Personalized Candles Using Vintage Images and Stamping

Today I want to show a technique that looks complicated, but really is very simple!!

For this technique, you will need a candle (of course!), some white tissue paper, inks, stamps, a vintage image, and greaseproof paper (better known as wax paper over there in the States, but here I could only find brown waxy greaseproof variety!). I actually took my Fall Clip Art Sheet and made a color photocopy on my ink jet printer so it was printed on a thin sheet of copy paper, this makes the transferring the image to the wax, much easier, as the wax saturates the thinner paper much faster!

Next, choose a stamp to use for your candle. I used the lovely leafy image from the Owl Panel stamp set, stamping it in Rusty Hinge and Peeled Paint Distress Inks.

I cut around the stamped images and tacked them onto the candle with a tiny bit of glue. I layered the vintage image on top and made sure everything was lined up on the candle where I wanted it.

The next step is where the magic happens and it really is so easy, you will be making dozens of candles for gifts and giving them to everyone!! The greaseproof/wax paper is really just a way to hold down your image and give a layer between the heat gun and your image...the waxy coating means that the paper doesn't stick onto the candle.  Just wrap a strip of the greaseproof/wax paper around the candle and use the end bits of paper as your place to hold on so your hand isn't in the way of the heat gun and the images are held down firmly against the candle.  Make sure your heat gun is good and hot and just go over all areas of the images. You can peel back the greaseproof paper and check on the progress of your transfers as often as you need to. You will know when you are done when the tissue paper disappears into the candle, leaving the stamped images looking like they were stamped right on the candle. Your vintage image will have a thin coat of wax across it as well. It really looks amazing, like something you could buy in a store!!

Thanks so much for joining me today for this tutorial! Don't forget to check out Norma's amazing layout she did, she made her entire background paper using Paper Wings Stamps and Lindy's mists, just stunning.  Amber has some adorable Halloween cards up on the blog as well, showing some of the great Halloween stamps Paper Wings Productions has in the shop!

We always love to see what you create with Paper Wing Production stamps, clip art sheets and Nesting Components kits and hope you will share with us. Show us on our Pinterest page, our Facebook page or our Flickr gallery or leave us a comment with a link to your project. Thanks for visiting!