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How to pimp your candles – glitter, paint or otherwise

I’m not really a big candles fan – well, they look pretty, but we don’t really have anywhere to put them in our house, and I don’t burn them so they’re kind of pointless on the whole – but I’ve been meaning for a while to try decorating some plain candles. With it coming up to Christmas it was the perfect opportunity. They look great amongst baubles or holly for Christmas table decorations.

While trawling Pinterest and various craft websites, I’d spotted some simple, glittered candles, and thought I fancied giving those a go.

Pillar candles duly purchased, I got out my craft bits and pieces…and discovered I didn’t have any glitter. Any glitter at all. Apart from glitter glue, and then various paints. After a brief scream, and scramble through the craft drawers, I dug out all the different possible types of silver and gold based paints, in the hope of creating some kind of Christmassy candle.

candle kit

Most craft paints are pretty flexible, in that they’re not just for paper, but can be used on lots of different materials. I decided to try the glitter glue first.

I vaguely decided to do a sparkly ‘flame’ based pattern from the bottom, and although it was freehand and it’s a bit difficult to see the glitter against the pale candle, the effect is quite nice in real life. If you had darker candles or glitter, it would be even more impactful.

pimped candle

I simply ‘drew’ up from the bottom of the candle in lines, then filled in the gaps a bit. The glue didn’t take that long to dry, so I now have a glittery candle (although maybe not quite good enough to give as a gift!).

I then wanted a bit more colour, so found some metallic bronze paint. I wanted to do stripes, but freehand is never that neat. It would almost have been better to have some paint to roll the candle along to get it even, although I didn’t need to put quite a bit on to avoid it being transparent and to stop the brush marks.

Obviously stars are a great pattern for Christmas, so a few stars later, and I had a very freestyle candle. Again the paint dried really quickly – it was a craft paint which stated it could be used on fabric and candles, so definitely worth looking out to make sure it will dry. I did find I could wipe off mistakes with a baby wipe (essential for crafting in mopping up errors!), so it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

 

star candle

I think using rubber stamps with wording on could work well, although I wasn’t sure I had any suitable ink. Maybe next time I’d try that idea.

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