Homemade Holiday Candle Centerpieces
A holiday table calls for something special since it is a time for family and friends to be together. Candle centerpieces can create an effect that centerpieces without them just cannot produce. With Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day so close together it's an excuse for the creative homeowner to put together some fantastic candle centerpieces.
-
Halloween and Thanksgiving
-
Begin making a graveyard centerpiece by cutting crafter's foam cut into the shapes of tombstones and painting them pewter or silver. With a dark gray or black craft paint and stencils, paint names on the faux tombstones. Spray black paint on an inexpensive 10-by-2 picture frame, including the glass. Once it has dried, remove the glass and spray it with glitter spray. Replace the dried glass in the frame. Use a hot glue gun to adhere the tombstones, words facing outwards, to the sides of the flat frame and let dry.
Place the frame flat with tombstones on the table. Spread fall-colored silk leaves around the outer edges of the frame to cover the bottom edge of the glued-on tombstones. Place three to four black and orange pillar candles in the center of the picture frame on the glass to finish the centerpiece.
For a festive Thanksgiving centerpiece, tie three faux harvest corn cobs together at the ends with a medium-width Thanksgiving ribbon (creating a triangle). Make three corn cob triangles. Place red, orange and dark yellow pillar candles of varying heights in the center of the corn cob triangles. Make a loose pile of artificial fall-colored leaves around the middle of the table and place the candles with corn cob holders in a triangle on top of them. Place a large diameter red or gold plate in the center of the leaves and arrange the candles on it.
Christmas
-
For an illuminating Christmas centerpiece, cut 2-inch thick crafter's foam into 8-, 10- and 12-inch long rectangles at least 6 inches wide. Use tacky glue to glue the foam together creating a stepped tier. Cut the center out of the top tier, leaving a boarder of about 1 inch. Use hot glue to glue red, white and green medium-sized outdoor bulbs to the sides of the foam. Cover the foam on the top of each tier by gluing red and white artificial poinsettias around the perimeter. Fill the inside of the top tier with small pearlescent glass pebbles. Make holes in the foam small and deep enough for the bottom of a taper candle to fit snugly in the foam. Use decorative candy cane taper candles to finish the centerpiece. Make sure the candles are firmly stabilized by the pebbles and foam before lighting them.
New Year's
-
Begin the New Year's festivities with a noise-making centerpiece. Using 1-, 2- and 3-inch thick crafter's foam, cut out three five-pointed stars (one of each thickness) that have a center width of about 5 inches. Use gold, white and silver spray paint to evenly coat one side and the edges of the foam on each star. Let the paint dry. Place gold, glittery white and silver votive candlesin small holders in the center of each star. Take paper noise makers and stick the ends into the foam to surround the candle holder. Remove the noise makers and secure them by putting tacky glue around the ends and replacing them in the holes created. Arrange the stars in a triangle around a party hat with the year on it
-
