As anyone who follows me on social media knows, I’ve had trouble finding pink and purple candles for Advent this year! But really, this is nothing new- it’s hard every year. I guess generally speaking, red green and gold candles are easier to find during the Christmas season than pink and purple. And even if there are places you can special order them from, sometimes that gets pricy! But it’s ok… I am going to show you how to make your own Advent candles by “painting” cheap white pillar candles pink and purple using stuff you already have laying around your house! 😉 By the way, you can find all of my Advent wreath resources for families here. Ok, lets take a look at those candles!
Updated to Say…
I started with regular white pillar candles from Dollar Tree. See? (For the record, this green wreath is also from Dollar Tree. I embellished it with this awesome glittery stuff I got on clearance after last Christmas and attached them with a glue gun. It cost me $3 to make the wreath, so with the candles it cost a total of $7).
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Then I “painted” the candles with pink and purple crayons. I know a lot of people are into beeswax, but I hear Crayola is on its way in. If your house is anything like mine, you probably have a bucket of broken crayon bits somewhere. Just peel them and discard the papers. (This is a great job for the 4-year-old in your life.)
Painting with wax is actually called encaustic painting, and I did a little of it in college. That’s how I knew it wasn’t going to be the big pain in the booty you might be thinking it is. All you do is put your wax in a shallow can (like a tuna can) and set it on your griddle on low. By the way, totally leave it to me to find craft uses for all of your kitchen stuff. It’s soooo much more fun that way!
That is so utterly awesome! I can only find the honkin' huge tapered candles, and I was hoping for pillar candles this year (they don't burn as fast). I think I'll be doing this.
I wonder how the color holds up when you burn them…? I guess we'll see :).
Thanks for this!
They look so rustic and beautiful with your wreath. Now, you will tell us how the melt b/c I can foresee crayon wax on that placemat or do you have the candles on little "coasters" of some sort? The wreath is really beautiful!
Wow that is awesome. I love how you did the candles, beautiful!
Great! Now I will never have to pay extra for Advent candles:)
truly incredible. and beautiful. and yes, there's something about homemade that just makes everything so wonderful!
genius. I can see why you were excited about it! love it and I think I am gonna try to try it 🙂
This is great. I couldn't justify the cost of buying the pillar advent candles this year. But, I can totally do $7. 🙂
I've had this problem every year, specifically because I don't like flowery smells and purple and pink candles tend to be rose and lavender.
So I couple of years ago I bought some clear glass candle holders. I choose the small fishbowl shaped ones, but whatever you like works. Then I covered them with tissue paper and clear school glue. I used a sharp knife to trim the edges after they were dry.
They turned out great, the are translucent enough that they shine and I can reuse them every year with whatever kind of candle I want.
This is so neat!!! i already got my advent candles, but maybe for Candlemas… oh I keep thinking of ideas! Thank you!
This is so cool!! I like when you post more pictures =) I'm a very visual person and I'll remember things better when I have the pictures in my head. Anyways, I've waited For.E.Ver for the prefect advent wreath. I have been married nearly 6 years and we still don't have one. I may have to make my own like you did, this idea is brilliant. I adore the homemade look, it is so cool. Thanks for sharing! Your blog is my biggest resource for celebrating the liturgical year at home with our little children and I'm learning a TON esp. since I'm a convert (although it's bee almost 10 years!).
First of all, everyone knows I am the QUEEN of Dollar Tree! lol I know what you mean about loving the place! Second, I love your idea! I was thinking about using little tealights this year but didnt really want to. Now I will use small votives and "paint" them. I can prob get white ones for 3/$1! Thanks Lacey!
Now this, is a great idea!!!
beautiful idea!! I love your pictures! They look more professional! I will share your idea in my blog! Blessings Lacy!
I love this. Advent Candles are so hard to find! What a crafty girl you are!!
I love how they look! FYI, I bought a kit to make 4 beeswax tapers on Etsy for $4, for the tired/non crafty among us!
These are great, I'm very impressed and also mad that I got behind on my google reader and didn't see this until now, because I already ordered expensive candles! But I'll be doing this next year!
That looks great, Lacy! Wish I'd have read this post before I spent 10 bucks on Advent candles. I am also curious to see how the color holds up throughout Advent and burning them.
Hi Lacy,
I saw that you melted them on a griddle (like for pancakes) and I did that too! Now how do I get melted wax off of the griddle?
With 4 kids doing it at the same time, I probably should have expected it. Help!
Thanks for the idea! I just finished my candles! They look fantastic! Just in time to light the first one tonight at Dinner! I had so much fun & my toddlers think they are great! Thanks so much!! Blessings!
A friend forwarded your blog to me just today with this awesome info. I too have bemoaned not being able to find short, squatty advent candles. I can only find the long tapered ones which are too small for our wreath.
Our ever-crafty 14-year-old saw the page up on the computer & the next thing she's doing is recruiting two younger kids to help her w/peeling crayons. She just finished the first one. AWESOME!!!! They are so pretty & I love the rustic look.
Just in time for dinner lighting –
What a wonderful idea! We already started reading a book for advent, but were going to make the advent wreath tonight, so I’m off to the Dollar Tree now. Thank you for the creative idea! Our family will have fun making this tonight together.
Lacy, did you super glue the candles to the wreath? or how did you stick them to it?
I am afraid that the candle wax will start a fire when it gets low. I am thinking of putting the candles in a small tin can to prevent my fear.
No, I didn’t put them in anything, but my candles were thick enough that they only burned down into themselves as they got low.
I put my candles on the wreath by hot gluing canned good tops/bottoms to the wreath as a “holder.” The candles appear to burning only in the center, leaving the exterior intact. Not sure as to why…
Are you talking about taper-type candles? I had someone else say the same thing.
A year later, sorry for the SUPER late response…lol
No my candles are the same as yours. I bought them from the dollar tree. they are only melting around the wick, not the entire level.
how did you get your candles to stay level on the wreath with out teeter-totting back & forth (swaying)? I ran into that problem so that’s why i put the can top for leveling – glued to the wreath.
If your pillar style candles only burn a very narrow bit around the wick, there are 2 likely reasons.
1. The wick is inferior and not the proper wick type for a candle that big around. (Pretty likely if cheap)
Or, 2. You aren’t burning them for a long enough period of time. The 1st burn is the most important, you want to burn so that melted spot is the desired size.
Same with jar candles, they aren’t happiest if only burned for a few minutes.
Thanks for the idea! We have a lot of little white candles left over from our wedding, so I was going to try painting them last night… with real paint. This is brilliant :-).
I have been in a tizzy because “my” religious shop closed – I have never brought my Advent candles anywhere else! (27 plus years!) So… your suggestion is just right for me. Thank you. Happy Advent!
Advent Candle – wonderful idea. I am a PreK teacher and am on a budget – I had left over luminaria candles and also some recycled small canning jars. I used the jars as my candle holders & pebbles to hold the candle more steady.
I was in a rush so melted the crayons in a glass jar in the microwave for 4 min. (** The glass gets super hot so use oven gloves to get out of microwave.)I then dipped the candle in the crayon wax. I worked quickly and I didn’t need much brushing. I think it took more time to peel the paper off the crayons! Love your craft ideas – thank you and God Bless you!
Wow, great idea! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I love the encaustic technique but I have heard that crayon wax can disrupt the burning. I used wax melts from the Dollar Tree and covered the pillars. I ended up rolling them in the container and dripping some instead of painting the wax on. If I were to do it again, I might see if I can melt and mix my own colors since the purple is a bit pale. A total of $6 and I have about half the pink left!
Thank you for the inspiration!