Crafty, Scrappy, Happy: Graphic printed candles DIY

Monday, April 4, 2011

Graphic printed candles DIY

Just a little project here from the crafty, scrappy, happy world :o)

Today I made myself a cute little easter inspired candle and I am excited because it was easy and the possibilities with this seem endless!!!

What you need: vellum, a candle, wax paper and a hairdryer

How to DIY:

Print your image on vellum paper (I got my image from the Graphic Fairy---click here to check out her amazing images!)

Grab and old candle that you want to up-cycle trim up your paper to a size that will wrap or nearly wrap around the candle. (I must note that my candles are from my wedding over 2.5 years ago...we bought them for 75% at the after Christmas sale, used them for the wedding and I have been using the for different decorative purposes ever since---note the ribbon at the bottom!!! Moral of the story buy an excessive amount of candles when they are 75% off you WILL use them FOREVER even if you don't have a wedding to use for an excuse!!!)

Wrap wax paper around the vellum printed image and blow-dry the HECK out of the candle!

Finally add ribbon/twine/whatever your heart desires :o) I like the twine in person but realized in photos it looks a little silly....

And there you have it, a cute-sie candle for the season you didn't have to spend a penny on-now that is my kind of a candle!

And for my unsolicited advice:

Use light weight vellum (mine was on the thicker side and took more effort to cover in wax), blow the bubbles in the vellum right out with the hair dryer don't get frustrated when you see them they will work their way out (I might have been a tad frustrated at first), and next time I might tack my vellum image down with glue dots or something just for a little extra ease---holding the vellum and wax paper didn't allow for perfect alignment of the image...but as I always say my crafts are never perfect!

p.s. did I tell you that you might come up with some exciting ideas of your own?!? Becks was over when I made mine so I insisted that we make one for her while we were at it----nothing like a newly-wed candle with your new name and year you were est. in!

I mean I am thinking this could be cute for wedding gifts or in gift baskets, or what about for wedding or party decorations....maybe a personalized Christmas gift???

And I must add a little blurb about my hand towels I made yesterday---ahhh I love a holiday hand towel, and I love a black and white image so once again I used my citra solv technique (click here is you haven't seen my post) and made these fun towels!

I love to share my ideas! I love to think someone might want to try them on their own, SOOO,

***I am linking my ideas to a few parties check, the party tab at the top of my blog for the list!***

Labels: crafty, scrappy

25 Comments:

Lindsey said...: Oh my gosh I love love love the candle! Your genus! So simple! OH how I miss doing crafts every night with you Jaime LYn!!!!
I love you WILDLY!!!!; April 5, 2011 at 2:01 AM
Anonymous said...: Oh my gosh, that is the best craft I have seen in a long time. I am dying to try it this weekend. I have a couple of questions if that's okay?

Any chance you could tell us a little more about where you would buy vellum? Is it expensive? Can you transfer the image is you use a ink-jet printer or do you have to use a laser jet?

Love your blog, am a big fan!; April 5, 2011 at 3:34 PM
Joan Princing Art said...: Hello. Just stopping by via the Graphics Fairy blog. I am your newest follower. Please stop by and say hello and follow us, too.

I really like your candle tutorial. I will most definitely have to give this a try. It looks so very simple, too.

Have a fun day.
Joan; April 5, 2011 at 4:03 PM
Jaime Lyn at Crafty Scrappy Happy said...: Comments and new followers make my day, thank you so much for checking out my crafts!

So here are some answers---I am ALWAY happy to help/answer anything!!!

I buy vellum from an office supply store, anything like staples or office max would work. The lighter weight the better for this craft...I always buy a pack because I use vellum for many many crafts, the pack of vellum from office max is about $7 for 50 sheets.

You can use any kind of printer to print the image (if you use an ink jet be careful because the image takes awhile to dry and will smudge if you try to work with it too soon). Either will work because you don't actually transfer the image you just basically cover the vellum with the warmed up wax of the candle and the wax paper.

I would love to hear if you try the technique!!!

Thanks again for stopping by my blog, it means a lot to me!; April 5, 2011 at 6:05 PM
Jessica said...: This is such a great idea! Can't wait to try it - thanks for sharing! Saw this over at Graphics Fairy :); April 5, 2011 at 8:49 PM
Jaimee @ Havenwood House of Boys said...: Wow! This is amazing!!! I just did a post on my blog about using free printables. I went back and added a link to this post : )
craft-interrupted.blogspot.com; April 8, 2011 at 6:34 AM
Brandy J. said...: I just found your blog and am your newest follower! You are one talented woman who has left me completely inspired. Thanks for the great blog and I love the candle and towel!!; April 8, 2011 at 7:21 AM
Jaime Lyn at Crafty Scrappy Happy said...: Thanks for the comment and the complement Brandy, I am SOOO happy that you are following and that you are inspired, I never know if my craft ideas are silly or if I should share them, it makes me excited that you might get some ideas from me :o); April 8, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Sweet Little Smoothie said...: Great idea - I can't wait to try it! Thanks for sharing :)

ps - I'm your newest follower :); April 8, 2011 at 5:51 PM
Anonymous said...: Hi! Me again, just curious about the process - another question. I am unclear as to how you know when you're done? Does the entire piece of vellum get melted into the candle? Do you have to trim around the image somehow? Sorry for being dense! I plan to try this tomorrow and would love to avoid making too many mistakes. Love your blog, keep up the good work. :>); April 9, 2011 at 5:34 AM
Jaime Lyn at Crafty Scrappy Happy said...: So glad you are following Sweet little smoothie!!!

