“Scratch up” a Votive Holder for a Christmas Folk Art Gift!

Ann M
by Ann M
4 Materials
20 Minutes
Easy
I started putting out my Christmas decorations early this year and came across a whole box of metallic votive holders from many years ago for a party I gave. I had a lightbulb moment and wanted to give the idea a try!
These are the votive holders I used. I think clear ones would work just as well. I picked 3 because I wanted to use the word JOY and planned on using one letter per votive.
Votives used
I used Country Chic chalk paint in Vanilla Frosting. It’s the best chalk paint! It paints like spreading ”budda”!! So after washing and drying the votives well I covered my stand up paper towel holder with a paper towel and placed the turned upside down votive holder over it to paint.
Ready to paint
I put on one coat on each votive and decided to do a second. It probably wasn’t necessary. It covered really well. So I gathered the 3 dried white chalked painted votive holders and...........A CORN PICK!!
Ready for scratching!
My idea was to make the letters look like they were made from sticks, kind of folk artsy! So I scratched the paint off with a corn pick! A needle would be too thin and a toothpick isn’t sharp enough. The cornpick worked perfect and it has a handle!
This is why you use chalk paint. Chalk paint allows you to scratch it off on glass. If you used acrylic paint it would peel off which is not the look I wanted.
Scratch!
Continie scratching the letters on using thin lines to make the “sticks” of the letters.
After they were finished I noticed that the rims had dried with paint that had puddled and dried. I wasn’t happy! So out came the alcohol and the qtips!
Rubbing alcohol will remove dried paint. Sometimes on old paint it takes a little elbow grease but it will eventually take it off.
To clean the rim, dip the cotton part in the alcohol to saturate but then squeeze it out. You don’t want it running down the side as it will remove a straight line of paint!
First go around the whole rim wetting it with the alcohol then using the firm swab go around again. The paint will come off easily.
Using an alcohol swab to remove excess paint
So here they are all finished and looking like a piece of folk art!
Dont they resemble letters made of sticks?! The O looks like a grapevine wreath!
Almost complete
Now they need the final step. Flameless tea lights. Look so pretty at night.
I better get busy! I have gifts to make. Let’s see, I can make a set with “MERRY” and “NOEL” and ”STAR” and.....
Pretty lit up!
Suggested materials:
  • Glass Votive candle holders   (Had them)
  • Chalk paint white and brush   (Had it)
  • Corn pick. Tehe. 😉   (Had it)
See all materials
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