candles with ink

Transferring Ink to Candles

Making personalized candles is easier than you think.  Today with some help from the kids we made some candles to give to my parents on Valentine's Day. 



You will need some regular paper, tissue paper, tape, sharpies or markers, a candle, wax paper, and a heat gun. 

First, I taped a piece of tissue paper, about the size of my candle, to a piece of copy paper.  Markers will bleed through the tissue paper pretty easily so you will need something to protect your table, and it was easier for the kids to draw on the tissue paper when taped to the "paper".

When your little artist is done, remove the tissue paper from the copy paper.  Cut out your design, and place it on to your candle.  It is important to cut away as much of the excess tissue paper as you can.

Next, you are going to take a piece of wax paper that is larger than your candle.  Pull it tight around your candle, and use your heat gun to melt your design into the candle.  Moving the heat gun in a back and forth motion for about 30-40 seconds.  Be careful of your fingers, the heat gun will be hot. 

Once you have heated the entire design gently peel back your wax paper and make sure the entire design is adhered to the candle.  If not just repeat with the wax paper and heat gun.

A very cute gift for the Grandparents.  Don't you think?

It got me to thinking .... wouldn't it be cool if you could use images from the computer and do the same thing?  Just think of the personalized candles you could make. 

Guess what, you can! 

I very carefully taped a piece of tissue paper to a piece of copy paper, making sure there were no edges and the tissue paper was completely flat.  Then I crossed my finger and sent it through the ink jet printer.  Seriously, my husband would not have been happy if I had jammed up the printer.  So, I didn't tell him until I was finished and it had worked.  :)