Scenic Candle Holder !

The night has drawn the curtains of darkness..the world is drowsy, sleeping in its lap...
I am awake as I have a dream, a heartfelt dream...a dream I see with my open eyes..., a dream to shine, a dream divine, its theme is beauty, its theme is light...



Hello, My Crafty Friends :)
Meraj here! I am happy to be here yet again on the blog with a new creation of mine based on the theme of  Home Decor.
There are certain things in life to which we are emotionally attached, no matter how broken or torn those are, you still don't want to part away with them as they hold some special memories, some untold stories! In today's project I have used a small broken ceramic saucer that I had kept with me for years and today it will add to the beauty of a home decor piece by becoming the beautiful base holding the candle in its lap spreading light all over and around. Hope you like this creation and get inspired.

Let's start with the step by step process of the making this Scenic Candle Holder.
I took a 5"/5"/2.5" cardboard box. You can use any discarded or waste box to use as a mould for the base.

So our base will need a cardboard box, a small saucer which is broken here but you can use a full circle mini saucer also which is big enough to hold a tealight candle. Craft Cement from the store is the most versatile product which can give wings to your imagination. I love it as I can create any kind, any shape, any size using this awesome product.



Tear off the flaps from the top four sides of the box. The mould is ready now.

Mix 500 gms Craft Cement with water to a peanut butter consistency and pour it in the mould.

You can pour the cement mixture to a height of whatever thickness you want for your project. I have poured to 1 .5" height. Tap it gently from all sides to remove air bubbles and let it get levelled.

I took an old, discarded rectangular metal lid of a pokemon card box from my stash.



Apply vaseline or any vegetable oil on the lid which will be in contact with the cement. This will ease out its easy and smooth removal when the cement dries completely. 

Place the lid over the wet cement and press it gently and evenly to embed it a little inside the wet cement. 

Now insert the saucer with the broken side being pushed gently inside the wet cement. Hold it for few seconds to set it in place. Leave it to dry. 

When you see the cement turning light grey, it means its drying properly. It takes a minimum of 24 hours to dry in hot and dry weather but if it's humid and moist then it takes longer to dry. It could be more than 48 hours too. When completely dry, only then remove the inserts. If you try to pull these out while the cement is still wet, you might land up breaking it. 

Once completely dry, tear off the cardboard box.



Remove the metal lid and you can see the embedded frame is formed in it.

Don't worry if you see any bubble holes or rough parts in it. If you want to remove it then just fill it with either Gesso or Texture paste and level it up with a craft knife.

Using sandpaper smooth out the roughness in it.

Start applying Gesso all over after sanding is being done.

Cover it completely with Gesso, fill the holes too with it, let some holes be visible to give a distressed .

Choose a Decoupage Paper of your choice, I have used this one from the store. Itsy Bitsy has some super awesome collection of decoupage papers. Check the link here 

Cut out the design of your choice. Place it over the frame, mark the area to be cut.



Now adhere a masking tape on the saucer's edge so that the saucer does not get messy with any colour or glue over it.

Apply decoupage glue / Deco Magic Gloss with a flat brush on the inner side of the frame where you want to adhere and decoupage the cutout image. 



Adhere the image on to it
.



Choose the Chalk Paints to compliment the colour scheme of the decoupage paper so that it looks merged with the background.  You can use sponges or brushes to colour it, whichever way you are comfortable. I used sponges.

Start colouring with lighter shades first and then move on to darker shades. Keep merging the shades in sync with the colours of the image.







After the colouring with chalk paints is done and completely dry, then using Archival Inks I stamped the coloured part with some text, leaves and flower stamps from my stash. You can choose from different shades of greens for leaves, pinks for flowers, black and grey for text as desired.
Tip: Always use Archival Inks if you intend using any water-based varnish or glue over it as it will stay permanent and the colours of the stamped image will not bleed or become dull.

Remove the masking tape after the colouring and stamping is done,



Apply two coats of Glossy Decoupage glue / Deco Magic to seal and varnish the painted base. The second coat should be applied only after the first coat dries completely. 


Its finally done.

The beautiful scenic candle holder is ready to adorn your home and spread light  :)
Please go through the pictures taken below for you to see the closeups and different angles of the project.

Hope you like this project and have got inspired. Thank you so much for stopping by :)
Happy Crafting
Love,
Meraj Zaidi