Elegant and Easy: Dollar Tree Candle Hostess Gift and Table Favors

Tall jar ( prayer) candles are a staple in my craft stash. I love altering them and they make easy and affordable gifts. I pick mine up at Dollar Tree and in all my trips there, I’ve looked at but not picked up the lidded jar candles in the same section. Until now.

While I was at DT, I also found this gorgeous tissue paper…natural colored with metallic dots! It comes in silver, gold and red dots. I bought the silver and gold. Why didn’t I buy the red???

For this project you need:

• Small jar candles ( as mentioned Dollar Tree)
• Tissue Paper
• Decoupage Medium ( I used Martha Stewart Matte)
• Ribbon and beads to embellish

Remove labels from candle. I was so happy that these came right off. Cut tissue paper into strips ( 1.5 x 8 ). Coat glass with decoupage medium and apply tissue. Go over top of tissue with more decoupage medium. Let dry. Embellish with ribbon and beads. Done!

I always like to have a table favor on my holiday tables. A little something guests can take home with them to remember the occasion. I made these for each of my Christmas dinner guests and have them at each place setting.

Easy, affordable, and I hope elegant. Tis also the season for parties and hostess gifts. I made the tall candle for a friend hosting a treat exchange.

Instead of paper, I wrapped the candle in a scrap of drop cloth. I bought this huge drop cloth at Home Depot a few years ago to use as a tablecloth and ended up cutting it up and using it for all kinds of things. And anyone wonders why the Home Depot people look at me funny?

I used the Glitter Finish Martha Stewart decoupage medium for this one. The focal is this little Kaiser Craft laser cut wood holly piece I picked up in the scrapbooking section somewhere. I added self adhesive rhinestones and glued on some additional jewels and wrapped the center of the candle with ribbon yarn.

To finish, I tied on a big glittered bell and two small bells using plain twine.

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Vintagey "Chocolate" and Rose Egg

Of course it’s no secret that I love chocolate, and this time of year, chocolate eggs abound. This one is not edible but still delicious I think!

For this project you will need:

• 6” plastic egg
• Tissue paper ( not fancy, whatever comes in a bag when you buy something at the store)
• Mod Podge
• Acrylic craft paints ( I used a dark umber and Martha Stewart Glitter paint in “Brownstone”
• Embellishments ( I used a scrapbook border by K&Co )

I first shared this technique in this post: Twine and Tissue Paper Egg. Tear your tissue paper into small pieces, apply to your egg using Mod Podge. Cover all over and let dry. Then paint with you choice of colors.

I like the unevenness and texture of the tissue paper. I applied one coat of the plain acrylic paint and three of the glitter paint.

Once my paint was dry, I applied a decorative scrapbook border and sealed it with some more Mod Podge.

I had some paper roses in my embellishment stash and decided to hot glue those to the top of my egg at an angle.

While I was waiting for my Mod Podged border to dry, I  cut a length of  crepe paper streamer ( a roll from the $1 goes a long way!), folded it in half then in half again and cut strips of it and plopped them in an ice cream dish I found at Crate and Barrel for $1.95.

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Alderberry Hill: Make The Scene Monday
homework: The Inspiration Board 
The Well Crafted Home

Tissue Paper and Twine Egg Tutorial

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for featuring my egg! 

Last year “BB” ( before blogging) I made some Easter eggs covered with scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. True to my deal hunting ways, I picked up several more of the eggs I used after Easter when they were on sale for $.49. Michaels has them again this year and even at regular price they’re $.99:

I had an idea in my head ( uh-oh) that I wasn’t sure would work but I figured the most I was out was $.49…not a big price to pay. I slapped some Mod Podge on the egg and then smooshed some torn tissue paper on. Continue the slap and smoosh. The tissue drinks up the Mod Podge and it’s really easy to blend the edges so you don’t have seams. Better if you tear your tissue. Just regular old tissue that some stores give you way too much of and you don’t throw it away tissue.

For this one I only covered the top half of the egg because the plan was to cover the bottom half with twine. Once this was dry, I painted it with acrylic craft paint in a robins egg blue and then dry brushed it with white and taupe. After that was dry I started in the middle with a dab of hot glue and started wrapping the rest of the egg in cotton twine. That took the longest but it’s pretty self explanatory.

To finish, I tore a strip of muslin, wrapped around the middle and tied a dragonfly charm to the knot with more twine. I added Prima paper flowers, a button, and a self adhesive rhinestone.

I made a second egg using the same process only this time I covered the whole egg with tissue. I went around the middle of this one with a K&Co scrapbook border ( Flora and Fauna) , a strip of muslin, another brass charm, and small paper flowers ( Kaiser Scrapbook) and coordinating rhinestones:

Here are both of them in an alabaster footed bowl ( cobbled together from Salvation Army finds) :

I’m “egg-static” with the outcome!

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Blue Cricket Designs