Who doesn't love pillar candles. But these days, who has the money to spend on those fancy, pre-decorated ones? Certainly, not myself. You can pick up plain white ones at the Dollar Tree, or even at Wal*Mart, for next to nothing. On the other hand, unless it falls into your stark white décor, white candles just don't add any flavor to the scene.
But.. they CAN with a little creativity. I am obsessed with Pinterest (you might've noticed, if you've checked out other posts to my blog). I found this idea there, and several other places on the web. And there are a few variations. This one is my own, only because I have not yet comes across the use of tissue paper for it, yet. Of course, original ideas are few and far between in this information sharing age.
So here's the skinny:
On Pinterest, they used printed seasonal or special occasion napkins with a clothes iron.
They are typically 2-ply; printed-ply and a plain backing-ply. Remove the plain backing, leaving only the printed 1-ply napkin. Wrap the printed-ply napkin around the pillar candle, and run a cooler-setting iron over it evenly, so that they wax melts and seeps through the napkin. Trim off the top and bottom hang-over pieces of napkin. And voila! Fancy pillar candle to fit in with your décor.
I didn't have any printed napkins. However, I have a habit of keeping tissue paper that comes in gifts and other packaging. And I have friends and family who donates theirs to me as well.
I picked out the colors I wanted. In lieu of an clothes iron (because I have no idea where mine is), I used my curling iron. I didn't use the barrel of the curling iron, but the hinged part used to hold the hair in place. When you're done, wipe the iron with a clean cloth or paper towel and the hot wax will come right off. I found the curling iron to be easy to use, I'm sure I'd have burned myself if I knew where the clothes iron was and attempted to use that.
It is fairly easy to see your progress, as the tissue paper (or napkin) becomes translucent.
With this candle, I wanted an overlapping effect of the different colors.
Play with ideas and experiment with your look, and enjoy!
This is another pattern I found on Pinterest. I can't tell you how much I enjoy surfing Pinterest for new ideas! And this is fairly simple and takes only a few minutes to complete one. I did all five of these within an hour and a half. It took me longer to locate my buttons and pick out the ones I wanted to use to go with the crochet thread I had than it did to actually make them.
I think they are so cute and could be used for a lot of other crafts. You could slip one on a bobby pin and use it as a hair decoration, use them for accents on crochet blankets, attach a key chain ring, you could even use Sticky-Tac to mount them to a boring wall, the list goes on and on!
What you'll need:
- Size 7 crochet hook
- Size 10 crochet thread
- Buttons with four holes
I used Red Heart Classic Crochet Thread. And the buttons will need holes large enough for the hook to easily pass through.
RND 1: single crochet in the 1st button hole, chain 4 (for a bigger button, you may need to chain 5), single crochet in the 2nd hole, chain 4, single crochet in the 3rd hole, chain 4, single crochet in the 4th hole, single crochet in the 1st hole, chain 4, join with a slip stitch to the 1st single crochet.
RND 2: *slip stitch, half-double crochet, 4 double crochet, half-double crochet, slip stitch.
Repeat from * 4 times, slip stitch to the 1st slip stitch, finish off.
If you'd like to add a border color like I did, just slip stitch in each slip stitch spot and single crochet in half-double crochet and double crochet stitches. Slip stitch to the first slip stitch and finish off.
My sister doesn't start decorating for Christmas until after my nephew's birthday on December 12th. The reason for this is simple. She wants to keep his birthday separate from Christmas, so that it doesn't diminish his special day or that of Christmas.
So in keeping that in mind, there's nothing wrong with decorating for WINTER; as long as it doesn't give off too much of a Christmas-y vibe. I found this idea somewhere on Pinterest.
Hot glue Snowflakes. It's very easy and so simple you'll wonder why you hadn't thought of using hot glue for this and other types of things, as well, yourself.
I went to Google Images and searched for "snowflake outlines". As you can see from the image above, I found two types suitable for this, bold solid and traditional outline. I printed them out so that the widest snowflake is about 3-1/2 inches across. Any larger, and I think the glue might become too heavy and sag after it cools.
You'll also notice from the photo above, those patterns are under glass. The patterns serve as templates, and you'll work directly on the glass. Once the hot glue has cooled, use a razor blade, carefully, to lift it off.
You can use standard clear hot glue sticks, or the glittery hot glue. I preferred using the standard clear glue sticks and then using a paint brush with Mod Podge and glitter from a shaker. It sparkles brighter that way, I think. The glitter sticks just didn't have the "bling" I was looking for with these.
As for whether to use a mini glue gun vs. a standard sized glue gun, that really depends on which works better for you. I found the mini glue gun worked for me.
If you don't have a handy piece of glass to work with, never fear. Buy a cheap picture frame, take out the glass and ditch the tacky frame (or use it for something else).
Work on a flat surface with good lighting. Place your pattern under the glass, and lay even, thick lines of glue, tracing your patterns. The less you have to stop a line and start another, the better; so plan your course tracing ahead of time.
In the photo above, I laid the six-sided middle ring first. Then I added the six outer "spokes", followed by the "branches" off the spokes.
I used 4-pound fishing line and a needle on the tip of a spoke to hang them. Make sure you leave a little room between the fishing line and the very tip of the snowflake, so that it doesn't pull through the glue while hanging.
You can use them to decorate almost anything. We have rods above our doorway into the kitchen, I hung ours from there. But you can make smaller ones to decorate your tree, wreaths.. like I said, almost anything. For all intents and purposes, you could hot glue them directly onto your windows (if it's not too cold outside- don't want to crack the window) and then when you're ready to take down your decorations, just use that trusty razor blade to remove them from the window.
Enjoy!
