Mod Podge Decorated Holiday Candles


Last month when I made Halloween candles out of the Dollar Tree altar candles and some tissue paper, I mentioned that I had picked up 4 of them. Well, today I was inspired by last night's early season snowfall to make some snowflake decorated holiday candles.


This time I decided to use some cocktail napkins that I picked up after Christmas at Wal-mart last year and some glitter. So I gathered up my supplies and got started.  The first thing I had to do was clean the label off of the candle jars.  I soaked them in a couple inches of water in the kitchen sink for just a few minutes and used a dish scraper to scrape the label off, and then I sprayed some goo gone onto the residue and wiped them off and they were good to go.


Next I peeled apart the layers of the napkin so I could use just the top layer on the candles.  Once you get the corner peeled back, just carefully pull the napkin apart.


Next I trimmed the perforated part of the napkin off.  The cocktail napkins are just the right size with the edges trimmed off.  Then I crinkled up the napkin so that it would look more intentionally crinkled while applying it to the candle.


Then I applied Mod Podge to the candle with a foam brush along the candle jar's seam as a guide.  I made sure my napkin was lined up along the seam and along the top lip of the candle. If there is a little extra napkin hanging over the bottom edge, it's easy enough to glue it onto the bottom.  For the Halloween candles I lined it up on the bottom and ended up having to trim up the messy top--it's much easier to fold the bottom edge over and glue it.


While you're gluing the napkin down, be careful not to get glue on your fingers and just gently tap the napkin onto the glue.  If your fingers get tacky or if the paper starts to rip, just put the candle down and let it set up a bit.  It's really easy to tear the napkin by simply grasping the candle when the napkin is wet with glue, so be careful.  If you do end up tearing more than a little (a little you can hide with glitter) you can mod podge a second napkin over top to hide the tears.


I had just a couple of minor rips since I am starting to get pretty good at this whole mod podge and tissue paper/napkin thing, so after I let the paper dry, I started adding some glitter.  I had some fine white glitter from the dollar section at Michael's that I sprinkled on to my candles after I applied another coat of Mod Podge. Then I let that dry and put another layer of Mod Podge over top of the glitter to minimize shedding.


I think they turned out pretty snowy, so I took the opportunity to take some of my last outdoor photos of the year in our freshly fallen snow. As lovely as the snow is, they look even better inside lit up where it's warm.


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