Candles

I'm going to show you my process for making a candle birthday card with a few snippets and off cuts...

I collected a handful of trimmings and cut them down to different lengths between 2cm and 5cm.  The widths were approximately 0.5cm to 0.8cm.  With a pencil line lightly drawn on to my card blank for guidance I started to randomly stick a few rectangles down, varying the sizes, colours and widths.

When I had a good covering of rectangles I drew little dashes at the top - these are the wicks and turn the rectangle in to candles.

I watered down some neon acrylic paints and added some yellow watercolour paint.  When my permanent pen ink was dry I painted a flame atop each candle.  Using a round paint brush I just pushed the side of the bristles gently to the paper which makes a flame or petal shape.  I varied my flame colour slightly each time I loaded my brush.

Once the first flames were dry I carried on adding more rectangles, wicks and flames.  As the card got full and the rectangles started overlapping I switched from white glue to 3d glue gel to ensure a good stick.  Painting the flames on as you go and building up layers means you get an even spread of flames - some popping up from behind that you wouldn't be able to paint with the extra candles layered on top.  Once it was all dried I rubbed a little gold mica wax over the flames to make the glow.

And here it is.  I love this idea for people who have big numbered birthdays, and great for when they say "and don't get a card with 50 on the front!" - just make 50 candles instead!!

Linking up at; Snippets Playground and Avenue 613

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