Decorating Candles

Who can resist a gift candle that has been especially made just for them? If you are a stamper, embellishing a candle could be one of the easiest Christmas crafts you may find. It takes very little time and money to create such a home-made masterpiece!

WARNING: I assume you probably know all this, but just in case.....Candles decorated with tissue should not be burned unless you place them in a hurricane lamp or similar for safety in the event that the tissue catches on fire, and please, NEVER burn ANY candle and leave it unsupervised! Safety comes first, always :)

Apparently there is a candle safe product available for stamping on. I am attempting to find it. If you hear of this product, would you please leave me a link or a comment so I can find it too?

Thanks in advance! Stay safe!

Here's what you will need for decorating candles:

• One candle with enough space to show your images. I chose a square one for this example but you may choose a curved or a conical one
  
• Stamps of your choice or a way of making a picture on tissue, such as pens, paints, etc.
  
• Kleenex tissues or other thin tissue paper
  
• Waxed paper
  
• Ink, coloured markers, glitter glue, paint, or other medium of choice that will work on tissue
  
• Papercraft tools:
• Scissors
  
• A heat gun
  
• A bone folder or something heat-proof to use (instead of your fingers) to hold your decorations in place while heating the image to adhere it to your project
  

Here's what to do:

• Stamp, draw or paint your images onto tissue paper, making sure they will fit in place on the side of the candle you are going to decorate
  
• Carefully cut out the images you have made
  
• Hold the image in place where you want to adhere it, using the bone folder, a wooden skewer or the like so you won't burn your fingers
  
• Use the heat gun on the image to melt the wax under your image. The wax will soak through the tissue and meld the image with your candle
  
• I allow the wax to cool slightly, then turn that side down onto a piece of waxed paper so the table underneath will help flatten out the image and create a smoother surface
  
• Allow wax to cool and harden completely before finishing your embellishments.
  

Warning!

• Be sure to heat the wax only briefly. If you overheat it, the shape of the decorative candle will be distorted quickly and you may wind up with a crater-like effect instead of a pretty, smooth surface.
  
• Heat embellishments like ribbon only briefly. They tend to melt if overheated, and that is probably not the look you want!
  

Other things to try:

• Try adhering other small, flat objects to the sides of the candle like little gold or silver stars, beads, shells, leaves, feathers, even buttons, sand or glitter
  
• Use different coloured tissue for a different effect in the background, even wrapping an entire tissue around the whole project
  
• Get creative with different coloured inks and pens and make a very colourful image for your gift
  

Are you surprised how easy this is? I hope you enjoy your new-found skill for Decorating Candles!

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