Friday, November 07, 2008

candle decorating.


One of the crafts the boys enjoy repeating is decorating our pillar candles for each season. It is simple, but the decorated candles look nice and add to our nature or dinner table!


We have a few sets of the small cookie cutters which we use for wax and clay. We use them a LOT. For our fall candles, the boys picked nice fall colors and cut shapes out of embellishing beeswax - they picked leaves and acorns.


We then simply press the beeswax shapes onto the candles - warm the shapes up a tad bit between your hands before pressing the pieces on and it will stick. You only need a light bond. If your hands don't do the trick, I hold a match to the back of a piece to warm it a little (*quickly* - don't melt it!) before my son presses it on. When the holiday or season has passed, if your candle remains, you can simply remove the wax pieces and decorate for the next season! Decorating plain pillars also makes a nice gift.

12 comments:

tiff said...

I love these candles...fun!

Definitely festive.

dawn klinge said...

This is something I've never tried with my kids but would like to...it looks fun.

Marina said...

I was just thinking of having my boys do something similar for Christmas presents! Thanks so much for the tutorial!

Tara said...

These look so festive!

Owen and I are going to try adding cinnamon sticks around pillar candles... hope it works!!

Stephanie said...

When we dipped our leaves a couple of weeks ago we actually pressed leaves into the sides of a pillar, then poured melted wax over it to seal it on there.
But this one with the beeswax looks a lot simpler! :)
A fine idea.

Lisa said...

Great idea for our rainy evening tonight! Thanks!

Beverly said...

That's great! And the best part is, the candles will be used, unlike some crafts, which you get sentimentally attached to although they clutter the house. You know what I'm saying ...

Claudia - La Casa nella Prateria said...

Beautiful!

Barbara said...

a friend just brought me some little holiday cookie cutters that would be perfect for this project...do you have a favorite source for the decorating wax?

denise said...

Barbara - I like Paper Scissors Stone (http://www.waldorfsupplies.com/) - they are in Wisconsin. :) It is called Stockmar decorating wax...

RunninL8 said...

After the season of almost all day sunlight, it's nice to enter this time of darkness and bring out all the candles! I need to figure out were I can get bulk beeswax. Your project looks so fun and easy and the results are beautiful!

Dawn said...

Oh, those are darling!

The kids were just talking about making some Thanksgiving centerpieces.....great idea, you always have such good ones!!

:)