DIY Candle Holders

Hellooo! I made a couple of candle holders today, but it was a long morning before I got to them!



This morning was the kind of morning I know you all can relate to. It goes like this...

I wake up vaguely aware that morning is imminent. But I fall back asleep.  Bliss. Those last few minutes before the alarm are ALWAYS the best! 

As I was happily dreaming, Big A apparently hit "snooze", and I didn't wake up until 6:45 - which is fine, except I leave the house at 7:10.  We have two teenagers who attend two different schools, so we have an early start. I managed to slug down one gulp of coffee, and that's it.  Let's just say I don't do well without coffee, and wasn't looking my best at drop-off. Forget Soccer Mom, more like Horror Mom. This is what I look like when I don't have time for coffee:

That might actually be a little generous, I think I looked worse than that... This is how the kids were looking at me:

I skulked and slithered my way home, and managed to pull myself together for the day. (And by pull together, I mean  - drink a gallon of coffee.)

It's our little ones birthday this week, so it was his party this morning at preschool, where the tradition is for the parent to cook the child's favorite food for his or her birthday.  Most kids choose cookies, or pudding, or cake. I am lucky enough to have a four year old whose favorite food is meatballs. You can imagine how easy it is to mix up and cook meatballs with 15 preschoolers! And, you know, nothing screams BIRTHDAY like a meatball.  Most of the kids kept asking "But where's the cake?". And who could blame them?

Anyway, the morning is now over. I'm now looking forward to a better start tomorrow, and to the weekend! Saturday is my step-daughter's wedding shower!

So, in my spare 3 minutes, I thought I'd quickly show you an easy and inexpensive gift you can either give to yourself, or to someone else. I made these cute prizes for the shower:

The dollar store really does have some decent glass candle holders, vases, wine glasses etc. For a dollar how can you go wrong? And with a few minutes of time, some glitter, bling, and some glue - you have a cheap and cheerful gift.

 

I use this glue - not only does it have a little built-in brush (handy), it also dries clear. Note that the hardest part of this project is opening the glue.

To open glue:

 

1. Happily pull glue out of your cupboard/desk and try to open it. Notice that the cap will not budge.

2. Think... Hot water.  Run top of glue under boiling hot water.

3. Try cap again and notice that now it is "slippery when wet"

4. Think... knife. Run the knife blade under the cap. (Careful!!!)

5. Try cap again and notice how it is now mangled from the knife.

6. Think...More hot water.

7. Try mangled cap again. Rejoice!!!

 

Next, I have all sorts of glitter and beads and DIAMONDS!

If you do not, try the dollar store, or Michaels, even WalMart.

 

Take your plain Dollar Store candle holder. I had this one and I wanted to put the diamonds on it. To ensure a little of the candle showed, I just taped off some of the glass with painters tape, see below.

 

Next I brushed on the glue (generously) and added the diamonds. Notice my very precise placement? Yeah, that was hard, but I try to persevere!  

 

When dry it looked like this.

 

 

 

I also bought these dainty little candle holders and just brushed the glue inside, and sprinkled with gold glitter. After a few hours drying they looked like this.

 

 

I hope the girls at the wedding shower like them! Now I'm going to pick my kids up from school and try not to scare the children again.