By Criss White

If you are looking for a fun gift to make for any occasion, then personalized candle making may be something you would like to consider. There are many ways to make personalized candles, depending on how much time and money you are willing to spend.

With just a little extra time and effort, you can make a personalized candle out of an otherwise ordinary candle gift that the lucky recipient will love.

1. The simplest way to make a personalized candle is get a normal candle at your local candle store. Even general retail stores like Walmart sometimes have candles for sale. Candles come in all shapes and sizes, but almost any candle can be personalized.
2. Anything smaller than a tea light will be difficult to personalize. For tea light candles, you can normally purchase a big bag for a low price. These candles are great as favors for guests at a wedding or baby shower. The easiest way to personalize is to use either a graphics program on your computer or a word processor. We’ll stick with the Word processor since it is easier. First, draw a circle the same dimensions as the lid on the tea light, or better yet use a circular label sheet. Then select a nice font, like cursive script or Corsiva. You can enter then names and date of the event into the circle. Print out a sample on plain paper to make sure the look and size is right. Once you have the desired result, you can print your tea light label stickers. Finally, apply the sticker onto the top of the tea light.
3. For jar candles, you can create a square-shaped personalized label. Since you have more area to work with, you can download free graphics from the Internet. Search the web for “free clip art” and download the images you want. Once again print out a sample on plain paper and then print the label. If you don’t have a color printer, you can go to a local copier and they can make a nice label for you. Stick the label on the jar. Now you have created a unique gift personalized just for that special person.
4. For tall pillar candles, you can get those engraved at an engraving shop (look in the phone book under engravers). The artwork and text can come in different colors. If you are artistic, you can even buy candle-engraving kits online and do it yourself.
5. How about those 1oz votive candles? For a professional looking gift, get cellophane bags and colored ribbon. Wrap the candle in the cello bag and tie it up with the ribbon. Then attach a personalized tag to the ribbon. These candles can also be engraved.
6. If you can make candles, then there are limitless possibilities. You can use different fragrances oils to create scented candles. You can use embeds for decoration. Cookie cutters and molds are also useful for designing the right shape.

In summary, you can take an ordinary store candle and make it a very special gift with just a little more effort. Your friends and loved ones will cherish these gifts for years to come.

About the Author:
Criss White is a professional web writer on baby and new mother topics for baby and pregnancy websites. For more personalized gift ideas, go to Personalized Baby Shower Favors and for more candle gift ideas, see Baby Shower Candle Favors.

by: LeAnn R. Ralph

As featured in the story “A Candle For Christmas” from the book: Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm)

Materials:

• 1 wax carton (quart) (milk, fabric softener, or orange juice)
• 1 pound of paraffin wax
• 4 or 5 old crayons
• two trays of ice cubes
• a double boiler (or an empty coffee can and a saucepan)
• 1 piece of ordinary white package string about six inches long.

Caution: Do not heat paraffin directly over the burner. Paraffin is easily combustible. Use a double boiler or a two-pound coffee can set in a pan of water. I put the coffee can on top of home canning jar rings (the rings, not the flat lids). If the can is not set on top of something, the concave bottom creates a vacuum when the water begins to heat up, plus if it’s on the bottom of the pan, it’s just that much closer to the burner.

Trim the top part of the carton off so that what remains is about six inches high.

Cut the string so that it is six inches long. (To make a wick that lasts longer, try braiding three pieces of string together.)

Melt the paraffin wax over medium heat in a double boiler or a coffee can in a pan of water. Use three-quarters of a pound for a somewhat smaller candle or use all four squares for a larger candle. Once the water begins to boil, it will take 10 or 15 minutes for the paraffin to melt.

Break the crayons into small pieces and add to the paraffin. If the crayons are added first before the wax is melted, the color makes it difficult to see if all of the paraffin is liquefied.

Use a pair of tongs (a scissors works, too), and dip the string into the paraffin. Dipping the string will ensure that it is coated with paraffin since the ice cubes may prevent some sections from coming in contact with the liquid wax. Hold the string so that it is in the middle of the carton and fill the carton with ice cubes. Pour the hot paraffin over the ice cubes.

