Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday for a couple of reasons:
- Candy
- Costumes
- It means fall is really here
- It kicks off the holiday season
Every year I try to add a few more decorations to the apartment. Pro tip: buy decorations on sale the day after Halloween the previous year. I forgot to do this last year, so I figured I would do something more craftsy. When it comes to holiday decorations, I like to have items that look good day and night – for Halloween that means various candles and candle holders. You can buy bleeding candles but it’s pretty easy to make them if you have the time. The more complicated way is to buy red candles and dip them in white wax. I chose the short cut way and I think they still turned out pretty great.
I bought white 7 inch candles for the base and dark red Christmas candles for the blood. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the red candles were only red on the outside, so my “blood” wasn’t as red as I would have liked. I stuck the white candles in a big metal bowl with some leftover blind baking grains, but you could use sand or pebbles or whatever else you have laying around. It’s also a good idea to line your work space with newspapers or a paper bag – getting wax off of surfaces is a headache. In order to create a lip for the red wax, I let the white candles burn for a few minutes, just until the tops burned away.
After that, I lit the red candle and let the wax drip over the white candles. It’s best to tip the candle so the flame is at the bottom. This allows the wax to burn faster and drip steadily.
Here are the finished candles. As you can see, the blood looks pretty diluted but I think it still looks pretty good. This technique works well on large candles too, but I had just gotten some cool wine candelabras that I wanted to show off.
I was so proud of my candles that I brought them to my friend’s Halloween party. The candles were a bit too small for my candelabra, so we used fake spider webs to secure the bottoms. To my extreme pleasure, they got a lot of compliments and I think they were the perfect spooky addition to a great party!
Happy Halloween,
D
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