Floral candles for AALL & Create

Hello Friends

For my Guest designer project his week at AALL & Create I have tried a technique that has

been around for many years but is a new technique to me.

I used Olga Heldwein's fabulous new floral stamp set (#195) which is part of the brand new

release, stamping onto to tissue and applying this to candles.

My results are not 100% perfect but I did learn some things along the way - like, use a smooth candle and not one with ridges on (like the candle on the right).

I started by stamping onto tissue paper with Versafine Clair in Nocturne Black onto some tissue paper.  Once the ink was dry I used watercolour pencils and also oil pastels to colour the gorgeous peony flowers.  I coloured from the back and not the inked side of the tissue.

I used a water brush to 'paint' around the edge of finished design with water and then gently tore the excess paper away.  A rough edge melts much better into the background than a smooth one.

I decided where I wanted the design to be and I placed this on the candle.  I applied gentle heat with my heat tool, doing a small area at a time and I used an old credit card to smooth the image as I went along.  Because there were ridges in the candle I wanted to make sure that the image fully  adhered to the candle.

I did the second candle using a different technique.  I don't have process photos because everything gets quite hot using a heat tool and I needed both hands!  This time I used a smooth candle, prepared the image in the same way as the first one, laid the image onto the candle and then wrapped the whole candle tightly with greaseproof paper (the white one).  Keeping it wrapped tightly I applied the heat with the heat tool.  As the greaseproof paper is white, you can see quite clearly when the image is adhered to the candle and you can move on to another part.

In both cases there was some slight residue of wax on the image and I wiped this off
with a clean piece of kitchen towel and it came away easily.

I wrapped this candle in cellophane and added a bow, I thought it would be a nice way to
present the candle as a gift.

This is the wonderful stamp set  by Olga Heldwein (#195) that I used.  You can find a full list of worldwide stockists of AALL Stamps and Stencils HERE.

Thanks so much for your visit, hope to see you again soon>

Hugs, Anne xx