Add your monogram to a candle
Adding a monogram, or any beautiful design, is so easy, and so much fun. You can find this project online in a number of places. I first tried it with the Twins (my BFF's identical twin boys, age 6 at the time), and it was really fun. If you want to do this with kids, you can have them color a design on tissue paper with any kind of markers. Or you can print any design you want onto tissue paper, by taping it to a regular sheet of paper before feeding it through your inkjet printer. I wouldn't do this in a laser, as it uses a hot "roller" and that might melt the tape. And things could get ugly.
You can also use any pretty tissue paper. I like making these with toile tissue paper. These candles come out beautiful.
The technique:
-Trim your tissue paper close in to the design. You can leave a little space around it, but you don't need much. If using an overall pattern like toile, just cut the tissue paper to the size of the candle.
-Cut a piece of wax paper that is larger than the design. It doesn't need to be much larger than the tissue paper, but has to cover it completely. It needs to be long enough to wrap all the way around the candle, because you then need to either tape it in the back (wrap tightly before taping!) or hold it tight with one hand.
- Now heat your design area with a hair dryer (set on hottest setting) or a heat gun. Don't burn your fingers! Duh. They will get hot, if you hold the wax paper. - You'll quickly see where it's "done." The wax on the wax paper melts into the tissue paper, and it's visible... leaving a very-thin new layer of wax on the candle, sealing the tissue paper art inside. It's SO COOL!
You just peel off the wax paper. Quickly smooth down any spots that are sticking up, with your finger, while the wax is soft. If you actually need to POLISH up a candle... this one or ANY candle... pantyhose does it perfectly. :) I keep some pieces of pantyhose on my candle shelf.
This is perfect for weddings, as you can see we did to the large block-shaped candles with the wedding monogram for Allan and Whitney Hales.
(photos to come)
