Night 6 of 8 nights of lights 2011 - humor

Tonight is about humor.  I love experimenting as an artist, and I have had so many flops over the years.  This month I've been making candles and experimenting with scrapbook products.  Well, I thought I would do a video from beginning to end and share how many times (6) I had to try to get this to work.  But my youtube viewers did NOT like it!  They sent me tons of comments....so I edited the video to shorten it and only show the actual parts that worked!





And I decided that was pretty funny.  Lesson learned....never video your mistakes!!

Then I had to edit this blog to put in the new video because the old one is gone!  ha ha!  I really like to make work for myself!  I learned, too, that my youtube viewers don't necessarily read my blog!  Go figure!

So, I went to all that trouble to make a circle with candles on it, try to attach it to the circle paper tube to slide over the candle....doing everything in a circle.  When it was all done, I sat here and asked myself, "Why didn't I just do the whole thing flat.....then wrap it around the candle after it dried?  It would have been so much easier!  LOL!!!

The final product isn't too bad:

I took the actual candles and melted some wax between them and put them around a blue candle.  Tied them with a wick. Sort of like this one:

And one more tonight.  I poured wax into a tiny teacup.  Then took a little bit of warm wax and whipped it with a wisk.  Put it on top and then added some prism glitter.  I like how this one turned out:

Think anyone will ask for a drink?  :o)

I hope that on this 6th night of Hanukkah that you find humor in whatever you do!  It's just a good thing that I do!!!

Night 2 - Eight Nights of Lights 2011 - cleaning old candles

On this second night of lights, the tradition is to host a party and exchange gifts. To me, these are more secular traditions, probably established by merging a bit of Christmas tradition into the Hanukah celebrations. But I do agree that Hanukkah should be a joyous celebration. 

 My brother sent me this great link.....there's so much stuff here about Hanukkah it makes your head spin! And spinning the dreidle is quite the fun game - unless you end up with all your coins in the pot! 

Tonight, we light the second candle.  But what if your candles get dirty from one year to the next?  Or dinged up.  Can you save them?  Or do you just toss them out and go buy new ones???  I've been tossing old candles out for years. Oh, what a mistake that was!!!

There are several wax removing products on the market, I like "Wax Away" which I get at McGuckins in Boulder (it's a hardware store.)












When you pour your own candles, you use sand paper to flatten the bottoms.  It does get wax on it quite quickly and here's my tip for cleaning it so you can use it over and over!




And now - some of my refurbished candles:

This first one was a simple ball that I just cleaned up with wax away and added the peel-off.  The candle and stand totaled $1

I found this candle and cleaned up the glass/mirrors and added mini star decals

 

but when I put it on this stand.....just perfect!

this candle is in the shape of a star, but gold, and quite cracked

 

so I covered it with silver alcohol ink

and then a layer of crystal stickles.  Covered up every crack!

This was so dirty and the wax away cleaned it right up.  Looks brand new!  It was $1

and here's the candle from the video.  I added a strand of beaded ribbon.

And finally, a new Chanukkah song - I think everyone will enjoy this one!


May He bless you to the highest heights with His miracles: