This candle making article teaches you techniques for decorating your candles with paint.

Painting Your Candles

The beauty with painting candles is that you can make your designs as fun, simply or complex as you wish. Be as creative as you wish and you'll probably surprise yourself with what a terrific masterpiece you will develop!

Bunnies at Easter, sandy beaches in the summer, snowflakes in winter and of course festive scenes during the Holidays.

What paint to use?

Try to always stick to using acrylic paints - these are easy to use and great for candles. You can find these at most craft stores.

You can of course also buy special candle paint at craft stores too, but these sometimes are a little more expensive.

As well as paint, you can also use hot colored wax to paint the outside of your candles. Remember though that you will need to keep the wax hot while applying it.

What brush to use?

As with most things in life...you get what you pay for. I always try to get hold of the best painting brush I can for my candle painting. This way the bristles will remain in place and firmer longer and you're less likely to find stray bristles on your finished candle. Please note though, if you're going to paint using hot wax, then I wouldn't use a good quality brush as you'll probably end up changing them every few times.

Some tips...

Some things worth remembering when you paint your candles:

• Paint the sides and not the top of the candle

• Don't use too much paint - it's not wax and therefore doesn't melt, which might affect your candles overall effect.

• Start with a clean candle - remove all dirt from the sides

• Start with a simple, clean design - don't be too detailed with your first candle. As you become more experienced you can make more advanced and complex projects.

How to Start

The first thing to remember is that painting your candles for decoration is not difficult, but it can be a lot of fun and of course the more creative you are the more rewarding will be the results.

This is also a very kid friendly activity too, and a great way to get your little ones involved in candle making.

So...choose your candle, select your paint, clear you area and begin.

1. If you plan on painting more than one design on your candle you will want to ensure that you have spaced the designs evenly around the candle. I recommend marking little dots where you want each design to be. If your designs become quite elaborate then you might even want to trace the design out first on the candle wax surface to make certain it will all fit.

2. Paint your design on the candle
Remember that painting a candle is no different from painting on any other non-porous surface. If you're painting multiple layers or colors you will need to leave each coat of paint to dry before applying the second coat.

3. After each coat has dried you can then apply your second coat, and so on and so forth.

4. When you have finished painting you should wait until the paint has fully dried before burning, at least four hours. I personally recommend waiting at least 24 hours before lighting.

So, there you have it. No go and have fun painting your candles.