Ombre DIY Candle Holders

This month’s Michael’s Makers challenge was to come up with a fun handmade gift idea perfect for Mother’s day. I love how these pink ombre DIY candle holders turned out, and they really would make a great mother’s day present. And if you’re looking for more ideas, you can check out these projects or see the other ideas and tutorials that the other Michael’s Makers shared.

I love this project because it’s simple, and you only really need two things to make it: a glass votive and some polymer clay. You can find a lot of different simple glass candle holders at Michael’s that are just begging for a makeover. And it’s hard to say exactly, but I used about one little package of pink polymer clay and one of white. There are a few different great brands of clay to choose from, but for this project I really loved using Sculpey clay: It is a little softer than some of the other brands and easier to work with.

What you do:

1. Make sure you have a clear working surface. The clay will pick up any and all little dust, hairs, etc. Preheat your oven (check your clay for baking time and temperature).

2. Start by making different balls of clay in ombre colors. One ball should be pure white, and one ball should be pure pink. Then mix together pink and white to make a few in between shades. I think I ended out using a total of four different shades for this project.

3. Now start rolling each ball into little snakes. I tried to make them pretty even, but there was definitely a little bit of variation which I think is beautiful. I also had a round pencil nearby and I used that as my goal for how thick each little cylinder should be.

4. You will probably need more clay than you first think. If you run out at the end, you can always just add more white to the top.

5. Merge the ends of each color clay together. Smooth the edges with your finger. You can actually see a little crease where two of my colors meet above.

6. Start at the bottom of your glass votive. Wrap the clay gently around and keep coiling it until you reach the top layer. Cut the end of the cylinder and smooth the edges near the top.

7. Now bake the entire thing, glass and all. The baking temperatures for polymer clay are quite low, and glass can easily handle the heat without breaking.

8. When you’re done you can add a coat of glaze if you want, but I choose to leave my DIY candle holders plain.

These DIY candle holders would also be beautiful in different colors. I especially would love to make a blue one.

Check out the other projects this month by the Michael’s Makers: