Floating Candles Tutorial

If you know this is a decoration you’ll be making, then start saving your paper towel roles and toilet paper roles a few months in advance. Like anything now a days, I’m sure you can also buy cardboard roles on Amazon. (I was curious and just checked. The answer is yes, you can!) The clear cord I found at Michaels near their jewelry section. I’ve read other DIY posts where fishing line was used. I feel like I live at Michaels sometimes so it was only natural that jewelry making cord was the first type of clear cord I thought of. The next time I make these I’ll try the fishing line.

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Supplies

• Paper towel/toilet paper roles
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• White paint
• Paint brush
• Clear jewelry cord
• Tea lights
• Scissors
• Pliers

Start by cutting the tubes into varying lengths. I always cut a small dip in the center rather than a straight line across. I felt it gave it a little more of an authentic look. To give it a softer edge I traced the cut top in hot glue first. From there I added 2-3 layers of hot glue lines that I ran down the sides to give the wax dripping effect. Layering the lengths gives the appearing that the “candle” had been lit at different times. I typically made one long length that went about 3/4 of the way down, the second one I ran half way down the first layer, and the last I kept relatively short and closer to the top. Make sure you stock up on the hot glue, you’ll be using a lot of it! I’ve seen other crafters use some heavy duty glue guns which probably would have been the smart thing for me to invest in. I bought this mini one years ago and had left over glue sticks from past projects so I didn’t feel the need to buy a new one. I’ll probably put it on the Christmas list this year.

Next step is painting! Spray paint would probably be the quickest way to go. Since I don’t have the room to do that I used white craft paint. I applied two layers on the outside and one layer on the inside. By the time the painting came I was at the end of my patience rope and as I tried to rush through it I think I got just as much paint on my kitchen counter and floor as I did on the tubes. Yes I did have newspaper down, I’m just that talented.

Once everything is dry, take out a tea light and measure how far into the tube you’ll need to put it so that only the flame is showing. When you have an idea of where it needs to sit you’re going to use a large needle to poke two holes through the tube, one on either end. With the layers of glue it was a bit difficult to poke it through. I found that pliers were helpful with guiding the needle in and out. Next thread your cord through. Make the lengths of your cord varying sizes as well so that the candles float at different levels. The one downside to the jewelry cord is that it isn’t very keen on holding knots. What I ended up doing was tying a knot at the top and added a drop of hot glue over it to make sure it didn’t come undone.

I used regular clear scotch tape to stick them to the ceiling. If you want to be certain that floating candles won’t fall on your guests, you can also secure them to the ceiling with a push pin.