How-to: Transform Classic Christmas "Candles"

After reading the DIY: Family Heirloom Christmas Tree Skirt post, I was inspired to get in the Christmas spirit! I wanted to take a classic Christmas item and turn it into something different and beautiful like Karen did. Do you own these?

I always thought these faux Christmas “candles” were somewhat creepy—especially the ones with red bulbs. Even so, they are definitely a symbol of Christmas! I wanted to make a cover for the candles to make them pretty, but still keep them festive. Something you all should know about me is that I am slightly addicted to using toilet paper rolls in my craft projects. Naturally, I used them in this project as well!

What you will need:

1. Toilet paper rolls (I used 4-5 rolls for 1 cover)

2. Hot glue gun

3. Spray paint – I used red to go with the Christmas theme.

4. Scissors

5. Wax paper

6. Christmas candles

How to do it:

1. Cut the toilet paper rolls into ½ inch pieces.

2. Set out the pattern of your choice. This is what mine looked like:

3. Glue the toilet paper pieces together using a hot glue gun. Start by gluing them into flower shapes like so:

4. Then, glue the flowers together to make one whole side. You will make four of these sides. Essentially what you will do is box in the candle.

5. Spray paint the four sides. Make sure you get all of the crevices! Spray paint isn’t the greenest craft supply, so opt for low-VOC spray paint, if you can.

6. Once the sections have dried, you will hot glue them together. This is kind of tricky, but be patient (and don’t burn your fingers!). I glued mine together on the very edge so that they wouldn’t overlap too much.

7. Then, take your wax paper and cut out enough to cover the inside of your “box.” To make the wax paper stay in place, I placed a dab of hot glue at the top and bottom of each corner of the “box.”

8. Once you have your wax paper in place, you can cut around the top design like I did, or you can keep it square. (Tip: if you decide to keep it square at the top, make sure you put the straight edge of the wax paper on top and cut the excess paper from the bottom.)

This is my finished product: