Easy votive-candle favors

Next weekend I will be enjoying a mini-vacation with some girlfriends and family at a crafting retreat. I organized all the retreat details, and I wanted to give each of the guests a little favor as a thank-you for coming. (So if you're going on the retreat and want to be surprised, stop reading!) I had a lot of different ideas, and I wanted it to be something at least partly homemade. But I was running seriously low on time and energy, so it couldn't be anything too involved. I decided to simply decorate filled glass votive holders.

Supplies:
Paper: Pink Flamingo Designer Series Paper (DSP) and Welcome Neighbor DSP pad (Stampin' Up!^®)
Accessories: Ivory filled glass votive holders, small and medium Tropical Iridescent Blossoms and Leaves (Creative Impressions), bright crystal brads (Making Memories), 3/16" Neutrals brads (Stampin' Up!), Glue Dots
Packaging supplies: 4" x 6" mini clear bags (Celebrate It), turquoise grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!), large tag punch (Stampin' Up!), mini clothespins

The weather has been cool and rainy here for the past couple of weeks, so I thought some bright tropical colors would be fun for these candle holders. I wrapped a 1/2" wide strip of DSP around each candle and used two Glue Dots to secure one end of the strip over the other. The DSP is only attached to the glass with a tiny bit of adhesive, so it can be removed if the recipient wants to reuse the holder. I layered a medium and small flower and a leaf on a crystal brad and used two more Glue Dots to adhere the embellishment over the "seam" in the DSP strip. (The iridescent, color-changing quality of the flowers is really fun in person, but it's hard to capture in a picture.) And that's pretty much it!

These would be fun as-is to put at a place setting of a wedding or baby shower or maybe even a brunch or tea party. Since I will be traveling with them, I wanted to package the candle holders to keep them a little safer. I placed each holder in a plastic bag and tied the bag closed with a piece of ribbon. I punched tags out of the same DSP patterns I used for the strips and added a message and one small flower with a Very Vanilla brad to each tag. I used a mini clothespin to attach a tag to the ribbon on each bag.


This was an easy project that was easily finished in one afternoon. It's great to get something started and finished so quickly! Thanks for stopping by!