The candle will be set in about 30 minutes. Let the candle stand for another hour or two until most of the ice cubes are melted. Pour off the water. Peel off the carton. Place the candle in a tray or on a plate to catch the rest of the water from the ice cubes as they finish melting. Let the candle dry for a day or two.

The candles I have made with a single piece of string only burn for an hour or so and burn quickly enough so that most of the paraffin remains intact. To use the paraffin again, melt the candle and pour the wax into other containers to make solid candles.

~ Solid Candles ~
To make solid candles, select several glass containers. Pint or half-pint canning or jelly jars work well. For the wick, measure out a few more inches of string than is needed to reach the bottom of the container. Tie the string around a pencil. Put the pencil across the top of the container to hold the wick in place. When the paraffin and crayons are melted, pour the liquid wax into the container(s). When the candle is set, snip off the wick about a half inch above the wax.

~ Scented Candles ~
To make scented candles, put three or four teaspoons of vanilla extract into the bottom of the double boiler (or the coffee can) and then add the paraffin and crayons. When the wax is melted, pour into containers.

About The Author
LeAnn R. Ralph is a freelance writer for two newspapers in west central Wisconsin, is the editor of the Wisconsin Regional Writer (the quarterly publication of the Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Assoc.) and is the author of the book, Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm) (Aug. 2003); trade paperback. For more information about Christmas In Dairyland, visit ruralroute2.com. bigpines@ruralroute2.com

by: Abigail Beal

This is a great family craft because everyone can do it. Small children will have fun with it because often they are learning how to set the table, how to help out at mealtime. Everybody has their own chair at the dinner table (or the kitchen table in most houses…).

Children can make placemats for the whole family, designing them with some of the materials to look similar in design so that they match each other.

For this project you will need:

• white vinyl placemats
• clear contact paper
• scissors
• stick-on alphabet letters (can be found at most office supply stores)
• magazines such as Family Circle, Good Housekeeping that will show families and mealtimes.
• also magazines like National Geographic that have beautiful pictures of animals and nature.
• white 8 ½” x 11″ paper to draw on
• markers or crayons
• glue sticks

Most children will be very pleased with the idea of creating a placemat with their name on it. Let them pick out the letters or draw their name on a piece of paper. Depending on the size of the placemat, letters should be about 2″ tall.

Give your child the magazines to look through and find pictures of foods they like or just scenes they like. A child who loves animals may be happiest with a placemat covered with animal pictures. Another child may like nature scenes like the ocean or the mountains. Another idea is to use copies of family photos. You can also have your child draw pictures to put on their placemat.

Cut out the pictures (assist if needed). Arrange pictures on placemat first without glue, seeing where you like them best. Once your child likes the placement of the pictures, put them on the placemat using your gluestick.

Allow the placemat to dry for several hours. Then cover the placemat with clear contact paper. Measure the contact paper so that it is just slightly smaller than the placemat, by about 1/4″ on each side. This will help it stay in place.

These placemats will now clean off with any damp sponge and you can use gentle dish detergent on them if needed. It’s dinnertime!

About The Author
Abigail Beal © 2004 Abigail Beal a.k.a. “the Gift-wrap Goddess” teaches gift wrap in suburban New York. She is the author of 2 ezines: GiftWrapGoddessWraps and CreativeCraftsTeachers. To subscribe: groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeCraftsTeachers/ groups.yahoocom/group/GiftWrapGoddessWraps/.
contact: giftwrapgoddess@yahoo.com

by: Abigail Beal

With summer coming many of us see ladybugs everywhere. Why not create some special ladybugs you can keep on the porch or even inside in some special places?

This is a fun craft that kids can do. They may need some help with putting the tape on to evenly paint a straight line, and you also may want to handle the permanent marker (for putting dots onto the ladybug) – but otherwise should be able to negotiate the project just fine on their own.

This craft does involve painting parts of the ladybugs and then leaving it overnight (or for at least four hours) to dry. This is very important to make sure the paint sets. This is the perfect craft for a weekend project to do with children – by the end of the weekend the bugs are done. Just know going into it that this is not an instant project so children won’t be disappointed.

