PROJECT 9: Candle Making

For those of you who were certain I had abandoned my blog...doubt me no more...I was just taking a holiday break!

Actually, the craft of candle making could not have come at a better time. I needed gifts and these seemed like the perfect solution. Thus, I am just now publishing my post on candle making, as I waited to post so that the recipients would be surprised. I am happy to report that they were both surprised and pleased.

First of all, candle making is two things: 1.)messy and 2.) expensive! I had thought I would go to a craft store, find some beautiful natural beeswax and colorant and make inexpensive yet organic gifts. Unfortunately I was wrong. Natural beeswax was just out of my price range. For enough wax to maybe make one candle, it was $18 at Michaels! Now I understand why one small beeswax candle can run almost $20 at a boutique. So alas, instead of beeswax I bought a block of parafain wax and melted down one of my old plain white candles. (This worked fine but the candles did not have that natural, organic feel I was hoping for).

I covered my kitchen counter with newspaper and used an old pot to melt the wax down. You cannot put wax directly on a burner so I had another pot beneath it with boiling water. This worked great except that I ended up ruining the good bottom pot. Somehow bits of wax were sneaking their way from the top pot to the bottom pot and once wax melts in a pot its pretty much impossible to remove. So my poor pot was a casualty of this endeavor. (Not to mention a knife I needed to use to cut the wax before I melted it.)

I had planned on getting molds but again, those were too expensive. Instead I poured the wax into containers. I made four tea cup candles from tea cups I had that we never used and I used jars for the others. I also finally used those old candle holders I had laying around that I had burnt up the wax for a long time ago.

I chose not to use scents as the candles were gifts and I did not feel comftorable choosing a scent I didnt know would sit well with the person. (I think I am scarred from once getting my sister a vanilla scented present and having her nearly throw up from the smell). I did not use color for the tea cup candles as I thought white went well with the cup. I did use color with the jarred candles though, mixing colorant to make the exact color I was looking for.

The process was fun and rewarding as I was very pleased with the outcome. I do have to say however that if felt a little silly to melt wax only to pour it into a container and have it harden again.

So while the candles did not turn out as fancy or organic as I had hoped, I think they made perfect gifts. I followed Ms. Stewart's suggestion and wrapped match boxes in a pretty paper I had and that was just perfect for the finishing touch. I know the recipients are enjoying them too. In fact just today one of them called me to tell me that the candle had become her favorite because of how big the flame is...which could be good or bad I suppose...just be careful!

PROJECT 8: Calligraphy

Calligraphy: The art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or a brush.


Since I was just a little girl I remember my mother doing calligraphy. The patience she had with each stroke of the pen was something I could never imagine myself having. The perfection with which she executed each letter was something I knew I could never achieve. This penchant for perfection is something that I have always adored and admired in my mother's art. Calligraphy, with the bends of the lines, the thickness of the stroke and the height of the letters, is an art form that can truly express the beauty of perfection. I lack the patience for such perfection and that is why I was truly grateful that my mother could help me with this project. She was visiting from Wisconsin last weekend and we worked on this project together. I felt so fortunate that she could be there to steady my hand and point out where I needed thicker lines or a different nib. A mother's expertise is an invaluable resource in a daughter's life.





I wanted to make gift tags for the gifts I will be giving out this holiday season so we bought gift tags at hobby lobby along with a snowflake stamp, a calligraphy pen complete with a set of nibs and ink. Once home I started practicing each lower case letter in Ms. Stewart's book. We quickly realized that my mother's calligraphy was different from the one I was practicing. My mom never does up strokes in her calligraphy, only down strokes. We tried to do it this way but it was apparent that Ms. Stewart's calligraphy required up strokes in order to complete many of the letters. My mother, who has taken numerous calligraphy classes told me that she had always been instructed that upstrokes were forbidden. However, we adapted and the letters turned out beautifully even with the upstrokes.

The part that was most difficult for me was switching between the thick and thin parts of the lines. Those subtle changes are really what makes calligraphy so stunning. I practiced over and over again but I think ultimately it came down to the nib I was using, I think it was letting out too much ink.



Eventually, after a lot of practicing and pointers from my mother I was ready to start making gift tags. I tried a couple with the snowflake stamp and did not like the look of them so I switched to another more regal looking stamp I had. I think calligraphy demands drama so the stamp I ended up using was perfect.




We also made a gift tag for my cousin's new baby Gus. I think it turned out so precious with the little bird stamp.



Thank you mom for contributing so much to this project and to me. Love you.

