Decorated Candle Holder

There's not been much creating going on in my craft room, instead of I've been moving everything around and having a clear out.  For years I've stored punches in wooden drawers and the cabinet just fell apart one day last week due to too much weight, spilling punches everywhere.  I had to find a new home for the punches so I kept moving stuff around but wasn't getting anywhere.  In the end, I decided to just reorganise everything in the room.  It seemed a good idea at the time - but I didn't realise how much time and effort it was going to take!  I'm glad I did it though, I've got rid of loads of stuff, everything is better organised and now I know exactly what I have and where everything is - I'm hoping to keep it that way too! 

So I'm sharing a wooden candle holder I decorated a few weeks back.  My local craft shop, the Glitter Pot,  have started to carry a range of wooden and MDF items that can be decorated and I thought I'd have a go with a tea light holder as I do love my candles!  I'd previously bought some Authentique beautiful lacy patterned paper and I used that.  I was a tad concerned about cutting the circle out for the tea light container on the top, I really wanted a nice neat finish so I hoped a die or punch would work.  I found that the SU! 1 3/4" circle punch was exactly the right size - it's perfect!  For the top piece I cut a square of paper larger than I needed, punched the circle out, glued the paper to the top, turned the holder upside down on on my cutting mat and trimmed off the excess paper with a craft knife.  The sides and bottom were easily covered with pieces of paper cut to size and glued on.  I've decorated the holder with die cut ribbon, a bow, flowers and rhinestones.

Here's a view from a different angle so you can see how I decorated the sides.  I wanted this to be durable so after covering the holder with the patterned paper I applied clear gloss varnish.  I then covered the ribbon, bow and flowers with the varnish too so they have a lovely glossy shine! 

Supplies:
Patterned paper:  Authentique Classique Collection 'Elegant Three' & 'Elegant Nine' Two-Sided Papers
Tools: Creative Expressions Finishing Touches 'Classic 3D Bow' die set, Sizzix 'Bunch of Flowers' Framelits die set, SU! 1 3/4" circle punch
Embellishments & accessories: wooden candle holder, clear gloss varnish, SU! rhinestone jewels