Materials You Will Use:

• Rocks that can fit into the palm of your hand. Select oval or rounded rocks. Can use larger rocks if you wish to.
• Red and black tempura paints
• Paintbrushes with assorted widths – medium to fine sized points
• A black permanent marker
• Masking tape
• Scissors

Optional: gold or silver metallic paint pen (these are often toxic and are not child safe, if using with a small child be sure they do not put this in their mouths!)

1. Clean your rocks with warm soapy water and dish detergent. Let rocks dry.
2. Paint rocks red and allow them to dry. Drying may take four hours, or they may need to dry overnight. It is very important to let rocks dry completely before going onto the next step.
3. Take a piece of masking tape the width of your rock. We will now paint the ladybug’s head on. Place the masking tape on about 1/3 of the way onto the rock, creating a head. Now use your black paint and paint a head for the ladybug. Keep the tape on while the black paint is drying. *** When placing tape onto your ladybug, you only need to press the side that you will be painting onto the ladybug, so do not press the entire piece of tape down. Only press the side that will painted down.By using the masking tape – you are creating very clean and even lines. Your ladybugs will have a very tidy look to them.
4. Next we will create the black stripe down the ladybugs back. Take two pieces of masking tape and put them on the ladybug’s back, allowing for a thin stripe of red between them. Depending on how large your rock is, this could be 1/8th of an inch or even 1/4 of an inch. Paint this stripe black and allow the tape to remain on until dry.
5. Now it is time to draw dots on the ladybug’s back. You can use paint or even the permanent marker. It is your choice. Most ladybugs have many dots, but for space’s sake you will probably want to put three or four spots on each side of the ladybug’s back. Once this is dry you are done!
6. If you have several children making ladybugs consider writing their name in metallic paint pen along the side of the ladybug’s body. Your bugs are ready for summer!

About The Author
Abigail Beal is the author of two zines Creative Crafts Teacher – for crafts teachers and Gift Wrap Goddess Wraps – all about gift wrap. To subscribe: groups.yahoocom/group/GiftWrapGoddessWraps/ or groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeCraftsTeachers. creativecraftsteachers@yahoo.com

by: Abigail Beal

Making your own wrapping paper is a fun activity that children or adults can do. With some creativity you can create gift wrap that is unique and different – everyone will know the gift is from you!

When making gift wrap with children you will probably want to use either craft white paper or craft brown paper (like the grocery bags). You could even use the inside of a grocery bag if the gift is small enough.

At several points depending on your child’s age – they may need help. If your child is not ready to cut with scissors, then manage all of the scissor work and let them have fun gluing everything. Remember to select non-toxic materials. Consider all art materials toxic unless they say they are non-toxic.

Stamping Shapes Paper: To make this you can use either sponges or potatoes. The ease with potatoes is they give children (and adults) a “handle” to hold onto. Sponges are a little harder to hold onto once they get wet, and your designs may not get as clean and clear results.

Use tempura or acrylic paint. Be sure with children to use non-toxic paint. Remember with art materials that if they do not say they are non-toxic, chances are they are toxic – so be aware and stay safe.

Select your paint colors and cut simple designs in your potatoes or sponges. Great shapes include stars, hearts, arrows, lightning bolts, circles, triangles, letters, numbers and smiley faces. Help your children cut the designs depending on their age level.

Lay the paper flat on a dry and protected surface and stamp away with your potatoes or sponges! Remember to put your design all over the paper so that it shows all over your gift, not just one area of the paper. Let it dry overnight before wrapping gifts.

Names or Shapes Paper: To make this paper you will need several sheets of fluorescent paper (8 ½ x 11”) is fine. You will also need glue sticks and scissors.

Select a name or a shape that you wish to do for your paper. Think about the size of your gift, is it big? Is your gift small? If your gift is big, then your letters or shapes can be bigger. If your gift is small then your letters or shapes need to be smaller.

