A little Treat on Thursday...

Hi everyone, Darcy here.

I have popped back to leave you a little treat on the run up to Christmas with my new Christmas stamps. This is a really quick but fun project to make. They make great gifts, but you might find that you don't want to give them away....

Note. This project involves candles. NEVER leave a candle once lit. 

So first you will need a chunky candle, this will of course work on any size candle, but if you want to actually burn the candle then you need a big chunky one that will only burn down the centre.

Take your candle and wrap a piece of white tissue paper around, marking off the size. You need the width to be just slightly less that the candle height ..so the paper doesn't stand proud above the candle. The length needs to be pretty exact, so that the 2 short ends just meet with no overlap. 

Now lay your tissue down and find the centre. Some tissue paper has a shiny side and a matte side. I use the matte side, but it's totally up to you which you use. Decide on your central image. 

I am using the Steampunk robin from EDY03

I stamped right in the middle using Archival black ink. 

TIPS: lay a piece of copy paper under the tissue when you stamp it, this way, if you have excess ink on your rubber stamp, then the paper behind will act as a blotter. Tissues can have different absorbancy properties, so it may be better to use the second generation image, as the first might bleed too much, do some testing first to work out what works well for your particular grade of tissue.

Now to add the border. We really want to create a seamless finish where the short ends join. So we will start the border at the back. 

I used the bow border from EDY04

You need to bring the short ends together, hold them in place and stamp over the join. You must slip something like scrap paper inside the tissue paper to prevent the stamped ink going through. 

I used an old envelope, wrapped the tissue around it, and stamped over the join. 

Now you can open the tissue back out and carry on stamping. To finish the border around the bird's hat, I first cut out a mask of the bird, popped that in place and stamped over it. 

I then filled in the space with snowflakes, a bauble garland at the bottom, and a sentiment at the back. Again I wrapped the tissue around the envelope so that I could stamp the text over the back join. 

Now to colour it in, you can really have fun here. use tradtional colours or funky colours, use a simple 2 colour theme or go for a multitude of colours. 

Fresco Finish  translucents are perfect for this, they are vibrant and cover the tissue paper really well without obliterating the black lines of the stamping. I used fairly traditional colours, but also added in some Pewter Fresco. Pewter is opaque, so be careful where you put it. If you want sparkle, you could also try Metallic Glaze, or Pearl Glaze, both of which can be easily layered over paint, and work really well for a touch of Christmas bling.

Now to adhere the tissue to the candle. You will need some greaseproof paper. I am not talking about parchment paper, you need the proper old fashioned stuff that actually has wax on it. I found that this was impossible to buy where I live, you may have more luck. but there is an easy solution. Take a piece of parchment paper and rub a white candle all over it. 

You need to cut the now waxy parchment so that it is a bit bigger than the candle.

Lay your painted tissue around the candle, and then wrap the parchment around. Fold over the excess, this effectively gives you a handle.  (You need to wrap it so that the waxy side is against the tissue)

You now have the tissue trapped between the waxy candle and the waxy paper. Pull the paper really tight, so everything lays flat, then gently heat with a heat gun. Keep moving the candle around, you need to hold the heat in one place just long enough for the wax on the paper to melt off onto the tissue. it only takes seconds. Keep moving, heat too long in one place and the whole thing will melt in your hands. 

You now have a waxy layer transferred off the paper and onto the tissue, which traps it onto the candle. 

This makes a really lovely decorative candle. If you decide to burn the candle, please do so responsibly. Use a large candle that only burns down the centre, and never leave a candle burning if you are not in the room. 

I hope you enjoyed this project, why don't you give it a try.

Darcy x