Hurricanes are bad but can supply some materials...

Project 3: Candle Holders from Nature

A lot of people were effected by Hurricane Irene.  And in its wake there were a lot of down trees.  As part of the clean up I re-purposed some tree branches into some holiday festiveness.  This project requires the use of some power tools which I am not that into.  The drill press is one thing, the table saw something else.  I happen to like all of my fingers and would like to keep them.  So I have to thank Howie for helping me here.

Materials:

• Tree branch cut in half and then candle size hold drilled in (power tools needed)
• Polyurethane
• Hot Glue Gun 
• Decorations
• Felt
• Candles

Steps:

• The tree branches need to be cut in half or in to disk.  I created candle holders out of both.  
• Then drill a hole to the desired with of the candle.
• Polyurethane the entire thing.  All sides, holes what have you.  Again you want to avoid the creepy crawlies that  might still live in there.  It also helps to protect and preserve.  These I did 4-5 coats of poly to be safe.
• Once you are sure that they are dry it is time to decorate.  I used everything from silk flowers and left over nuts from my napkin rings (see previous post) to disassembled Christmas picks.  And glitter of course! :)
• I cut out felt to fit the bottom and glued it on so that no surfaces would be scratched
• Insert candles and you are done. 

Things I learned:

• The candles are more stable if you melt some wax in the hole and then put the candle in.
• It is easier to measure and attach felt to the bottom of something before it is decorated.
• It is almost impossible to find a drill bit to give you the perfect candle hole so do test pieces so you can get the closest one to what you want.
• Wax makes a better adhesive for handles then hot glue.  The glue just melts it and it does not stick.

I made several of these but I am only including my favorite ones.  Mine were all Christmas themed but that does not mean that you can't do these for other reasons.  The candles look crooked in the pictures because I had not melted wax in the holes yet.  They looked better once I did. :)

Craft on my Friends...