Candle Holders!

[alceria.livejournal.com]

A couple weeks ago I was at Joann's and I saw some pretty candle holders with kind of a Moroccan feel. They were priced around $5-6 bucks, and I said, "hell, I can make those". So tonight I went to Walmart and bought a bunch of plain glass votives for 57 cents each and some ribbon by the yard and went to town. I haven't done the math, but I'm guessing it came down to maybe $1.25-$1.50 each to make one of these. I'm quite pleased with the results.

(The beaded lamp in this picture was also a Joann's find. I think it was like $10. I picked ribbon and beaded fringe for the candles to match it.)



Close-up:





1.) Buy plain glass candle holders. Something that is round, but not curvy works best. (Meaning it's uniformally the same diameter all around. The little ones I used were slightly wider in the middle and it kept the ribbon from laying nicely. I found all different styles at walmart for around fifty cents.

2.) I used three types of ribbon that I bought by the yard. I'm sure Joann's would have a better selection, but I did this on a whim tonight, and I'm actually pretty suprised with how nice the walmart stuff worked out. I bought one and a half yards of each and I think that will do about 6 small candles. I used a wide, somewhat see through ribbon for the base. It's that metallic looking stuff that seems to change color. I also bought a beaded trim to match, and then the gold ornamental ribbon to be placed over the fabric part of the bead trim.

3.) I ran the wide ribbon through my xyron with the permanent adhesive cartridge, mostly because I wanted to see how it worked on fabric. I applied that first to the candle holder. I found it easier to cut each ribbon in strips and peel a little bit off the sticker backing at a time. It made it easier to apply it in a straight line.

4.) Next I ran the beaded trim around, overlapping the top of the wide band of ribbon. I discovered that when you cut the beaded trim the beads at the end will unravel and fall out unless you glue down the thread holding the bead together after you make the cut. This keeps it adhered to the fabric so it doesn't fall out. I just used a tiny bit of the hot glue. I ran glue along the backing and just stuck it on and then sealed the ends. (I lined all the ribbons up so the seams were at the same place on the candle holder. With the beads and all, you almost don't notice it.)

5.) Finally I put the gold on, using hot glue again. This worked out extremely well because it was the perfect width to go right on top of the (ugly) fabric backing the beaded trim came on. I usually hate gold, but for the style I was going for the gold just worked better than silver. But you could use that too.

I did a couple small candle holders and some medium sized ones. For the medium sizes ones I found that the hot glue would dry to fast if I applied it along a whole length of ribbon and then stuck it to the glass, so I just put glue on a little at a time.

This is really WAY more instruction than needed. You can pretty much just figure it out by looking at it. But I thought I should explain it for the sake of completeness. :) This was *very* easy, pretty damn cheap, and supersuper quick. Each took me maybe 2 minutes? If that. You could really get creative with these and make them to match your room or accessories, or do seasonal ones. They look very festive and elegant. They would also be great (and affordable) party favors. You could light them all for ambiance and then give them away as guests leave. I think I'll be going back to the store and getting more ribbon and beading soon.

Hope you guys like this. :)