I used some of the Die Cut Valentine Hearts to make Romantic Pillar Candles:
These are really so easy to make, I made a whole bunch in about 1 hour:
I also made a few with cute napkins I had in my stash:
The last candle (for my studio) is also sprinkled in glitter:
SUPPLIES:
- Cheap pillar candles
- non-stick white parchment paper
- napkins (or your chosen prints on tissue paper)
- scissors
- heat tool (I used my embossing heat gun, but a hair dryer, an iron or even an old curling iron will do too).
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Line your work surface with a sheet of parchment paper to protect it from candle wax
- Cut your napkin or tissue paper print to fit the candle. For the Die Cut Hearts I did not fussy cut, I just cut them out with a generous white border all around.
- Align your chosen decor on the pillar candle
- Wrap it in parchment paper
- Start heating with your heat tool, and smooth with your fingers as you go along.
- When the whole candle has been heated, carefully remove the parchment paper.
- Any “dry” spots can be heated again until you are satisfied. I went over the whole surface and especially the edges to make sure everything blends nicely into the wax, and to achieve a shiny and saturated surface.
- Optional: apply spray glue to your candle and quickly sprinkle it with a fine type glitter
Love my Die Cut Hearts and want to use those? Then you will have to prepare those first by printing them on tissue paper. I could never make the various techniques for printing on tissue paper work with my Canon Printer, so I had almost given up on that, the closest I came was printing on paper towels. But I recently came across a technique for printing on tissue paper I had not seen before, and gave it another go, it works like s charm!!! 😀
PRINTING ON TISSUE PAPER:
- Cut a white sheet of tissue paper slightly larger than an A4 page (when I separate my large sheet of tissue paper into 4 it’s the perfect size).
- Wrap your tissue paper around a sheet of cardstock (or other quite heavy paper) and glue all 4 wrapped edges to the back of the paper with a glue stick. Pay attention that the corners are especially nice, to avoid printer jam.
- Insert the paper via manual feed as you would other special printer paper
WARNING:
Please never, ever, leave any decorated pillar candle to burn unattended! The added tissue layer may represent an increased fire hazard, depending on the type of wax/candle you have used!
Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions about making the DIY Romantic Pillar Candles, or about my new technique on tissue paper printing!
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Hi there,
I had made a few candles like this with napkins in a class once but we were told you could not actually burn them because the paper was a fire hazard and was not safe should they catch fire. I always thought that it was weird because the whole idea behind any candle is to burn it. But I think that it depend on the type of candle it is and how it burn down when lit. Some candles will burn straight down leaving a good amount of a wax surround, about 1/2 inch. But other candles burn in a way where the whole candle including the sides melt. Anyway, ever since then, I’ve been afraid to make these again. I’m wondering since most of the battery operated candles are made of wax if you could achieve the same look with a battery operated candle.
I tried this craft with three different types of candles. I’m definitely going to keep watch over them and never leave them unattended, to see how they burn! I already burned the studiocandle for several hours each day this weekend, and it just needs cutting off the top every once in, say 15-20 hours! I cut it when I blew out the candle and the wax i still soft. The two straight candles in the first picture in this post are a different type of wax (more expensive) and I have not tried burning those yet. I also tried this craft on regular taper candles, and trust me, you do NOT want to do that! They indeed caught on fire, kind of smoldering, so not like a big explosion, but definitely a fire hazard! I’ll definitely try this with battery operated LED pillar candles next, either wax with this method or just use regular decoupage with plastic LED candles 🙂 xoxoxo
Oh I would love to hear how it turns out with the battery candles. Thanks so much for all you share with us!