Howsewears: Gelli® Print Transfers! Cute, Cute Candles!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Gelli® Print Transfers! Cute, Cute Candles!

Hey, Peeps. I can't believe how life gets in the way of blogging! Sheesh!

The creative juices were flowing and I thought of this project, which is WAY too fun.

You know how you have all of those fun Gelli® prints and you look for different ways to use them?

Well, here's a very fun, versatile, creative, and interesting way to use them once more.

Gelli® print transfers on candles.

Yups. Use your Gelli® prints in your home decor.

And, here's a tip for you, Peeps. You DO ALWAYS scan your prints into your computer before you cut them up, don't you? If not, YOU SHOULD! Especially if it's a print that you absolutely love. Then it will be immortalized FOREVER!

Here's a fun print. I painted on my plate, did some Gelli® printing, and embellished it with hand doodles and my hand carved stamps. I printed onto a copy of a deed from my Grandparents' farm from the 1800's. And, do you remember these skins? You may recognize them.

So, I loved this print and wanted to use in something other than my art journal.

I took some tissue paper and secured it to a piece of printer paper.

I used my glue glider on the edges and folded the tissue paper over to the back. It's important to make sure the glue is covered totally with the tissue paper, or the paper could stick in your printer and jam it. I hate it when that happens.

The most important area to secure is the part that first feeds into your printer. Everything else should just follow after that.

Make sure you know how your paper feeds through your printer so that you're printing on the correct side.

I have a scanner as well, so I can put my Gelli® print on the scanner and just copy it from there.

This is how it looked when it came out. There are some wrinkles, but that's OK since they'll work themselves out.

I use this technique on battery operated candles, only. I'm a little weird about putting paper on a candle with an open flame. I know that the battery operated candles will be safe. That's just how I roll.

Remove the tissue paper from the printer paper. Since it was secured in the back, I cut the tissue off the printer paper around the edges.

I rolled the candle onto the tissue paper to do a rough measurement.

When I encircled the candle, I folded the edge back to establish a cut line. You don't want this to overlap.

I cut off the excess.

Then I pinned the edges securely.

This next step is facilitated better with a heat gun, although you can use a hair dryer if you'd like. A heat gun is more efficient and will take less time.

So, you know how if you hold a heat source to a candle, it burns and melts until there's nothing left. Well, let's just say you don't want to do that. Remember that wax is FLAMMABLE (which is kind of the point when you light one), but in this case, you don't want your candle to melt to nothingness.

Take your heat tool and start in the center of the candle (on the opposite side of the seam).

Start in one spot. Keep the heat tool a few inches from the candle, making sure that you're not heating your fingers. When you see the candle start to glisten and the tissue paper melting into the wax, move along to the next spot, working your way around to the back seam. If you develop bumpy areas, just smooth them out with your fingers (but make sure the wax isn't HOT). When you get to the seam, go back to the center and work your way around the other side.

If you have an edge on the top, just trim it with scissors and heat it into the wax.

And, VOILA! You have a super cute candle that's a one-of-a-kind (OOAK- I just found that out) piece of home decor. Think of the possibilities! Christmas, Fall, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, WEDDINGS!!! The possibilities are endless!