Free Craft Tutorial: Vintage Holiday Dog Candles

I don’t know about you but by the time we get this close to the holiday season I am all done with the shopping and craziness …its time to nest and craft!  Christmas crafts are my very favorite to make!

If you are looking for a quick holiday gift for your favorite dog lover these candles and jars are simple and inexpensive to make.  I made several different versions using only a few supplies (listed below).  Nothing about this project in itself takes very long, however, you do have to let layers of the project dry overnight for the best results.

To light up the smaller finished candle holders I dropped in an inexpensive votive so the candle will be re-usable.

Supply List:

• mod podge
• candles and jars
• color tissue paper
• vintage pet photos
• snow flake or clear glitter
• sponge brush
• ribbon/various embellishments
• Distress Ink Pad to age your images

I used three different items to make my projects.  I used a canning jar to make a candy dish, a plain glass candle holder (purchased at the dollar store) and a tall votive candle (also purchased at the dollar store).

 For my vintage dog pictures I used the Christmas Cavallini Dog paper that I ordered from the PaperSource for $3.95/sheet.  You could use any pictures you want though and old greeting cards work great too.  I like the Cavallini papers because they are a heavy duty paper that won’t tear when you are working on projects.  The images also don’t run or fade.

To get my project started I cut my images out from my Cavallini papers….for some candles I tore the images I have a rough edge on all sides of the image.  I like to stain this images with Distress Ink to make them look older.  I selected the tissue I was going to use with each candle and candle holder and cut it to the appropriate size for each project.  It is better to make your tissue cut larger than smaller.

Coat your candle (or candle holder) with a fair amount of Mod Podge and literally roll your paper on to the candle.  Don’t worry about wrinkles, they won’t show once we add the glitter…but do worry about tears…if the paper tears you will have light showing through and your finished project will looks sloppy…so work really carefully with your tissue.  Once you are done let this dry overnight (you can let it dry for a shorter period of time…my general rule with mod podge though is to let layers dry overnight so I don’t end up with a tacky finished product).

Put a layer (generous) of mod podge on the back of your chosen picture and place it on the candle or candle holder.  Smooth out any puckers or wrinkles.  Because you are placing it on a round surface you will get some wrinkling.  Put a light layer of mod podge over the front of your image and let it dry overnight.

Cover the entire candle – EXCEPT the image – with a light layer of mod podge…sprinkle with glitter and let dry overnight.  If you want a finsihed project that does not shed glitter than go back over the dry project with another layer of Mod Podge (dab with a sponge brush).  You will lose some sparkle but have considerably less mess.  Let dry overnight.

I embellished each candle with items I had in craft stash…ribbon, greens, ornaments, bells, etc.

For the candy jar:  I used a mason jar and red tissue paper.  The tissue paper can be wrinkled and when you apply it to the jar there is no need to smooth out any wrinkles as the glitter will hide the wrinkles.  You do want to be sure there are no tears though.  If you have a tear in the tissue paper light will show through and your finished project will look sloppy.  I tore out the image I wanted to use as the focal point of my jar.  I used vintage photo distress ink to age the paper.  I did not want light shining through the jar so I added some paint to the Mod Podge before I applied it to the vase.

The steps to get the paper on the jar are 1) cut your paper in a strip that will wrap all the way around your jar.  2) Coat your jar with mod podge (not too much or your going to have a mess, too little and your paper will tear).  3)  Wrap your paper around the wet jar and cut off any excess paper.  4) Let the project dry (I usually let this dry overnight).  5) Coat the back of your vintage image with mod podge (generously) and place smoothly on your jar- do not put paint in your mod podge for this step.  Once it is securely placed where you want it put a light coat of mod podge over image.   Let dry overnight.  6) Coat your jar (with the exception of your image) with a layer of mod podge (no paint) and then sprinkle with glitter, let dry overnight.  Optional step: If you don’t want any glitter flaking off your project re-coat the glitter with a light layer of mod podge (use a sponge brush and lightly dab).  You will lose a little of the sparkle but in return will not have glitter flaking off the jar … which would be problematic if you are using it for a candy jar.

Here are some more photos of the finished jars….

Here are some other ideas for quick holiday gifts….there are free tutorials for all of these on my Craft Page!