Did you see our large Salt dough Candle Holder that reads - You light up my life? Oh I just love it! When we made that we had some dough left over, it would have been rude to waste it - so we created some Heart Candle Holders that we have wrapped up to give as gifts for our nearest an dearest - just because!!
They came out great so I am really excited to share them with you!!
First of all you will need to make a batch of Salt Dough. We have a super easy recipe to follow that you can find here.
Once you have this amount of dough made depending on how thick you roll our your hearts and how large your cutters are you will have enough dough to make 20+. Making it the perfect for nurseries, schools, childminders and parents to make with their children!
You will need:
Batch of Salt Dough
Heart Cutters
Roller
Candles (why not use Battery Operated Candles?)
Acrylic Paints
Paint Brushes
Clear Plastic Bags - we used 8x6, 6x4 would also work
Twine String
Our cute Tags
Clear Varnish
Use your roller to roll out the Salt Dough. You want to aim for a depth of no more than 1cm. Use your heart cutters to create your heart shapes and use your candle to press down in the center. This will create an indent that will make the candle sit nicely once its dry and painted.
I usually place our wet salt dough creations onto Pirex dishes turned upside down. They give a nice flat base and I find the dough doesn't tend to stick to the dish. You can either completely air dry them or you can speed up the process by popping them in the oven on a low gas mark and keeping a regular check on them.
When they are completely dried out you can start decorating them! We painted ours with a red acrylic paint. You will need to use paint that isn't water based. If you use children's paint for example that is water based the water will absorb back into your dough and make it all soft and soggy again.
Once you are happy with how your salt dough candle holder is painted, use a clear varnish to seal your dough. This will protect your paint and also prolong the life of your candle holder! Oh make sure you add names and dates to the back of your hearts before varnishing them too!!
Varnish usually takes a couple of days to dry. Leave them in a well ventilated room as the smell of varnish is strong! Dont be tempted to touch them before day 3 as you will leave marks in the varnish, and its so tricky to get it off your hands too!!
When they are dry its time to add the finishing touches! Pop them inside a clear see through bag and use twine or ribbon to tie the bag up. Use our adorable 'you light up my life' tags to add your finishing touch.
There you go - a beautiful gift that will be treasured for years to come that didn't cost the earth!
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Thank you for such great easy ideas, you can also use clear nail varnish for the varnish and only takes hours to dry proper if that depending on the amount used. Hope that helps some people as I use this method alot as working with salt dough weekly with my job.
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