As I write this blog post I am enjoying the bright spring sunshine and warmer temperatures of the UK. Wherever I am I always look forward to seeing new growth in the gardens and an increase in seasonal fruits and vegetables in the stores. One of my favourite fruits is the strawberry, although oddly not really in jams, pies or other cooked foods. No, for me nothing beats the smell and taste of fresh strawberries, eaten straight from the plant. So what better way to celebrate them than with a strawberry themed decorative candle.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS

I began my project as you might expect, by creating a pile of strawberry leaves and fruit using the Sweet Strawberry Stamp Set.

For the berries themselves I started by stamping the berry outline onto Thick Whisper White Card using Poppy Parade ink. Then to colour them in I used the solid stamp from the set. However, after inking up the stamp with Poppy Parade ink I ‘stamped off’ onto scrap paper. This removed a little of the ink so that when I then stamped inside the outline the colour matched but was a little lighter. Lining up the images was a really simple process as the stamps are made of see-through photopolymer.

TIP – When stamping batches of images to punch I generally stamp them along a strip of card. This makes lining up and punching the images easier.

After creating five berries I was ready to stamp the leaves for my project.

For this I took the outline of the single leaf and stamped that onto Thick Whisper White Card eleven times using Old Olive ink. As before I took the coordinating solid stamp and stamped off the Old Olive ink before stamping into each leaf.

Next I realised I would need stalks for the strawberries, so I stamped and coloured five of these in Old Olive ink using the stamp stamping off technique.

Finally I decided that I wanted to include some strawberry flowers and went back to the Poppy Parade ink pad for this. I stamped the smaller flower outline from the set, and added colour to the inside using the stamping off technique once again. After completing ten flowers on Thick Whisper White Card I was ready to start putting my project together.

CANDLE COLLAR

Rather than sticking the strawberry fruits, flowers and leaves directly onto the candle I wanted to create a removable collar. For this I chose a pretty black polka dot on a white background from the True Love 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack. I cut a 2-1/8″ x 9″ strip of the DSP and simply wrapped it around the candle. Then using Tear & Tape Adhesive I fixed the end of the strip to the DSP so the collar could slide off the candle.

The stamped pieces wouldn’t cover every inch of the DSP so I also wrapped some gold 3/8″ Fine Art Ribbon it and secured that in place with Tear & Tape Adhesive.

Finally I was ready to punch the stamped pieces using the coordinating Strawberry Builder Punch. After punching out all the pieces I began by tucking the stalks of the leaves behind the ribbon and holding them in place with Mini Glue Dots.

Next, using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow), I attached the berry stalks to each of the five strawberries. Then the assembled strawberries were added to the candle collar with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Finally I filled in the gaps with the small flowers, attaching some with Mini Glue Dots and some with Stampin’ Dimensionals. Once all the flowers were attached my sweet spring candle was complete.

I used a simple white pillar candle as that’s all I had available, but imagine it around a strawberry scented candle…

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Sweet Strawberry Stamp Set and coordinating Strawberry Builder Punch using a single ‘bundle’ item number. This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included both options below so you can explore them further if you wish.

RETIRING PRODUCTS – Although I didn’t use it today, the retiring Small Bloom Punch also coordinates with the Sweet Strawberry Stamp Set (punching out the larger flower). This punch is now available at 20% off but only while stocks last.