Getting Ready for the Holidays #1 Candle Stamping

I'm going to start a new series where each week I will show you a project idea that will, hopefully, get you inspired to get ready for the holidays.

The first in this series will be Candle Stamping. Have you tried this before? It really rocks and it's a great gift idea. Perfect for a hostess or teachers' gifts.

What a coincidence that I chose Candle Stamping as the first in my series since someone just wrote up an awesome tutorial on how to do just that.

So rather than re-invent the wheel and write up my own Candle Stamping Tutorial I'm going to direct you to the fabulous Gina K. Click here to see Gina's awesome tutorial.

I've done this many times on my own, in classes and I even did a kids' class - only 3 boys and I had total control of the heat tool!

Here are some of my stamped candle projects.

This first one is stamped with light blue and silver ink on white tissue paper.

Very hard to photograph but very beautiful in real life.

Using green ink and Stampin' Up! Lovely as a Tree on white tissue paper.

Stamping in black ink on white tissue paper using Stampin' Up! Flaky Friends.

I coloured them in with marker BEFORE I heat set it on the candle.

Stamped in black ink on white tissue paper and coloured in with pencil crayons BEFORE heat setting the tissue on the candle.

I've never had success heat setting tissue on coloured candles. Often the colour is only on the outside layer and you can see the tissue - cloudy like - on the surface.

So for coloured candles I like to make candle wraps

FAQ

Q. Where do you buy your candles?

A. I get mine anywhere they sell candles. Yes even from the $Dollar Store! White candles or even beige candles work well for this technique. If using beige candles make sure that it is beige all the way through and use vanilla coloured tissue paper.

Q. What kinds of stamps work well for this project?

A. Any kind of stamp - and even wheels - can be used for this project. You can choose to stamp an entire strip of tissue paper as Gina showed in her tutorial or you can cut out your shapes and arrange them on your candle.

Q. What kinds of inks work well for thi s project?

A. Any kind of dye based ink - black or coloured. Metallic inks are awesome too!

Q. How do I colour in the images?

A. You can choose to use coloured ink when stamping or colouring in line images that are stamped in black. When colouring in images you may use markers, pencil crayons or even chalks. I haven't had much sucess with watercolouring on tissue - too much bleeding.