And anonymous-I am always happy to help don't hesitate to ask! I want your candles to turn out amazing! So here is my advice...but keep in mind I am no pro. I did not trim my image at all, you could, I am not sure if that would make getting the image covered easier or harder, if you try it let me know! So you know you are done when your image is covered in wax. The key is to let the wax dry (cool down) completely with the wax paper still around your candle and then checking-if you check early your paper won't stay in place quite right. If the paper seems covered so that you can no longer see the paper (which was my goal) then you are most likely done. The more you do, the better the image is covered the better the technique works. It takes time.

I hope this helps, and I hope you are happy with your results! I would love to hear how it goes for you!; April 10, 2011 at 7:02 AM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it! I did figure out something that you might like to try - I watched a video on YouTube that instructs you to use tissue paper on which you stamp an image, you then use a heat gun to melt the image into the candle. Well, I thought rather than buy a stamp and stamp pad I would try to print an image right onto the tissue paper. I cut a piece of tissue paper the same size as a piece of 8x10 paper (I used matte finish photo paper but I won't do that next time as the ink bleeds a tiny onto the photo paper so you can use it only once on each side, it's pretty expensive. Next time I will use regular card stock). I used clear tape around the edges on the top and bottom to make sure the two pieces of paper would feed together into the printer. Chose an image from Graphics Fairy and sized it to fit the candle. The tissue paper fed through the printer without a problem! I sliced through the tape to remove the tissue paper from the card stock. Then, I trimmed the printed image to size, placed it on the candle covering the image with waxed paper like you did. I used my hairdryer to heat the image which gets shiny as the wax from the candle melts the tissue paper into the candle. I let it cool off and then pealed away the waxed paper - it's like a miracle. It looks like the image was stamped right onto the candle! Funny, later in the day I found another YouTube that showed how to do the tissue paper on card stock thing!
At any rate, thanks for all your help. I have so many office birthday gifts to buy that I am thrilled to have a go-to gift that won't break the bank. Would have never thought of it had it not been for your link to Graphics Fairy!! You're the best!; April 10, 2011 at 12:01 PM
Screaming Sardine said...: Wow, what a great idea! I've never heard of vellum before. I'm definitely going to be trying this, as I have so many candles.

Thanks so much for sharing this!

Cheers,
Tracy All Thumbs Crafts; April 11, 2011 at 6:50 PM
Jaime Lyn at Crafty Scrappy Happy said...: Thanks for visiting Tracy so happy you liked my idea!!!

Anonymous, thank you so much for sharing your experience with making the candles I am SO glad it works so well for you and in fact I think I will be trying your way next time I make one because tissue paper is less expensive than vellum and so I am all for that!

Thank you again for your advice, it has been fun learning from you and your experience!

Jaime; April 11, 2011 at 7:48 PM
Illuminations Design Studio said...: You just made my day! I have been trying to figure out alternative ways to personalize my wax luminaries, and this is perfect. Thanks for sharing.; April 15, 2011 at 8:29 PM
Christy said...: Do you think this would work with a color laser?; April 22, 2011 at 9:19 PM
Jaime Lyn said...: Hi Christy, I am assuming it would work just fine, I haven't tried it but really I think that any kind of printer work work for this project!
Thanks for stopping by!
Jaime; April 23, 2011 at 2:37 PM
Anonymous said...: I have printed onto white tissue paper (taped to a regular sheet of paper to go thru the printer) and it was quite easy to get the wax to melt thru.; August 20, 2011 at 5:14 PM
Anonymous said...: I love you blog! I have a couple questions? I am attempting to do the diy vellum candle and am having a hard time getting it to work. Is ink from the vellum supposed to wear off onto the candle or are we just melting the vellum to the candle? If you are meling the vellum to the candle....is this candle safe to burn? Do you recall about how long it took you to melt the vellum.....10 minutes,20,30 etc. Please help! Thank you so much for your time.; October 15, 2011 at 7:33 PM
Anonymous said...: I am trying to print my daughter picture on candle but somehow my candle start melting and the picture that is printing on candle is not smooth and leaving a paper feeling when we touch it and I am using tissue paper and using the heating tool directly on the picture because I saw on you tube one lady was using heating tool directly
Can you Plz suggest me; February 21, 2012 at 1:15 PM
Anonymous said...: Plz reply; February 22, 2012 at 2:39 PM
Unknown said...: Wow, this is really a great idea! I have also made a few hand painted candles but want to try this idea too and will then share pictures. One of the previous commenters has mentioned that she is trying to print her daughter's pic on the candle which is a wonderful idea, but the candle starts to melt when she uses the heating tool. The technique I have used to handle this is to put the picture on the candle and then take some liquid, transparent wax and paint it all over or just around the edges of the picture. This will make the picture smooth and the candle won't melt either. Hope this helps.; February 26, 2012 at 9:07 AM
Anonymous said...: oh thankyou so much for your reply,
just one more question can we burn these candles actually i am putting these candles as a centerpiece for my daughters party and want to burn it so is that safe?
or is there any way can i make a hole in the candle so that i can put a flameless tea light in that hole i hope u can reply me i am already done with printing pictures and it looks beautiful plz reply

ppl; February 26, 2012 at 8:18 PM
Anonymous said...: plz reply; February 27, 2012 at 9:24 AM
Artsy VaVa said...: I'm glad you shared this again! I love how your candles turned out!; March 1, 2012 at 5:08 PM

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Monday, April 4, 2011

Graphic printed candles DIY

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