Peace in the Evergreens Etched Glass Votive Holder

When you light a candle in this etched glass votive holder embellished with real evergreens you’ll bring a warm holiday glow to your mantle. I found the original idea of adding evergreens to a candle holder in a Facebook post and decided to give it a try. My version features an etched glass votive with PEACE stenciled in metallic paint to soften the glow of the candle. The original post was just photos – I’ve included stepped-out instructions and some tips on what worked, and what didn’t, to make the process a bit easier for you to recreate.  

 

Materials: 

• Glass votive holder 
• etchall® Etching Cream 
• DecoArt® Dazzling Metallics® paint – Shimmering Silver 
• DecoArt® Americana® Gloss Enamels® Reusable Stick-On Stencils™ – Inspiration 
• Design Master® Tack 2000 Spray Adhesive 
• Westcott® Titanium Bonded Scissors 
• Tea light candle, or battery operated tea light candle 
• Fresh evergreens
• Foam brush, fine paint brush
• Silver ribbon 

 

Instructions: 

1. Coat outside of votive holder with etchall® etching cream. Let set 15 minutes.  
2. Use brush to return most of etching cream to the bottle. Rinse to remove remaining cream. Dry votive holder. 
3. Use stencil to paint “PEACE” with silver paint onto etched votive. Let dry. 
4. Break evergreens into small pieces.  In a well ventilated area, spray with Tack 2000 spray.   
5. Place evergreens around votive surrounding PEACE.  TIP – To help evergreens stick to the votive, I found it helpful to place a piece of parchment paper or a transparency over the evergreens and press with my hand until they stuck. Another word of advice – I thought I’d try using quick grab tacky glue to mount the evergreens – this did not work – the spray adhesive made it much easier. 
6. Trim bottoms of evergreens at base of votive.  Insert candle and watch the peaceful glow among the evergreens. TIP – the fire danger is minimal since the evergreens are on the outside of the glass votive holder, however, if you want to be even safer, use a battery operated tea light candle instead of a real candle.  
7. BUT WAIT…. THERE’S MORE….. SO NOW FOR THE CRAFT FAIL PART…… I lit my candle
   
   and set this pretty votive holder on the mantle.    When I came back half an hour later, the heat from the candle had caused the evergreens to pull away from the glass. Drat!  On to plan B – a pretty piece of silver ribbon wrapped and tied around the evergreens to hold  them in place.  You still get the effect of the evergreens, but no worries about them falling off lol! The moral of the story….. the spray adhesive still makes it easier to hold the evergreens in place while you tie the ribbon – so step 4 is still worthwhile – just add some ribbon as a back-up.