Project 7: Botanical Printing: Botanical Rubbing

Well unfortunately most of the pictures I took for this entry were mysteriously missing from my camera when I went to upload them onto the computer so I apologize but this picture is all I have for the Botanical Rubbing craft. At Ms. Stewart's suggestion I made wrapping paper by doing leaf rubbings on tissue paper. It reminded me of my childhood as I did these rubbings with my mother and in art class. The wrapping paper turned out well but since it was tissue paper it was see through so when I went to wrap this gift I threw a darker blue tissue paper underneath. Its unfortunate that you will not be able to clearly see what the wrapping paper looks like because the other pictures are missing. (Although mom, and sister will be able to see it up close and in person as it is on its way to the birthday boy!)

I enjoyed the botanicals but I am very ready to move on (appropriate as we move into fall).

PROJECT 6: Botanical Printing

At first I could not decide what I wanted to create using the botanical printing method. I thought maybe I could make a set of sheets but then I remembered that we have a king size bed and sheets are expensive and I did not want to risk making an ugly set of expensive sheets. The bed in the guest room is a full but already has enough sheets sets as it is. While flipping through the suggested pieces Ms. Stewart has in her book I came across the canvas bag. Perfect! I have reusable grocery bags but they have lately started to smell like mold and I have been meaning to replace them. (I haven't because I could not reconcile getting rid of reusable bags if the entire point was to save waste). The canvas bags I purchased are not as big as the grocery bags I am currently using so I am not sure if they will do the trick for grocery shopping but I think they will make fantastic farmer's market bags, or just "running to target to pick up a few things" kind of bags.

To decide what botanicals I wanted to use I simply went into my front yard and snipped the most interesting branches from my plants. The red, yellow and orange bag is made from a branch from my rose bush. The green bag is made from a branch of my peonies and the purple bag is a branch snipped from my sage bush. I then took the branches in and pressed them for a day in a phone book. The next day they were perfectly flat and ready to use. Ms. Stewart's method of painting the branch then rubbing the brayer over it to transfer the image worked perfectly I must say. The activity was fun and simple and something one could do with a child and in an afternoon. I am looking forward to using my bags and have to say I am very pleased with the way they turned out.

The only complaint I have about this project is the cost. Fabric paint is expensive ($5 a bottle) and unless you plan on using it again, it is hard to spend that kind of money to get the different colors you want. I only used a tiny portion of the bottles and now have what seems like a life time supply of fabric paint that I will probably not use up.

PROJECT 6: Botanical Printing

PROJECT 5: Botanical Pressing

I have to say the delicacy and beauty of pressing flowers is really quite enchanting. I felt like I was capturing the flowers at its most colorful moment and in essence, keeping it alive forever. I remember as a child my mother loved to press flowers and while I thought it was nice I never really quite appreciated it. Now I can see why she loved to do it. Making art out of these pressed flowers is absolutely lovely.

To press the flowers I put them between pages of a telephone book and piled more books on top of the phone book. This worked fabulously. I only pressed the flowers for three or four days, shorter than is usually recommended but my mother told me that this would be all right and that if you want the flowers to have a lot of color you should press them for a shorter period of time.

The flowers I made the cards out of are cosmos from my neighbor's yard. My four year old niece was visiting and my neighbor's daughter handed her a bouquet of cosmos over the fence. It was really quite sweet. We enjoyed them in a vase for awhile and when I saw they were starting to wilt I pressed them.

Unfortunately Ms. Stewart does not tell readers that spray adhesive can be tricky and can leave visible stains. I opted for the spray adhesive for the cards thinking since the flowers were delicate it would be a good way to adhere them to the paper without having to over handle them. I followed the spray's instructions, spraying outside and keeping about 8 to ten inches away from the paper. Even with that the spray adhesive left small dots all over the card stock. I foolishly kept using it on the other cards because I thought it would go away. It hasn't and so while the flowers are beautiful the cards are basically unusable. The spray adhesive also left a tacky feeling all over the card stock. After taking the pictures below I snipped off the ends of the stems so they were even with the ends of the card stock. I would warn everyone against using spray adhesive for this project.

I also decided to make coasters out of some other flowers I gathered from my flower garden. In the book Ms. Stewart uses glass coasters but since I had some old tile in my shed I decided to be resourceful and just use those. I spoke with my mother and she told me just to mix some Elmer's glue with water and paint it over the flowers and coasters with a paint brush. This worked great.

So for this particular project I think I just should have asked my mother for help instead of relying on the instructions of Ms. Stewart. I learned that lesson the hard way with the spray adhesive.

PROJECT 5: Botanical Pressing