Top Decoration: Sure Enough...It Really Is That Easy...

Sure Enough...It Really Is That Easy...

The directions:

(and I quote)

"Spread some Mod Podge on each candle with a sponge brush, then roll the candle in Epsom Salt in a ratty old pan."

That's it!

Easy, right?

It must be! She said her 5 year old helped make them.
But I wasn't about to go there.
My six year old would be covered in mod podge and the kitchen would be covered in salt.

But if her 5 year old can do it, then clearly, I should be able to.

I saved the idea to my Tumblr as soon as I saw it.

I needed a gift to give the boys' teacher's for Christmas, and this fit the bill perfectly!

I went to Michael's and bought my supplies.

9 inch candles on sale, no...on SUPER sale, for $1.99!

My plan to do two candles increased in that very moment and I came out with six.

(I mean, seriously, $1.99...I know at least four more women that would be happy to receive a pretty candle...myself included!)

I found the mod podge (I'm still not sure exactly what it is, or what it's really used for) and was on my way back home.

As soon as our little girl was sound asleep for the night, I started in on the project. Just to be safe, I re-read the directions that she had written (...and came away totally unsatisfied with the lack of step-by-step instruction...because how could something so pretty be that easy?). I'll admit, I thought for sure I was going to screw it up somehow. But that probably came from the fact that I need the boys to take these to school with them tomorrow morning to give to their teacher's (it's the last day before Winter Break) and I did not have a back up plan if these didn't work.

Luckily...they worked out perfectly!

So this is me, telling you...

you can count on this to work!

All you need is:

any candle of your choice.

Any size, color, scented or unscented...it's up to you.

I went with white to be certain that it could fit in with any decor...

Instead of running the shimmer all the way to the top of the candles, I wanted to stop about 3/4 of the way up. I put a rubber band around each candle before I started so that I would have a decently straight line to go off of when I was painting on the mod podge...

I lined everything up - assembly line fashion...

candles

mod podge and brush

epsom salt

and a drying rack covered in waxed paper to catch any excess glue and salt

I put the epsom salt in an old baking pan and filled it to about an inch deep. I didn't want to run the risk of the candle rolling on the bottom of the pan and scraping off the salt. I'm sure it was unnecessary, but it made me feel better...

Candle #1...

success!

Pretty, right?

After I rolled the candle in the salt and stood it up on the drying rack, I immediately and carefully rolled the rubber band up off of the candle. I was afraid to leave the rubber band on just in case any mod podge had gotten under it. I didn't want to end up with the rubber band glued to the candle.
Not exactly the look I'm going for!

Four down, two to go...

I ended up buying two different bottles of mod podge. Again, since I had never used it before, I didn't know what to expect. The first was just plain, glossy finish. The second was called "sparkle". It was worth trying. So the last two candles were done in the sparkle mod podge. You can see in this next photo that is has a very fine glitter in it...

Honestly, looking at all six finished candles, I can't tell the difference between the glossy candles and the sparkle candles...

All I know is that I am really, really happy with how they turned out!

I'm going to let them fully dry overnight and then embellish them and wrap them up for the boys to take to their teacher's in the morning...