Stamping on Candles

The Senior design team members of Mark's Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company, are presenting a series of tutorials on the Home of Speedy TV.  This week it's my turn.  Some of the tutorials are advanced; others are pretty simple.  Actually, I think that my project is fairly simple.  Stamping on Candles was one of the first techniques I learned when I started stamping.  The images I used for my project are from the MFP set called Mother's Magnolias.  

To get started you will need the following:

 Stamp

Coloring medium

Tissue paper

Wax paper

Scissors

Heat tool

Candle

June is right around the corner, so I thought I would show you how to create this candle centerpiece for a wedding. 

The images for my candles come from two different sets.  The flowers are from Mother’s Magnolias, and the sentiment on the small candle is from a set called Today, Tomorrow and Always.  I used the smallest magnolia as an accent with the sentiment.  It is actually part of a stamp which includes the words Happy Mother’s Day, but I cut it off that stamp.  That’s what I like about clear stamps – you can adapt them to your needs!

To start, stamp your image onto tissue paper and color it.  I usually color on the back side, but I don’t think that’s absolutely necessary. 

Then cut out the image fairly close to the edge, leaving only a small amount of margin.

Place the cut-out image onto your candle. 

 Cut a piece of wax paper approximately the height of your candle.  This will help avoid any “lines” on the candle when you’re finished. 

Hold the wax paper tightly around the candle and aim your heat tool at the image.  

 

 As the heat increases, it melts the wax enough to allow the tissue paper to meld into the candle.

  

 You can see the image becoming “shiny” through the wax paper.  Hold the heat on the candle only long enough to melt the wax sufficiently for the tissue to hold.  And be careful – hot wax is extremely HOT!  (I speak from experience!!!)

 

Carefully peel back the wax paper.  Because the image has melted into the wax, you really can’t see the tissue paper border around the edge of your image.  And it really does look like you have stamped on the candle.

 If your project consists of several candles, repeat the process on all the candles.

Here again is the completed centerpiece.

 I hope you try stamping on candles.  It is not really a difficult technique, but it creates a unique and personal project.

My daughter, who loves candles, has already taken possession of this centerpiece.    I hope you try this fun technique.