If you are giving a birthday gift it could be fun to write the birthday child’s name. If it is a gift for Mom then you could write Mom. Or consider writing a short message like “Happy Birthday” if you have enough room.

Write boxy letters or cut out shapes and glue them onto the paper. Write the name and glue it onto the paper several times. Allow it to dry overnight. Then wrap gift.

Picture Paper:
To make this paper you will need magazines or newspapers. Catalogs such a flower catalogs or children’s catalogs are also good. Comic books are good for this also. You will need scissors and glue stick.

Select a theme for your paper. Are you going to cut out pictures of animals? Cartoon characters? Flowers? Home images? Or are you going to cut out words? Find the images and cut them out. Glue them onto the paper. Allow it to dry and then wrap your gift.

Special Message Paper:
This is good for most children of any age. First select how large the gift will be and cut the gift paper to size.

Select markers or crayons. You are going to write a special message to the friend or loved one to wish them a Happy Birthday or other good wishes. Help your child select their message.

Write the message on the paper. Now write the message again in other line with a different color marker or crayon. Continue until the paper is full. You can use medium to large handwriting – actually any size handwriting is fine. Just continue until the paper is completely filled. Let this paper dry before wrapping the gift.

When you give the gift remind the birthday child they need to read the Special Message on the wrapping paper.

Feminine Doily Paper:
This is a cute gift wrapping paper for a girl’s gift. This is also an easy project to do with even most young children because it only involves glue sticks.

To make this paper you will need paper doilies, either white or metallic (your choice). This project works best with the small doilies. You will also need a glue stick.

Glue the doilies onto the paper. Glue them in an even pattern all over the paper. The doilies will give the gift wrapping a feminine look. Once the doilies are dried, wrap the gift.

There are many other ideas for gift wrap that are in your home and right in front of your nose. Just use your imagination and you will find many other ideas to use with your children. Happy wrapping!

About The Author
Abigail Beal © 2004 Abigail Beal a.k.a. “the Gift-wrap Goddess” teaches gift wrap in suburban New York. She is the author of 2 ezines: GiftWrapGoddessWraps and CreativeCraftsTeachers. To subscribe: groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeCraftsTeachers/ groups.yahoocom/group/GiftWrapGoddessWraps/ contact: creativecraftsteachers@yahoo.com or giftwrapgoddess@yahoo.com

by: Abigail Beal

Chances are at the holidays you’ve been tempted to make holiday wrapping paper. But you may have heard too many stories about needing to use potatoes and tempura paint that bring you back to your grade school days. Have no fear – you do have options! Here are some suggestions to get your creative juices flowing.

Okay this one does involve a potato….. but it’s good:

For this one you need to get some supplies. Yes you do need a potato. I prefer using a potato for stamping rather than a sponge because the potato gives you something to hold onto, and more importantly you can create your own customized look. So keep in mind that if you find a rubber stamp you fall in love with – the potato is optional.

You will need: acrylic paint in one or two colors, metallic pens in one or two colors, paper (can use traditional butcher block paper, white craft paper, or fancy paper from the art store).

In terms of paper – think of the background color you would like to have. Your local art store will often carry many beautiful colors of handmade gift paper. Select a paper that has a porous and fiber-y texture to it – you want to be sure that the paint soaks into the paper. If you select a paper that has a shiny side to it, the paint will not set well.

Think of the design you would like to do. For this gift wrapping paper design you are going to stamp a design with your potato and then embellish it and add some writing to the paper. A good choice for Valentine’s Day would be to cut a heart stamp in your potato and then to write the word “love” or “I love you” on different parts of your paper. Or you could write a special message to the person you are giving the gift to. You could embellish the hearts with little arrows.

Good designs for your potato could be hearts, stars, lightning bolts, letters, numbers, arrows and basic shapes. Stamp your gift wrapping paper first with your acrylic paint and then allow this to dry for at least three hours.

Once the paper is dry then return to add your embellishments with your metallic pens.

Special Memories Paper:
For this paper you will use photographs that you like and visit your local copy center that does color copies.

