Thursday, October 15, 2009

Stamped Christmas Gifts

This month's challenge for the Serendipity Stamps is to create either a gift or an ornament using Stamps from Serendipity.

I decided I'd like to create a set of candles. Have you ever made stamped candles? These are really fun to do and fast to make. Here is how I did it:
Supplies needed:

Stamps: Serendipity Stamps #1196G Snowflake Flourish Lg and #1197B Snowflake Flourish Sm.
Ink: ColorBox Cyan (Blue) and Clear Embossing Powder
Paper: Tissue paper (kind of tissue paper you use to line gift bags with)and waxed paper
Accessories: Any size or shape of candles to fit your image

Process: I stamped my snowflake stamps numerous times on a piece of tissue paper with ColorBox pigment ink and then used clear embossing powder to set the ink. Cut the snowflakes out close to the image. A little border is fine and won't show when you are finished but do try to keep it cut as close as you comfortably can. Next place the stamped tissue paper image on the candle in the position you want it. Take a piece of waxed paper (NOT parchment paper or plastic wrap - it must be waxed paper) and place it over the tissue paper and wrap it tightly to hold it in place. Use a large enough piece of waxed paper that it will wrap around the candle and you can hold your image tight by holding the waxed paper (balled up) behind the candle. This is helpful so that when you apply your heat you won't burn your fingers. Finally, let your heatgun heat up good and hot and then heat the image remembering of course that you have the waxed paper on top of the image holding it in place. You can see the image through the waxed paper and in a VERY SHORT TIME you'll see that the heat from the heatgun is melting the candle wax and your tissue paper has adhered to the candle. Carefully remove the waxed paper and .... VOILA! You have a stamped candle! If you've heated your candle a little too long and you see that the candlewax is uneven or slightly drippy, while it is still warm use the waxed paper to smooth out the image.

It is important to note that the whole heating process takes just moments and you do not want to heat too long or your candle will melt.

You can embellish your candle in many ways. I used dots of Stickles glitter at the points of the candles. You could add crystal while the wax is warm if you worked quickly enough. Ribbons, garlands, charms are all very pretty too.



Be sure to hop on over to the rest of the design team's blogs and check out their gifts and/or ornaments they've created for this month's Serendipity Stamps Challenge.
Amy Cokley
Anya Schrier
Kathie Bailey
Lynda Benden
Shannon Teubner
Sue Eldred
Yvonne Hagane

Have a creative day!

17 comments:

  1. These are gorgeous! I have never done candles! You are inspiring me to give them a try!

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  2. What a brilliant idea!!
    They are gorgeous, what a wonderful gift to recieve!

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  3. Your candles are great. I have done this in the past and given as a gift to my mom. (who of course does not burn the candles). But I was wondering have you burned your before and do they burn ok or does the paper catch fire. I have read that somewhere that the tissue paper can sometimes catch fire.
    Thanks

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  4. These are so pretty! And they would make a fabulous gift, and thanks for the great directions on how to get it done!

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  5. WOW!! These are just gorgeous.. Ive never tryed this..Now I think Im going too..Very lovely!!
    Hugs, Linda

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  6. Gorgeous, I've made candles once at stamp club but they didn't turn out very good. ;)

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  7. These are the prettiest stamped candles, Jennifer. Thanks for the refresher on this fun technique. I love that you added stickles. Off to hop on to the other ideas :)

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  8. I have never stamped on candles but after seeing what you've done here I really want to give it a go! Thanks for the 'how to' instructions! They turned out beautifully and will make such a wonderful gift!
    Hugs, Danielle

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  9. Jennifer those are lovely, I have a couple I am working on also, so much fun. Sandi

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  10. These are beautiful, Jennifer! Gosh, it has been a WHILE since I made a stamped candle. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  11. Jennifer, these are beautiful! You did a fantastic job!

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  12. How funny Jennifer, I almost did candles for my project!!! Yours are beautiful! I love the blue.

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  13. Jennifer, these candles are so pretty. I love the blue on white, so crisp!

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  14. LOVE the flourished snowflakes. Cool candles. You do lovely work, whatever the surface.

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  15. Your candles are beautiful! Thanks for the tutorial writeup.

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  16. Mmmm, VERY pretty Ms Jennifer!! I made some of these last year, with my grandsons' pictures on them...FUN!

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