Decorate Your Own Candle

Decorating a candle is a fun and easy project for a rainy day. Decorated candles make great gifts for family and friends, and they're perfect for the holidays. Learn how to decorate candles with ribbons, flowers, wax and cloth.

Steps

Decorating a Candle With a Ribbon

  1. Buy a candle. Choose one that is scented or unscented, depending on your preference. It can be any color, size, or shape, but plain white candles are the easiest to decorate, since everything matches them.
    • You may already have a candle around the house. Take a look around, and you can avoid buying one.
    • Dollar stores are great places to get inexpensive, plain candles to decorate.
  2. Pick out ribbons. Now you can get creative. Ribbon is a great decoration for candles because it comes in so many patterns and colors, so you can try a variety of different looks.
    • If your candle is colored, pick out ribbon that matches the color or looks pretty in contrast.
    • Choose ribbon made from fabric, paper, or plastic - any type will work fine.
  3. Settle on a design. Once you have your ribbon picked out, think about how you want it to look on the candle. Would you like a simple band of ribbon? How about several bands? You could also make a ribbon bow to adhere to the candle.
    • Wrap the ribbon around the candle to measure how much ribbon you'll need, then go ahead and cut the ribbon to the right length.
    • If you want to make a ribbon bow, Cut a length of ribbon and tie it in a pretty bow shape. Snip "v" shapes into the ends of the ribbon for a neat effect.
  4. Apply the ribbon with glue. Use either a hot glue gun, fabric glue, or super glue to stick the ribbon to the candle. Start by putting a spot of glue on the end of the ribbon and sticking it to the candle. Now wrap the ribbon around the candle, applying more dots of glue as you go to hold it on place, Finally, put one last dot of glue on the end of the ribbon and secure it over the place where you started.
    • Use more glue than you might think you need, so the ribbon doesn't come off later.
    • Have a paper towel handy in case you need to wipe excess glue off the candle.
    • If you're going to glue on a ribbon bow, secure it over the seam where the ends of the ribbon meet.
  5. Wait about a half-hour for the glue to dry.
  6. Your candle is now complete. You may wrap it as a gift or keep it.

Decorating a Candle With Flowers

  1. Choose a candle to decorate. Votive candles are a nice choice when you're decorating with flowers, since the flowers accent their delicate shape. Taper candles probably aren't the best choice, since the flowers might stick out too much.
  2. Get some dried flowers. Go to a craft store and pick out some dried flowers to use as candle decorations. You can find pressed daisies, mums, violets, and other beautiful blossoms that accent the candle you picked out.
    • If you'd rather not use dried flowers, check out the artificial flower section in your craft store. Choose from an amazing variety of silk and plastic flowers. The upside of these is that they'll never fall apart.
    • You can also make flowers out of fabric or paper to glue to your candle.
  3. Decide on a design. You could put the flowers in random spots all over the candle, make uniform rows or stripes, or place them in an even polka-dot pattern. Consider these other great options:
    • Make a flower garden. Glue flowers along the bottom of the candle to resemble a growing garden.
    • Make vertical flower vines. Glue flowers in vertical rows that have vine-like twists and turns.
    • Make a flower rim. Glue flowers along the rim of the candle and leave the sides bare.
  4. Glue the flowers to the candle. Heat up the glue gun or prepare to use your fabric glue. Choose a spot on the candle for the first flower, and put a dot of glue there. Press the flower firmly to the spot and hold it in place for thirty seconds.
    • If the flower falls away, it might be a little too heavy. Choose a flower that is flatter and lighter.
    • Try holding the flower in place for a full minute if it isn't sticking.
  5. Continue making your flower pattern. Place another dot of glue on another part of the candle. Stick a flower to the spot and hold it in place. Continue gluing flowers to the candle until you're satisfied with the way it looks, then wait for the glue to dry. Your candle is now ready to give away or use to decorate your home.

Decorating a Candle With Wax

  1. Buy candles in several different colors. One will be your base candle, the one you'll decorate, and the others will be melted down so you can use the wax. Keeping this in mind, choose candles with colors that complement each other.
  2. Decide how to decorate the candle. You can use different-colored wax to dye half of the candle a different color, make a polka dot design, or create random, modern art-esque shapes. Have a plan in mind before you start melting wax, since it tends to harden quickly.
  3. Melt colored wax. Choose one color to work with first. Melt the wax in a wax warmer or place it in a microwave-safe bowl and zap it for a few minutes. When the wax has melted, handle it very carefully - melted wax can burn your hands if you aren't careful.
    • Place the container of wax on a paper towel or cloth so that it doesn't get on your furniture.
    • You may want to work in the kitchen or bathroom to minimize the mess.
  4. Create your wax design. You can dip the candle in the colored wax or use a paintbrush to paint on a design. When you're finished using one color, heat a second candle and create a wax design using that color. You'll see that the wax hardens very quickly.
    • Colored wax tends to make translucent, watercolor-like patterns.
    • For best results, use only two or so extra wax colors. If you use too many, the candle could start to look messy.

Tips

  • Leave a few centimetres in between the top of the candle and the decorations if you plan to burn the candle.

Warnings

  • Be very careful when handling hot glue or wax.

Things You'll Need

  • Hot glue gun or fabric glue
  • Ribbon
  • Dried flowers
  • Large scented or unscented candle
  • Candles in different colours

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