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How to Make a Celebration Candle

May 15th, 2009 in patterns & designs, paper crafts, holidays, memory making     

Candles always make a gathering more festive. Here's a simple way to dress them up to match your party decor.

What you'll need:

• Pillar candle (see notes below)
• Decorative paper
• Scissors
• Paper grocery bag
• Two pencils
• Masking tape
• Mod Podge (see note below)
• Paintbrush or foam brush
• Ribbon or rickrack (optional)

If you use colored candles, keep in mind that the dyes could run a little once you paint Mod Podge on the candle. Always protect your work surface when doing this project.

A note about Mod Podge: Just for fun, I mixed two kinds of Mod Podge for this project. I stirred a little Shimmer Mod Podge, which is silvery in color, into regular matte finish Mod Podge. The resulting medium has a slight shimmer to it, which is very pretty in person, although very hard to capture in photographs!

Cut out some motifs from lightweight paper.

Begin by cutting out some decorative paper motifs to decorate your candle. The paper should be on the thin side, like old wrapping paper or magazine cutouts. Heavyweight scrapbook papers or photo prints or card stock won't work as well because they don't have enough flexibility to wrap cleanly around the candle.

Prepare your work surface by putting down some paper and taping two pencils to it. These will stabilize the candle.

Next, prepare your work surface. Put down some paper to protect it from spills—as I mentioned last week, I prefer paper grocery bags, cut apart and flattened.

In addition, tape down two pencils side by side, about 1-1/2 inches apart, as shown. These create a nice stabilizer for your candle, so you can lay it on its side while you work, and it won't roll around.

Brush on a generous coat of Mod Podge.

From there, the decoupage process is easy. You'll work one section at a time. Brush a generous coat of Mod Podge on the candle where you want the paper to be.

Place the paper cutout over the glue layer.

Immediately place the paper cutout over the glue. This will saturate the back side of the paper.

Brush more Mod Podge over the cutout.

Then, brush another coat of Mod Podge, this time over the top of the paper—this saturates the front side. Make sure all edges of the paper are fully saturated as well. If the paper wrinkles, just smooth it out with your fingers.

Leave this section to dry for 10 to 15 minutes before proceeding to the next. When the Mod Podge has turned from milky to clear, you can proceed.

As each section dries, move on to the next.

Repeat this process until you've glued down all the paper motifs. Let the last section dry for 10 to 15 minutes.

Brush another generous coat of Mod Podge all over the candle.

Lastly, stand the candle up and apply one last coat of Mod Podge, covering the entire surface. Don't get any Mod Podge on the top or bottom of the candle.

Press ribbon or trims into the glue to add some dimension.

During this step, you can also press some ribbon, lace, or rickrack into the glue. (Be careful, though—test your trim for color-fastness by dipping a piece into the Mod Podge. Make sure the color doesn't bleed.)

Allow the whole thing to dry completely (this will take several hours).

Burning your Celebration Candle: Because of the decoupage on the sides, you'll need to burn this candle a little differently than others. Let it burn until you have a well in the center. From that point, you'll place a tealight in this well and burn that. Just replace the tealight with a new one whenever you need to.

posted in: patterns & designs, paper crafts, holidays, memory making, keepsake, decoupage, candle