Adore Candle Holder

This was a fun project!  Ever made your own “glass glitter”?  Great for working out frustrations, lol!

After Christmas I purchased some clearance gold ball ornaments.  The super cheap kind that I think ended up costing about $.75 for a package of 24 mini’s (about 1.5″ diameter, I think).  To set up for this, I took an old wooden kitchen cutting board (this is going to mangle it, so don’t use your good one!)  You could also use just a sheet of scrap wood.  Grab some protective eyewear as well!

I put a few baubles at a time (remove the metal hanger part) into a ziploc baggie (you’ll go through several of these as well) and just started pounding on it with a hammer to break them up.  Every so often, add more baubles and as the baggie gets too beat up to be sure you’re containing all the tiny shards, switch to a new one.  Keep hammering until the shards are a size to your liking (you’ll have a mixture ranging from the shards down to dust all mixed together).  I store mine in an old Prima bottle and it’s so pretty!

Now, for the candle holder itself, I grabbed a little votive holder from the dollar store (you can get these cheap ones just about anywhere from your local craft store to dollar stores to department stores).  I used Helmar’s Professional Acid Free Glue – which is a white glue that sets clear.  Holding the candle holder from the inside, SMOTHER the outside in this glue.  You want a thick coating that isn’t running down the glass though.  Then just start adding the glitter, pressing it in and working with it to be sure it’s not “melting” down the side.  At this point, it honestly looks like crud.  The white glue WILL take a few days to completely dry to clear because it’s on so thick and being covered with the glitter doesn’t allow air to get to it quickly.  Patience!  I set mine on its bottom, then a few hours later smooshed things back into place that had run a bit and flipped it over.  Repeat this until it’s no longer sliding around on the glass and then just wait for it to finish drying to clear (you can see this by looking through the inside).

To finish it off, I found this velvet ribbon with slider from EK (an older line – can’t remember if it was that family line or the Rebecca Sower line).  It was originally self-adhesive, but of course I used some more of the Helmar to be sure it was going to stick to this bumpy surface.  I also pre-bent the curve into the slider before attaching it.  That’s it!

This looks awesome with a light in it.  I use those little battery operated tealight candles in anything I’m not sure I can wash out if candle wax drips.  It looks even better in a little grouping of candles with the light from the other candles flickering off of this one!