Make a fun nature candle holder!

Make a fun nature candle holder!

Here at Brookgreen we use a lot of candles for our holiday display, Nights of a Thousand Candles. A candle can make any event more festive!

Here are two candle holder crafts that are fun and easy to make with the plants in your garden.

Garden candle

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This would be fun to make several and decorate a picnic table and eat dinner outside!

Materials:

        A clear glass container, it could be a jar.

        Clear packing tape.

        Cuttings of flowers and leaves.

        A candle, tea light, battery operated candle, or a votive candle.

Procedure:

Wrap packing tape, sticky side out, to the outside of your container.

ice candel with tape.jpg

Cut small leaves and flowers that will fit on your container and press them on to the outside of the container on the sticky tape.

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Insert your candle and enjoy!

Ice candle

ice candle.jpg

This would be a great craft to do in the winter and use evergreen and cranberries. It is also fun in the spring to use flowers and leaves.

Materials:

        A plastic disposable cup

        A container to fit inside the cup, which will make a hole for the candle (A pill bottle or a spice/herb jar can be used. It needs to be as tall as the plastic cup and able to hold whatever size candle you use.)

        Rocks or marbles

        Flower and leaf cuttings (small sticks, too)

        Water

Procedure:

Cut some small flowers and leaves from the garden. You could also use small sticks, shells, or rocks for decoration.

        Place your inner bottle or jar inside the plastic cup. Weight it down with rocks or marbles. If you don’t, the inner jar will pop out of the cup when you add water.

ice candel holder with rocks.jpg

        Put water in the plastic cup but not in the jar in the middle of the cup.

        Take your collection of flowers and leaves, etc. and push them down in the water. Using a chopstick or pencil will help you do this.

ice candle with flowers.jpg

        Place the cup into the freezer. As it begins to freeze, you can arrange the decorations if you need to.

        Let it freeze solid.

Find a nice bowl to use when you remove it from the freezer and display it on the table.

        Let it sit and thaw enough so you can remove the inner container.

        Cut the rim of the plastic cup and rip it down the side until the ice candle can slip out. Place it in the bowl and put your choice of candle in the hollow tube created by the inner container. Enjoy!