Even though, Halloween is not widely celebrated in Switzerland, I have decided to have a festive Halloween Party complete with decorations!! Because the availability of Halloween trimmings is very limited here, it has been necessary for me to come up with a few of my own decorations. Here is what I created to adorn my front door as an ominous indicator of what may be lurking inside!
The Halloween Tentacles are very simple to make!
What do you need? Air Drying Clay – Rayher & Crayola make clay that is perfect. It is nice and light and it comes in many colors! Large Paper Clips Wire – I used 22 gauge. Floral wire will work perfectly! Wire Cutter Paint or Tape – If you wish to embellish your terrifying tentacles! I find electrical tape is wonderful to use here because it can be stretched a bit to fit tightly around the tentacle!
Recently on Pinterest, I found a picture of some adorable Halloween candle sculptures! The sculptures were fabulous, but I was disappointed by the fact that they could not be used as candles! For Halloween there is nothing better than the ominous glow of candle light! Lots of candle light!!
The wonderful thing about Pinterest is the inspiration it provides and that’s exactly what happened! Seeing the adorable Halloween candle sculptures on Pinterest inspired me to create my own Halloween candles!
This post is about molding candles into eerie faces, with eyes that ooze out of their sockets as the candles melt!
Now that’s a Halloween candle!
Spooky Halloween Candle
First things first – What kind of candles?
After much trial and error, I discovered that the candles with a rough texture on the surface work the best. Why? The wax is consistent throughout the entire candle.
In the picture below, you can see the two rough candles to the right and the smooth candle on the left. Do not use the candles with the smooth outer layer. The wax beneath this smooth layer is different and crumbles as you sculpt.
Also, as much as I hate to say it, beeswax candles are very difficult to use for this project. The wax is just too hard. Save those candles for all the other holidays!
Spooky Halloween Candle
On to the eyeballs! I used FIMO clay. I formed different sized and shaped eyeballs, baked them for the appropriate length of time and viola – eyeballs!
Clay for Halloween Candle Eyes
Some of the eyes I painted ahead of time and others I painted later, after inserting them into the candle! It’s totally up to you!
Halloween Candle Eyes
Softening the candle!
I found the best way to do this was to put the candle in the sun and create a greenhouse effect by covering the candle with glass. The candle will become warm and soft enough to be molded into a face.
When working with wax you must always be careful because it is flammable and can be dangerous! I found the candles, when heated this way, became quite warm and did begin to melt so you must watch them because you do not want a puddle!
Bottom line – always be careful with wax!
Spooky Halloween Candle
Now on to the molding of the face!
Once the candle is soft, push in a couple of eyeballs and start molding. I have wooden carving tools shown below that I use, but it’s not necessary. Kitchen utensils will work too!
Spooky Halloween Candle
Using your hands and tools, mold a face onto the candle. Along with eyebrows, nose and mouth, I like to add lots of wrinkles!
Here is a short video showing the molding and painting process!
One more thing, while the candle is still soft, press the bottom flat against your working surface to be sure the candle stands straight. We don’t want any tippy candles!
Spooky Halloween Candle
On to the painting!
As you can see in the above picture, it is difficult to see all the features of the candles face. By adding color in the right places on the wrinkles, nose, eyes… all those features will pop!
Below you can see that I covered the candle with paint to fill in all the wrinkles and features I added in the molding process. Once I have all the crevices filled, I removed most of the paint with paper towels. That way all that is left are the accents in all the right places!
Spooky Halloween Candle
To lengthen the drying time of your paint, which will make it easier to remove the excess paint from your candle, I mixed in an acrylic medium. You will find it right along side the acrylic paint and it is translucent white. This is useful stuff to always have on hand!
A few finishing touches around the eyes and the candle is ready for Halloween!
Spooky Halloween Candle
What a fun way to create the ominous glow of candle light for Halloween this year!
I am so glad to be back working on my blog! Life has been crazy with this and that, but now I am back!
As I am currently living in Switzerland, it is difficult to find affordable home products so my go-to retailer is IKEA. One of the really great things about IKEA is not just their fun and inexpensive products, but what you can create with them. There is even a website called IKEA Hackers which contains a vast collection of IKEA products that have been transformed into something else! The IKEA “hack” I am showing here, doesn’t really change its original use, but it vastly improves it!
IKEA Clock Hack
The IKEA Rusch Wall Clock seen below can be purchased for less than $2! I know – even Switzerland’s price is 1.99 franc! Crazy! The problem with this clock is number 1 – the color is boring and number 2 – it is incredibly loud! I’ve read posts from people asking how to quiet it and I have a solution!
IKEA Wall Clock Hack
First how to quiet the Rusch IKEA Clock – Remove the cover using a flat head screw driver.
If you look carefully, you can see where the cover fits into the clock base. A little pressure in the right places and it will pop off easily.
Now – simply remove the second hand.
That’s it!
The second hand is creating most of the noise and the clock will work perfectly without it!
How easy was that?
IKEA Wall Clock Hack
Now – on to that boring color!
It’s so simple! Paint the back side of the clock and because the plastic is translucent, the color will show through and look flawless!
For my clock, I used an inexpensive acrylic paint. I brushed on two coats to the back side of the clock, letting the paint dry between applications. When the second coat was finished, my paint job did not look great. The problem was that light was shining through the clock showing all the imperfections. Once I hung the clock against the wall, where there was no light behind it, it looked perfect!
IKEA Clock Hack
Because my family is spread across the world, I need multiple clocks for all the different time zones!
How to paint and quiet a Rusch IKEA Wall Clock!
I hung my IKEA clock with two different clocks, but it would be really cute and inexpensive to do a wall of Rusch IKEA Wall Clocks in many different colors.
