Gel Candle Designs: Celebrating Graduations

Graduation!! …Life is just beginning…… We have a very special family member graduating High School . She has been accepted to her First-Choice college so we have incorporated her college colors into her graduation candle.

Graduation Gel Candle - vop view of candle

You can also use the high school colors for the base of the candle and then use the college colors for the top half of the candle… perfect to show the transition.

We used purple stones, glitters and foils in the base of our candle, again installing our snuffing bead to insure the flame will self-extinguish at least 1″ above the bottom. We poured a thin layer of gel to seat the color base.

Our next step was again to drop our chunks of unmelted gel around the wick.

Graduation Gel Candle - frontview of candle

We sprinkled celestial purple and gold onto the chunk and poured liquid gel scented with our newest Tranquil Nights FO, which is a special Wonderful new blend of lavender and vanillas plus more.

We then added more chunks and more glitters and fuchsia diamond shapes, and did the remaining pour of liquid gel. We allowed the candle to cool slightly because we have a glass Graduate and Diploma to add and they are somewhat heavy glass embeds.

Again, having our chunks in the body of the candle will give the necessary strength to help hold our embeds in position, but we still want to wait for the gel to thicken.

Then we install our graduate and diploma, using the embed tool to position where we want. Add the top ‘Congratulation Grad’ garland on the outside of the glassware, and you have a finished candle with a great theme, while also customizing for school colors.

Article & Design by Patti Smith, Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply ~ www.biomax1.com

Gel Candle Designs: Holiday Candles & Smellie Gellies Ideas

When everyone is rushed—instead of detail instructions–a picture is worth many words… so we are giving you over 20 brand new Holiday gel candles to help you with those last minute ideas.

Smellie Gellies are created without wicks.  Some of the designs include blends of Gel and Soy – or Paraffin Wax.

Shop your discount stores, grocery stores, dollar stores – you will find a wealth of Christmas glassware at your fingertips.

Apple Crock Gel Candle Smellie Gellie – scented with Country Apple and a dash of Hot Cinnamon and colored to match the outside of the crock. Sprinkle celestial gold glitter on top with 3 50-series wicks.

Smelly Jelly Gel Candle in Apple Crock

Blue Ice Cup Gel Candle - Blue gel scented with Holiday Icicles, and glitter snowflakes on top with Light dust of celestial silver glitter.

Gel Candle Smelly Jelly Blue Ice Cup Candle

Blue Light Bulb Cup Gel Candle- Light blue gel over poured on clear chunks, sprinkled with celestial gold glitter.lots of dimension! Scented with Angel Touch.

Gel Candle Smelly Jelly Cup Candle

Gold Snow Flakes Gel Candle – A wonderful ceramic piece. Clear gel over poured clear chunks sprinkled with gold glitter and scented with Frankincense. When almost ’set’, place three Wax snowflakes on top and embed until gel just barely covers them.

Golden Snowflake Gel Candle

Green Gelled Snowman Gel Candle – Drop chunks of gel around the wick and over-pour green gel scented with Spearmint – light and refreshing!

Green Snow Men Gel Candle

Christmas Tree Glassware Gel Candle – Pour thin layer of semi-cooled green gel on top of layer of green foil tree glitters to decorate bottom. Allow to set and then pour more green gel on top.(this protects the little trees from curling)… Scented with most popular – Christmas Balsam.

Green Tree glassware Gel Candle

Small Christmas Votives Gel Candles - Perfect for those small remembrances. Green Gel scented with Juniper Breeze.

Green Votive Gel Candles

Wire Candle Holders Gel Candles - There are many wire candle holders that are just beautiful. Poured with green gel scented with Gardenia.

Green with White Wire Holder Gel Candle

Holly Cup Gel Candles - Tea cups make dainty and excellent candleholders. Red gel scented with HoneyDew Melon Blossom.

Holly Cup Gel Candles

Holly Glass Gel Candles - Watch for red and green stemware trimmed in gold.. Excellent Show pieces. Over-poured clear chunks of gel with green liquid gel, scented with Holly Berry.

