Tis the season for gift giving, and as usual, I found myself in need of a quick but thoughtful gift so I decided to TRY stamping on candles for the first time. Not only that... but to stamp on "fake" candles (the flameless battery-operated kind)... and not only that, but to use digis instead of rubber stamps (because I didn't have "just the right" image in the right size). Much to my surprise... IT WORKS!! It's very much the same technique as traditional stamping on candles, using tissue paper (the kind you put in gift bags).
First of all, the candle I used here came in a pack of 3, varrying sizes of flameless candles. Even though they are battery-operated, they are still made of wax and works the same way as a real candle!
1) You'll want to resize your digi to fit the size candle you're using, and print that digi half way down the page on a sheet of regular copy paper. Then cut a piece of tissue paper (a little bit larger than your digi) and place it centered over your digi and tape just the top edge and run it back through your printer.
2) Cut around your image, leaving just a little bit of white.
3) Place a piece of scratch paper under your image and color it in (I used Copics here). Whatever marker you used, most likely it will seep through pretty good.
4) Next, place your digi where you want it on your candle,
Then take a big piece of wax paper, wax side facing your candle and place over your digi so that the excess paper is in the back of your candle. Hang onto the excess so that it is stretched tightly over your digi (no or minimal bubbles/wrinkles should be showing)
5) Next, run your heat gun over your digi for several seconds, moving it quickly back and forth until you no longer see the outline of your tissue paper around the digi.
The wax from your wax paper will transfer (melt) to the wax candle, sealing in the digi inbetween!
6) Remove the wax paper. If you still see the tissue paper, reapply the wax paper and heat again (not too long in one spot or it will cause ripples in the candle)
7) Decorate with ribbons, gems, pearls, stickles... whatever your heart desires.
*Note: I decided to add liquid applique for a "snow" effect and trust me... it's HARD to heat the applique w/o your candle melting all around it. My colors faded just a bit because of the over-heating. I actually heated that li'l bit of snow in 4 spurts. I would skip that part if I were to do it again.
Hope you enjoyed this li'l tutorial. =)