Homemade gifts

It's the beginning of December and I am already exhausted by the marketing teams.  Everywhere I go, I hear Christmas carols, see Christmas decorations and am assaulted by sales fliers.  My mailbox is overflowing with catalogs.  Radio and television stations have endless commercials encouraging me to shop.  If it's not Black Friday, it's Cyber Monday. Sales galore!  Shop, shop, shop.

Enough already!!  What happened to having a peaceful holiday to share with family and friends?  Why do I have to go into debt to make everyone happy?!  Oh wait, I don't!  

This year has been particularly annoying to me as far as the commercialization goes.  I do not want my teenage son to grow up thinking happiness can be purchased or that debt is a good thing.  However, I do wish to teach him that creativity can be fun and avoiding debt . . .  even better.  

On that note, it is time to create some gifts for family and friends that will not break the bank.  First up on the list; candles.  I love burning candles and go through many throughout the year.  My mother enjoys them just as much, which is why I chose this as our first creative gift giving project of the season.

My son and I stopped by our local Dollar Tree yesterday and found several items with which to work.  I love the Dollar Tree for crafting supplies!

 

We found candles, candle holders and lots of little doo-dads to use for decorating our gifts.  The first project is a candle decorated with shiny golden colored thumbtacks.

All that was needed for this project was a rubber band, candle and thumbtacks.  I simply placed the rubber band around the base of the candle to use as a guide.

Next, the thumbtacks were inserted into the candle, between the rubber band and the bottom.  The tacks overlap slightly, creating a nice little pattern.  Once all of the tacks were "inserted", the rubber band came off.  The final step was to rub a little bit of oil on the tack heads to give a little extra shine. I love shiny things!  Especially so when they include a happy fragrance, like vanilla.  (happy sigh)  Pure bliss!