Holly Glass Gel Candles

Log Cabin Scene Gel Candles – Etched painted scene on glassware. Fill bottom with soy wax, up to ’snow’ line. All to set. Arrange chunks of unmelted gel on the soy foundation and pour semi-cooled Blue gel. Scented with Winter Memories.

Log Cabin Glass Gel Candles

Puppy Dog Gel Candles - For all the dog lovers.. animal themes are always big sellers. Filled with pink gel to coordinate. Scented with Tranquility.

Puppy Dog Glassware Gel Candles

Red/White Gel Soy Candles - These color combinations are always great for Christmas and Valentines Day. Base is white Soy Wax, allowed to complete set. Then add chunks of un-melted gel around the wick and pour Christmas red gel. When Cool, sprinkle soy wax flakes on top to resemble snow flakes. Scented with Strawberry Shortcake.

Red Gel & White Soy Candles

Santa Sleigh Gel Candles – Shaped-Glassware is winner from the start. Fill glass sleigh with Christmas red gel. We placed a little glass Santa in front as an eye-catcher. Sell him along with the candle as accessory piece. Scented with Poinsettia.

Santa's Sleigh Gel Candles

Snow Cap Wine Glass Gel & Soy Candles - Decorative stemware are top sellers! We poured white soy wax for the base, allow to set completely. Add chunks of un-melted gel to insulate. Then pour Semi-cooled blue gel. When set, top off with final pour of soy wax or paraffin, for the snow topper. Scented with Divinity.

Snow Cap on Gel Candle in Wine Glass

SnowMan Cup (Smellie Gellie) No Wick Gel - Darling little ceramic snow cups. simply poured with blue gel and sprinkled with celestial blue glitter and snowflakes. Scented with HerbEssence. (No wick)

Smelly Gelly (No-Wick Gel) in Snowman Cup

Toy Snowman Globe (Smellie Gellie) No Wick Gel – Fully decorated and glazed in iridescence.. Who could resist this guy? Fill his belly with red gel, scented with Candy Cane. (No wick)

Snowman Filled with Red Gel Wickless Smelly Gelly

Blue Snowman Globe (Smellie Gellie) No Wick Gel - A continuously popular piece.. just fill body section with blue Gel.Scented with Nag Champa. (no wick)

Snowman Globe filled with Blue Gel - Smelly Jelly

SnowMan Jar Mug - These pieces are readily available with many painted designs. Fill with coordinating-color gel and favorite Holiday fragrances. Over-pouring chunks of gel, sprinkled with glitters. adds the 3-D sparkle.

Snow Mug Red Gel Candle

Blue Snow Scene Stemware Gel Candle with Soy Base- Another version without wax topper. Pouring soy or paraffin for snow base. Allow to set, then add chunks of gel and overpour blue. Scented with Blueberry Muffin.

Blue Gel Candle in Snowman Wine Glass with Wax or Soy Base

Twin Paraffin with Gel Chunks Votives – Easy and eye-catchers. Place cut-up/colored/scented gel pieces into glassware, going ‘around’ the wick, and overpour white scented paraffin or soy wax. Add couple of gel pieces to top and sprinkle with glitters for the festive sparkle. Scented with Pomegranate.

Votive Gel and Soy with Glitter Candles

Article & Design by Patti Smith, Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply ~ www.biomax1.com

Gel Candle Designs: Designing Candles with Gel Cubes

Folks don’t think about gel cubes in their gel candles. Folks don’t realize the power they hold.

Gel Cubes in Gel Candles

Gel cubes are wonderful, squishy goodies that make life easier! Gel cubes are simple to make. I always leave mine unscented (we’ll get to that in a minute).

First, pre-warm your oven on Low, then turn off. For the gel, all you need to do is ladle directly from your Presto Pot into a cookie sheet (with sides, of course!). I use MP Penreco gel in an clean, nonstick cookie sheet. Just keep adding liquid gel until the cookie sheet is full. Then carefully place in your oven for de-bubbling. Remove when gel has cooled. You can make your chunks with colored or uncolored gel.

I use a sharp knife to cut the cubes – you get a cleaner cut by not using scissors. Simply peel the sheet of gel out of the cookie sheet and cut with a knife into long strips. Then start cutting into cubes. The smaller the cubes, the easier they are to work with when creating your candle. I cut mine about 1/4″ diameter square. But be sure to cut some larger ones too. A few varying sizes will come in handy.

