Christmas - 14/15 - The Idea Room

Personalized Embossed Candles

**Don’t forget to enter the glass tile pendant giveaway…it ends tonight!!

Make some super easy personalized embossed candles. These are perfect for a personalized gift for Christmas (which is what I made them for a few months ago), or a wedding/anniversary gift or for your girl friend who loves taking a bath by candle light.

All you need is a fresh, new candle (older ones do not melt as smoothly), a stamp, stamp pad (in your color choice), vinyl letters or scrapbook letters, tissue paper the same color as your candle and an embossing tool. I borrowed my friends embossing tool, but they can be found at any major craft supply store.

I tried embossing colored candles and found that they were much more difficult to get a clean professional look because the dye tended to bleed and discolor the candle. So I prefer to use white or cream colored candles.

**I have wondered if a really hot hair dryer will work instead of an embossing tool, but I have not tried it. You could always experiment on a candle you don’t care about ruining and see if it works well enough to give a nice smooth finished look so that you don’t have to get an embossing tool.

Then take your letters or picture stamp design and stamp them onto your tissue paper.

After the ink has completely dried (to prevent smearing), cut around as close as possible to the edges of your lettering or picture.

Place your tissue paper on the candle exactly where you want it to be. I wet my finger and touched it to the tissue paper in a couple of spots and stuck it onto the candle. Then carefully and evenly move embossing tool over the tissue paper. This will melt the candle wax which will then cause the tissue paper to stick to the candle. If you are careful enough this will create a seamless seal and the tissue paper will melt into the candle and appear as if the lettering is directly on the candle.

**I would practice on a practice candle several times before doing the final run on your gift candle. This takes a bit of practice so as not to melt your candle too much in different areas.

As soon as you get a hang of it, it is really simple. I made some also with scrapbook letters which can be seen on the left candle in the picture above.

If you don’t have any one who needs a candle for a gift, make one to enhance your own holiday decorations.

Go on and give it a try! And remember, I love seeing pictures of any and all of your finished projects.

June 24, 2009 · Filed under: Anniversary, Christmas, Crafts, Gifts, Wedding Gifts Tagged with

Personalized Books On Tape

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My kids love listening to books on tape. In fact, at our house, if they get in bed early enough they can listen to one before going to sleep. It has been good for us as parents to have some leverage in that inevitable bedtime struggle. Since they are so popular at our house, we thought it would be fun to make our own books on tape using our favorite books and voices.

My husband and I each read some books and recorded them onto some tapes. The kids love them. As part of the bedtime routine, each kid is allowed to pick one book for us to read to them before bed IN PERSON, and then after we leave they can listen to one our personal books on tape.

My kids especially love it when Dad is away on business. It allows them to still feel close to Dad even though he may be far away.

I began to think of all the fun variations these could be used for. Grandparents could make these as a gift for grandchildren who live far away. They could buy the books, record the tapes and then send them as a gift to their grandchildren. Or a single parent can may still be able to “read” their child a bedtime story while they are spending the night with the other parent. Don’t you just want to go make some of your own now?

What stories would your family record together?

May 22, 2009 · Filed under: Activities, Christmas, Gifts, Kids Tagged with

Make Your Own Embroidered Hand Towels

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Make these cute, yet practical hand towels to add to the holiday spirit in your kitchen or to give away as neighbor, teacher or friend gifts. I made these for some neighbors and friends for Christmas this past year. But, you could put anything thing on these hand towels and for any holiday. I simply bought some flour sack hand towels from Ben Franklin Crafts (which they had on sale for $2). You can use any hand towel.

Then I got on my computer and typed up what I wanted to embroider, in a cute font, and in an appropriate size. I printed out the paper and then placed it under the hand towel where I wanted the words to appear. I traced the words with a pencil directly onto the hand towel lightly. I also found a cute fabric and then cut out a star (which was simply a cookie cutter I had traced), and sewed it above the embroidery.

I had never embroidered before (so don’t look too closely), and learned how to do a backstitch by watching this tutorial. To make the round little dots between the words I made a little french knot using this tutorial. They were seriously so easy to make! I kept one for myself and have used it so often that I really should make a new one that isn’t so seasonal!