Before you go to the copy center, think if you want to include any special messages on this paper. Such as wishing the person you are giving the gift a “Happy Birthday” or wishing your mother “Happy Mother’s Day”. If you would like to do so, then type these messages out on a word document – select a basic typeface such as Times New Roman but italicize it and enlarge it to 18 or even 24 points. See how large you like the typeface. Bring a number of copies of this message with you, and a glue stick.

Lay your photographs out on the largest paper they have. This is usually a tabloid size of paper 11” x 17”. Scatter your photographs, do not center them on any one part of the paper – remember that your gift will cover most of the paper. Once you have scattered your photos, add your special message to the gift wrapping paper.

Depending on how large your gift is, you may need to ask for several sheets of this paper. You may also choose to use larger photographs, or ask the clerk at the copy center to enlarge your photographs when they make the color copies. Also ask if they can make you a copy that is really shrunken down so that you can use this for the gift card.

S-E-C-R-E-T M-E-S-S-A-G-E P-A-P-E-R:
This paper is good for a humorous occasion. Probably not the best choice for a wedding gift, then again I’m not invited so what do I know?

We’ve all seen those movies where characters get a spooky ransom note made out of cut out magazines and newspapers. Why not create a special birthday wish or holiday greeting to a friend or a loved one? It will be something different and this is great for someone you have traded nicknames with and share a lot of jokes with.

Select newspapers and magazines. Tabloids are great because their letters are very large and clear. Magazines are nice too because they often use artistic looking typefaces, and this can add some variety to your message.

You will be doing this on 11” x 17” paper, so visit your local copy center and pick up several sheets of this paper. You will need this first to begin the project.

Now choose your message. Go through your newspapers and magazines and obtain the letters. Keep them in a pile.

Once you have your letters, line them up as you wish them to appear on the paper. Remember to space them out so they cover a lot of the paper and not just the middle. Use your glue stick and glue them down.

After your message is glued down, return to the copy shop and have them run your masterpiece off on the copy Xerox (if you did the other project they already know what you are up to….). Have them make you several sheets if your gift is big. Then have them make you a sheet that is very shrunken down for the gift card. As small as possible.

Leaf Rubbings Paper:
Do you remember grade school? Did you like it? One of the things I liked was doing leaf rubbings. We would pick up leaves and bring them inside and put them under pieces of paper, rubbing crayons over the paper to get an impression of the leaf.

Okay, stroll down memory lane over. I was just beginning to remember what the lunch room smelled like……

For this project that is exactly what you are going to do. Select some leaves. Get a box of crayons. I would suggest buying a box of crayons with a wide variety of colors because the more variety of colors you have in front of you, the more colorful your paper can be. Once you get started you may want to create several sheets of this paper. You will also probably want to test this technique so that you fully understand how it works on a small piece of paper and then do it on your gift wrap paper (just the way the hair dye companies remind us to do a test strip…..).

A good leaf tip: Select leaves that have good “skeletons” – that have stems and all sorts of edges to them. It will give your crayons more edges to pick up on. Small wide leaves won’t give much of an impression. But also try to select a variety of leaves. Take a nice walk through your community, picking up leaves on the way. You will be surprised by how many leaves are actually available.

Do this also one leaf at a time. Put the leaf under the paper and take your crayon and peel your crayon completely and break it in half. Then put the crayon wide side down on the paper, rubbing side to side while exerting pressure onto it. You will quickly see how much pressure it takes to get a good impression of the leaf.

There may be other items that you can use for this project. What else leaves an impression? You can do office items like paper clips – paper clips come in a number of shapes and sizes.

Well, these are just some ideas for your inspiration. As you can see, gift wrapping ideas are often right at your fingertips. You can create gift wrap out of something that is probably right in your home, office or backyard! Happy wrapping!

About The Author
Abigail Beal is the author of two zines Creative Crafts Teacher – for crafts teachers and Gift Wrap Goddess Wraps – all about gift wrap. To subscribe: groups.yahoocom/group/GiftWrapGoddessWraps/ or groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeCraftsTeachers/. giftwrapgoddess@yahoo.com