Christmas Gift – Personalized Candle

 

I am working on a little crafting today.  I’ve been meaning to do this project for a little while now, but getting a picture that is okay enough to use, along with finding enough hours in my day is never a challenge!  ha! 

 

So this is what the picture looked like once I cropped it down.  Thanks, Deanna, for getting this picture of the three of us on Saturday so I can finally do this project!!!

 

 

What you’ll need for this project:

• Glass Taper Candle Holder
• Glass Globe
• Candle
• Ribbon
• E6000 Glue
• Heat Tool
• Tissue Paper
• Photo

 

I started out with a candlestick that is supposed to hold taper candles, a glass globe and a cheap, white candle…all items that I picked up at The Dollar Tree yesterday. 

 

 

 

 

 

I used E6000 glue (available with the rest of the adhesives at your hobby/craft store) and adhered the candlestick (the part where the taper candle is supposed to sit) to the bottom center of the globe.  I allowed it to dry overnight with a little weight on it so it would get a good seal and added a very simple bow!  I added a simple bow from ribbon I bought at Michaels on the after-Halloween clearance.  It doesn’t look Halloween-y to me…but who is going to argue price over cheap ribbon?  Certainly not me!

 

 

Now for the fun part…

 

I took some tissue paper, wrapped it around a piece of white cardstock, and adhered it to the back.  I used a little of my repositionable adhesive, but keep in mind that whatever you use is going to tear your tissue paper IF you are going to try to remove the tissue paper from the cardstock vs cutting it (like I did).  Just make sure you don’t tape/adhere it just right around the edge of your paper or you may tear your picture! 

 

Now that my tissue paper is adhered to the cardstock, I loaded it in my printer facing down (test your printer to see which way your paper needs to be loaded…some printers need the paper to be facing up!).  I printed it, then rather than trying to remove the tape/adhesive from the pack of the paper, I used scissors and carefully cut around the edge of my picture.  Yes, that means for every print I do, I am wasting a piece of paper…but quite possibly saving my sanity at the same time.  ha!  Also, I haven’t tried to recycle the paper for another picture, but since it does bleed through the tissue paper onto the cardstock a little, it could quite possibly ruin your next set of pictures…?

 

Once that’s all done, I place my picture onto my candle where I want it.  I wrap a piece of waxed paper around my candle and over the top of my picture (make sure your picture didn’t shift) and grab the waxed paper on the back of your candle in your hand.  You are going to use this as a bit of a handle.  Remember, the heat gun gets hot when you’re heating the candle to adhere the tissue paper, so you’ll want to keep your hands out of the way of that. 

 

Now that you have your tissue paper in place with your waxed paper over the top of it, grab your heat tool.  Remember that you are working with WAX here and it will melt quickly from the heat of your heat tool!  Keep your heat gun moving so that you don’t overheat your candle!  You’ll see your tissue paper picture start turning glossy.  Keep the heat moving over your entire picture until it’s all turned shiny.  Allow to cool for a couple of seconds (this doesn’t take long at all) and CAREFULLY remove the waxed paper from your candle. 

 

I kept my candle horizontal with my work surface so that any of the candle wax that melted stayed inside the waxed paper.  Just make sure you are working over a surface that is covered. 

 

This is what my candle looked like when I was done. 

 

This is what the candle and holder look like together.

 

And THAT, ladies & gentlemen, is my grandmother’s Christmas gift.  The only thing that would make it better?  If the other two kiddos would have been there to be in the picture.  Of course I’d have needed a bigger candle, but…….  ;o)

 

I figure come Christmas, my mom is going to see this and want one too.  *sigh*  j/k, Mom (if you’re reading!)

 

Thanks for stopping by!  If you have any questions, shoot me an email or leave a comment.  All comments are emailed to me, so I’ll see it. 

 

Billie

LiveJournal Tags: Photo Candle,Altered Candle,Candlestick,Ribbons,Tissue Paper