I spend several afternoons merely building up my cube “inventory”. You can peel out the sheets of gel and lay upon a sheet of freezer paper (yep, they stack!). While you watch TV at night, just bring out your gel sheets and start cutting cubes… you’ll be surprised at how much you can get done! Store the gel cubes in zipper seal bags. Be sure to keep all colors separate. This way, once you’re ready to start gellin’, all you have to do is pull out a bag of precut cubes. Easy, peasy!

I’ve found that when burning a gel candle using unscented cubes, the scent throw is not compromised. By having your inventory of unscented cubes, you can immediately begin crafting and not have to worry about scent. The scent is in the over-pour

What can you make with gel cubes? Just about every gel you create can be made easier by using gel cubes. There’s only one important thing to remember: when over-pouring, pour HOT.

When making a seascape, position the embeds *exactly* where you want them by keeping in place with gel cubes. Simply wick the container, add a bed of sand, and a few gel cubes. Then start placing your sea creatures. Surround all the embeds with clear gel cubes. You can continue building the seascape all the way to the top simply by “suspending” your embeds in between the gel cubes. Then, over-pour with hot, scented gel.

You can also add some larger gel cubes before pouring the sand into your container – they provide bumps in the sand to give an uneven, more realistic ocean floor. This technique can be used with any gel creation containing embeds – not just seascapes.

If the above technique doesn’t suit your fancy, there’s another way to “suspend” embeds with gel cubes. Sacrifice a Pyrex lasagna dish to your gellin’ addiction <grin>. Fill the pan halfway with clear, unscented gel and let cool for 8-11 minutes. Then take your embeds and squish into the gel about halfway. Let cool. Once cool, over-pour with hot gel to the top of the pan. Again, let cool.

Now, what do you have? If you take a knife and cut a wide area around your embed, it’s suspended inside of a gel cube! This is a very, very easy way to “suspend” an embed. If you like to use a wire to hold your embed in place but the embed doesn’t have a little hook, then just run the wire through the gel cube that holds the embed inside.

You can also make Mosaic gels, or chunk gel candles by using multiple colors. Simply put some complimentary colors together in a bowl and toss like a salad. Always be sure to use CLEAR gel cubes with the colored mixture – it helps to separate the colors once inside the candle. Pour the mixed cubes into your wicked container and overpour with hot, scented gel. Voila…a Mosaic gel! Again, easy to make.

When tossing & mixing your gel cubes, don’t forget GLITTER! Glitter is another powerful tool when working with gel. Sprinkle a few pinches into your mixture and look at the extra shimmer & twinkle your candle will have! Be sure to always have on hand the good, basic glitter colors of silver, gold, and diamond dust. These can be used with just about any color of gel.

Gel cubes can be layered for a rainbow candle. To prevent colors from bleeding onto one another during the over-pour just work with one layer at a time. Put in the gel cubes and overpour to the top, then add more cubes, then overpour. Ever wonder how to make those “Jello” creations? Gel cubes! Just toss some cubes into a wicked dish and gently over-pour.

Gel cubes work well with wax embeds. Not only will they hold your embed in place, they also help to cushion the wax against the hot gel, which prevents bleeding or melting. Use gel cubes when making fruit preserve candles. Add wax fruits around the perimeter of the container while filling the center with gel cubes. This will make your wax embed supply last longer! Use clear or colored cubes to position fruit slices in your pie candles, then over-pour with scented gel. There are many, many uses for gel cubes. I’ve only touched the surface, but I hope it sparks your imagination and creativity to come up with ideas of how to make gellin’ easier!

by Amy Pascoe of RusticEscentuals.com

Gel Candles Designs: Gel Candles in Fluted Glassware

Rainbow Gel Candles in Fluted Glassware

Ask some men, and they’ll tell you they don’t understand what a woman means when she says the word “romance” … hence, the reason why so many grooms seem to “leave the wedding” up to the bride!

