A couple months ago while browsing Pinterest, I came across a pin of a photo transfer canvas. I thought that was pretty cool and wanted to try it. After doing a bit of research I found out that Mod Podge had a new photo transfer medium which they claimed could transfer a photo onto anything – canvas, fabric and even a candle.
Now, I still love the canvas idea and it works, but I became obsessed with the idea of putting a photo on a candle. I needed to do that.
I bought the Mod Podge and gave it a try. It didn’t work, it peeled right off. Thinking that maybe it was due to my printing the photo on an inkjet instead of laser printer, I had my hubby print me out the pic on his laser printer. It still didn’t work. I was sad.
So, I went back to Google. This time searching specifically for candle tranfers. And there it was. A blog post how to about doing just that.
It seemed easy enough. Print your picture on tissue paper {which turns out is not all that easy, but doable}. Cut out your image. Then wrap the candle in wax paper and use a heat gun to heat the wax paper thus releasing the wax and sealing the image onto the candle. Only I don’t own a heat gun.
I read a few more blog posts about this craft and found one who had used a hair dryer. I’ve got one of those. And she said to use vellum instead of tissue paper. It’s thicker, but relatively transparant. That was a mistake. It does not work. I tried it and my image just peeled off.
So, I grabbed some basic white tissue paper, the kind you use in gift bags. I taped it to a regular sheet of paper and printed. It took some editing of the photo and a few printing attempts before the ink wasn’t smudging, but I got it. Then I very, very carefully cut out my image and tried again to make the candle.
Success!!!
I LOVED it. So much that I made another one. It should be no surprise that I started with Hogwarts.
This is the coolest craft skill I have learned in a long time. I can’t stop myself from making more and more candles.
Here’s a few more I’ve done recently. Yep, more Harry Potter candles, but don’t they look awesome?
All of these are available at my Etsy shop. I am working on even more. I did mention that I am obsessed with making these right? And yes, my next few ideas are still Harry Potter candles, but I will expand. Maybe some London candles? I am also planning on offering a completely custom option so anyone can send me any image they want on a candle and I’ll make it for them.
Have any more ideas of styles of candles I should make? Leave a comment with something you’d like to see on a candle.
Happy Crafting,
© 2013, Terri. All rights reserved.
