine:
So basically you have just made a bunch of water balloons:
But then you are going to have to freeze them. You can freeze them on a cookie sheet in your freezer or put them outside in the snow. Just a heads up – check the weather before you put them outside. I had to dig mine out after they froze because we got another 6″ of snow that I wasn’t expecting. Oops!
On a side note, Leah thought this was the best part, because she thought we were “planting” the balloons. Her very favourite book right now is The Balloon Tree, which is all about planting a balloon which then turns into a magic tree. She was very sad that we didn’t have any “magic” to make these grow!
I put the water balloons outside when the temperature was well below freezing. But by the time I had a chance to take them out two days later, it had gone above freezing, so you can see in the photo below that they were slightly wet after the balloons were taken off:
But the ice lanterns still turned out to be beautiful! In the photo below, I’m holding the ball of ice on top of a battery operated tea light in my hands. You don’t need a groove cut out for the tea light or anything, it’s just the ball directly over the light. It’s such a pretty effect!
Place the tea lights where you want them in the snow, and then put the ice balls on top. If you really want, you can take your balloons out before they have fully frozen so that there is just a shell of ice. I’ve seen other people use this ice shell with real flaming tea lights. I haven’t tried it myself, but they say the light it gives off is beautiful!
Battery operated tea lights are surprisingly inexpensive, and balloons are very inexpensive, so you could make tons of these on a very small budget! Wouldn’t they look gorgeous on the side of a driveway on the night of a winter party?
These ice lanterns take about 5 minutes to prepare, maybe a day to freeze, and another 5 minutes to set up after they are frozen. They are super cheap to make, and extremely unique! Scatter them outside in the landscape for a beautiful effect!
Debbie @ One Little Project says
Thanks Mel! I’m so happy to have you visiting! These ice lanterns are so easy! You should definitely try them some time!
Evelyn @ My Turn (for us) says
What fun!!! Sadly I live in the South and can’t do these very often but its on my list!!!
Pinning and sharing!!
Hugs from Freedom Fridays With All My Bloggy Friends!
Carol answerischoco.com says
I almost wish we had snow here in order to make these. They are gorgeous. Featuring them when my link party opens up tonight 🙂
Becky Beach Eskeli says
I wonder if you add food coloring to the water, would you get colored ice? Makes sense…red, green..Christmas-y! Sadly not too far from below freezing weather in MN, I’ll let you know how it turns out!
liz says
I made a green one last year… It was awesome!
Bonnie Lee says
my brother said kool-aid, or jello colors them better….the food coloring fades
Vickie Piszar says
I made these last winter with food coloring, to get the colors you have to use a lot of color. I froze mine in the deep freezer and they turned out great. I had missed a few in the freezer so this summer when I was babysitting my daughters dogs I pulled one out and let the dogs play with them in the hot sun.They had a blast! I had made mine very large and when they had melted down a bit I took it away as I didn’t want them to swallow it and choke. It gave them something to play with and they would lick it to get the moisture from it.
Nancy B says
Thanks so much for posting these…I was asked to help with a large Christmas party being held in a barn..we made them quite large about the size of a soccer ball..not being sure of the ground conditions I purchased 8 styrofoam rings at the dollar store, covered each with left over stips of muslin fabric, it gave them a safe base. I did purchase LED pucks lights to set inside the ring and placed the ice globe on top…they look wonderful..the lights are very bright but I wanted that for the walkway into the barn…thanks so much again..great decoration and supper easy…❤️..love that. Nancy B
Leigh-Ann Hooley says
How would you get the colour in? I filled mine up with the tap, because that’s the only pressure that will fill it. But if you let it go to put colour in, it squirts everywhere and you’re left with more colour on your hands than in the balloon. 🙂
Debbie @ One Little Project says
Hi Leigh-Ann – try adding the drops of food colouring into the balloon before you fill it with water. Then it will mix up as you fill it and hopefully not end up all over your hands. 🙂
Leigh-Ann Hooley says
Sometimes it’s the most obvious solutions that escape you. haha Thank you for your help.
Debbie @ One Little Project says
haha No worries! It escaped me too and took me a day to think of how you could do it. 🙂
Nicole says
This might be a silly question….but why doesnt the snow or melting water affect the battery operated candle? Shouldn’t the moisture affect the batteries?
elizabeth anderson says
It would, but you could put it in a plastic baggie before hand.
Christle says
I was looking for this question!
John Stephen Dwyer says
“Extremely unique?”