Eyeballs By Day, Crafts By Night

Sometimes things that I think are really cute, will sit in my booth for years, and won’t sell. For example, I bought some small candles years ago, that came in awesome faux white enamel tubs and had a real farmhouse look to them. Though they’re old, they still smell awesome and I am not giving up on them! I have since made them over a few times, and I am hoping my new Fall spin on them will help them move off the shelves. Here’s the new country look and the how-to!

Originally I tried to sell them as is, for like $3 a piece. Good deal, so I thought, but no one wanted them! 😦 Then as Christmas time came around, I packed them up in plastic bags, tied them with homespun, and added a cute rustic tag, for gift giving. I sold a few, but still have about 6 left. Here’s the “before.”

My first step in making them over was to “primify” them. I put the broiler on and CAREFULLY watched them for about 1 minute while the tops softened up and smoothed out. After years of sitting around, the wax gets little scratches and nicks, so this process makes them look brand new again. I then shook on some ground cinnamon and let them cool. It gives them a rustic, dusty look, and of course smells great too! Please don’t burn your house down doing this. Don’t leave them unattended and please, be careful people!!!

My first thought was to tie the burlap over the top and tie off with some twine. I guess I was envisioning more of a cheesecloth look, where you could see and smell the candle better. This just looked dumb. LOL. It also covered my cute, newly dusted candle tops that look so perfectly primitive!

Take two. I used a plate as a guide to trace out circles of burlap that would fold up around the tubs, from the bottom.  This idea would look great on small jar candles (such as those in short, fat mason jars), so don’t worry if you love the look but can’t find these exact candles! Any jar candle would work!

Put a ring of hot glue on the bottom of the jar candle and place on burlap. Then, using tiny dabs of hot glue, fold up the edges and create a taco-shell look. This will make it easier to tie on the twine.

Tie it around once or twice and add more dabs of hot glue to hold up your burlap. I also trimmed and frayed the edges of my burlap during this part.

For a little accent, I took a sprig of pip berries I had lying around and pulled off two sprigs for each candle.

I curled up the ends of the sprigs by wrapping them around a little paint brush handle. Then I tied them on using the excess twine and finished it off with a little bow.

I think I will throw in a free mason jar tag with each candle since they’d made nice Fall gifts. I got these mason jar tags at Target…8 for $1! I love them!

They have a cool “scarecrow” feel with the frayed burlap. They’d be nice for any primitive home decor but will be especially nice for Fall time I think.

My helper Fred takes a little snooze while I clean up. What a bum!

Like I said, this look would be easy to create on regular jar candles as well. The cinnamon dusting is a super easy way to make something look “prim” too! What are your thoughts on the finished project? Anything you’d do differently? 🙂