To try to explain it doesn’t seem to work if you should ever attempt to try … I guess it’s just one of those things that is sometimes best communicated with non-verbal entities … and that’s how my wedding gel candles I’m about to share with you about came to be, as I think the “hidden message” in these candles has to do with romance.

Two champagne flutes with a rainbow between them … one of the candles with red, orange, yellow; the other with green, blue/indigo, and violet.

The full spectrum when stood together … separate in their own right, yet complete with the company of the other.

Maybe some guys could even get this message!

These candles are created at a diagonal to sort of fit into the theme of a curved rainbow and were created by pouring each layer and allowing it to set firmly before the next layer was poured.

The instruction for these candles is a bit self-evident, especially for experienced candlemakers; so, I’d like to take this opportunity to simply touch on a minor design technique that makes a big difference in a subtle, but elegant way when working with stemware. This may be nothing new to many of you, but for crafters just getting into stemware gel candles, this may serve as a useful lesson.

Have you ever noticed that when most people hold stemware, that they will often times gaze UP into the candle? It must have something to do with the stem, such as when toasting and raising a glass. With this vantage point in mind, if your wick tab was placed directly in the bottom of the glass, without any concealment, the admirer of this candle will first see a metal wick tab. This is why I strongly suggest to do something to conceal it.

I like to use craft glitter, or, glass beads can also work for this. Some finer grade glitters may work, but sometimes they are too light and the glitter doesn’t seem to sink to the bottom properly the
way heavier craft glitter does, which is what we want in this particular application. This is one of the reasons why I select a medium grade or craft glitter for this concealing method, as it really does
conceal the wick tab very well.

Since the glitter lies at the very bottom of the glass with this method, under and away from the wick, you don’t have to worry about any “wick-clogging” effects from the glitter usage. In other words, you can use as much as you feel is necessary to adequately “hide” your wick tab.

Here’s how to do it … pour a bit of glitter into the bottom of the glass. Then, pour a bit of gel (either clear, or the color of the gel you are going to be pouring for the bottom layer) … this should be a very small amount of hot gel. Then, place your wick tab (already wicked) into the bottom of the glass and press on all sides of it with a metal pick to press it in and secure it. The glitter should remain trapped between the bottom of the bottom of the wick tab and the glass. (See close-up photo of bottom
of the glass.)

Gel Candles in Fluted Glassware

This little “finishing” touch that is performed at the beginning of creating the candle, gets your elegant stemware candle off to a grand start, with attention to detail at the top of your list and fine details at the bottom of the glass. If it’s true that elegance should be kept simple, then this simple technique should do the trick!

May you raise your stemware gel candles with pride!

By Kathy Heindel, Design Artist of Hotscents

http://www.hotscentsusa.com

Gel Candle Designs: Hearts & Roses Candles

Our featured gel candle is simple yet stunning. We selected a square piece of glassware with a slight greenish tint.

Hearts and Roses Gel Candles

We seated using our wick by dipping the wick tab into liquid gel and using our BET (BioMax Embedding Tool) to seal the tab tight against the glass bottom.
This is the time to snip your wick above the glass top so that the wick is not extra tall and unwieldy. The zinc-core wick will stand upright on its own, to be later slightly tugged, straightened and a final trimming for that professional look.

We start the candle with about ½” of red sand. Remember to load your glass bead onto the wick above the sand level so that the flame will automatically be snuffed out.. if the owner forgets this important safety issue. Next we sprinkled some foil hearts and glitter to give the flat red sand surface some excitement.

We then poured about ½” of gel to seal the sand and give us a base to embed the bottom point of our gold heart. Allow the base gel to slightly set. Then place your glass embed heart and rose into position in front of the wick.close to the glass surface for good visibility.

Next we added a few chunks of un-melted gel and give a slight sprinkling of celestial gold glitter. This metallic glitter is a specialty glitter which produces many reflected colors as it glistens. Now we are ready to continue pouring our liquid gel to fill the glassware. We used our Romance FO just because it is so perfect for this candle.

Our finishing touch is embedding the foil I LOVE YOU and to bring a couple other foil pieces to the surface front. There you have it . a beautiful red and gold theme candle. We predict this glass embed to be very popular for Mother’s Day also.

Article & Design by Patti Smith, Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply ~ www.biomax1.com