Creative and Inexpensive Ideas to "Brighten" Up Your Candles!

I just love candles so I am always trying to figure out ways to to add a little change to some of my votive holders, and to add some creativity to plain candles as well. This article has some ideas that are extremly easy to do, as well as very inexpensive.

For this first project you will need votive holders, at least two, (two holders will end up making one for this project). You will also need food dye, water, and then tea light candles. The votive holders you choose to work with must be of two different sizes, as one is going to be placed inside the other one. So the first thing you want to do is place the smaller votive holder into the larger one. Next you want to take some water in a container, and add food dye to it. Finally just pour your colored water inbetween the two votive holders and add the tealight to the smaller holder. Simple, inexpensive, but it really adds some life to plain old votive holders!

The next project requires plain glass votive holders, tissue paper, (any colors that you like, and at least two different colors), and Mod Podge. Start by cutting out small peices of the tissue paper, no bigger then the size of a quarter. Set those aside while you paint the sides of your glass votive holders with Mod Podge. Place your tissue paper around the entire votive holder, making sure to layer the peices to make a stained glass effect. When you have covered the holder to your liking, the last thing you need to do is paint a final coat of Mod Podge over the tissue paper!

These next ideas are for decorating candles themselves. I like to decorate pillar candles by tying a peice of raffia, or yarn, or even thin ribbon, around it. You can also add beads, or charms to the raffia, etc...which will make a plain pillar candle look just fabulous! Another easy trick is to get out your hot glue gun, and just glue little things onto the candle...seashells are great, glass beads, pebbles...just make sure whatever you are going to use isn't flammable. Also, i like to place things towards the bottem half of the candle i'm decorating too.

These simple ideas can 'brighten' up plain old votive holders and candles, for next to nothing! Hopefully this article will get your creativity flowing, and you will come up with ideas of your own for decorating your candles and candle holders!