Candle Decorating Tutorial

Last August I was a guest writer on Latter-day Homeschooling and did a candle decorating tutorial. Now that Christmas is just 53 days away, I thought I’d finally share the tutorial here for those of you who are in dire need of ideas for Christmas gifts. Or birthday gifts. Or whatever gifts.

A person can never have too many candles.  Pillar, taper, tea light, votive, melts, jar, gel.  Some are scented, some are not.  (Still waiting anxiously for the mulled cider candles to become available again.)  They can be plain or elaborately beautiful.  Best of all, you can use them whenever you want.  And for us candle lovers they make great gifts – especially since Christmas will be here in the blink of an eye.
These candles take 5-10 minutes to make, if that.
You will need:
· a white or ivory pillar candle about 5-6 inches tall, scented or unscented
· white tissue paper
· a sheet of wax paper two or three inches (maybe even more) wider than the circumference of the candle
· stamp(s) of your choosing
· heat embossing tool or hair dryer
· inkpads in color(s) of your choice
· scissors
· markers to color in the stamp design (optional)
· ribbon or other decorative finishing (optional)
1. Head to the store and choose your candle(s).  (Unless, of course, you already have candles on hand.)  The designs you choose will show up best on a white candle, but if you feel adventurous, pick a colored one.  I haven’t, so I don’t know how that would turn out.
2. Choose the stamp or stamps you want to use for designing the candle and ink them in the desired colors.

Stamp the tissue paper as many times as you want in your design, re-inking or changing colors as you need, being mindful of the circumference of the candle.  I was able to fit four big stamped images around a candle.  Color in the designs if you want.

Cut out each image as close to the edge as you can get.  If it’s multiple images in a line, just cut out around the group, again as close to the edge of the designs as you can get.

Position the tissue paper wherever you want on the candle…

… wrap in the wax paper that’s just two inches or so wider than the circumference of the candle, so you have something to hold on to…

Turn on the heat embossing tool or hairdryer and wave it slowly back and forth across the image.  I tested out the hair dryer for the Snoopy and Christmas Fire Hydrant candle and it works just as well as the heat embossing tool; it just takes a little longer.  Whichever you use, keep it no closer than three inches from the candle, otherwise the candle will start to melt.  As it is, the wax will start to melt a little as the tissue paper adheres to the candle.  And that’s okay.  When the tissue paper has completely melted onto the candle, remove the wax paper…

… and you’re DONE!  Repeat as desired for each candle.