Snowman candles

[Marie]

Hi, I am very new to this site and love all the great information and art. I saw some candles with snowmen stamped on them that were really beautiful. I don't know who did them and would like to know the technique. If anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it.

:)

[piecesandpom]

Don't know if this should be a new technique? ? ?

1) Stamp your image on tissue paper; I use white so I can color.
2) Color it in with chalks; dry brush watercolor technique could work, too.
3) Cut out close to image or images.
4) Place the images where you want on the candle and wrap a piece
of wax paper around the images and the candle very tightly.
5) Using your heat (embossing) gun, heat the wax paper until it starts
to melt. The wax paper will look wet and and the images are absorbed
into the candle.
6) I then embellished with Stickles to make them sparkle more and used
small glue dots to add the ribbon.

Hope this helps!

[Marie]

Thanks, hope it works for me.

[CatStamper]

[QUOTE=piecesandpom;1544]
5) Using your heat (embossing) gun, heat the wax paper until it starts
to melt. The wax paper will look wet and and the images are absorbed
into the candle.
QUOTE]

piecesandpom -
I realize these are probably supposed to be decorative primarily. But just wondering if you have tried burning them - what happens to the tissue paper when the candle is burned down to that level? Does it just disintegrate as the candle burns, or ???

Thanks,
Kate

[Marie]

I tried it and it worked very well. Thanks for the info.

[piecesandpom]

Re the concern on burning the candle. The information I read said to
burn it down and then use a tea candle in the middle. (This is from a
couple of online sources and a couple of magazine articles I read when
I wanted to do candles. Can't site the sources accurately.)

When I read that I decided to place my image just about as far down as I
could on the candle so folks would get more burn time out of the candle.
Both the sets shown in my gallery would then leave a 3 to 3 1/2 inch candle,
leaving room for the tea candle.

The tissue has absorbed the wax from the paper so it will burn with the
candle. Just might make a bit of a mess in the candleholder. . .

Glad it worked for you, Marie! I think they are so pretty!

[Inky Whiskers]

I've too have heard that the type to use the tea lights in are the kind of candles that "tunnel", not the Party Lite kind that use up all the wax as they burn. The tunneling kind don't burn the outside of the candle, so your art work should be fine.

Have fun figuring out what you like best & save any blooper candles for the next power outage. Who's going to see a less than perfect stamped image in the dark?:))

[suziemack23]

Can you explain quickly what the "dry brush watercolor technique" is? Somehow dry and watercolor don't seem to go together!

[piecesandpom]

I use twinkling H20s as watercolors. I don't think tissue paper will hold up
to wet technique watercoloring (wetting your entire surface and then apply-
ing the watercolor paint). I get the paints juicy, in/on a small pallet and then
use a dry watercolor brush to apply the paint to the stamped image, sort of
like stippling. If it's too much color, I can then wash the intensity down
or blend with a slightly wet watercolor brush.

Using watercolor crayons may work well, but I don't have any so I haven't
experimented with them.