Pottery Barn knock-off candles

Pottery Barn:  5 inch pillar music candle---$16, 8 inch pillar music candle---$29

Excuse me while I GASP-----WHO can afford that???  And if you could.....why would you spend $45 on 2 stinkin' candles?  (Although they are offering free shipping....)

Okay....let's get thrifty!! 

Grab some sheet music....if you don't have your own aged Sonatina album, you can go here.  This download would actually work better than mine because it is just the trumpet line and would look even more like PB.



Go to your scanner and print it out!

Now....I wanted mine to look "aged" so I decided to tea stain it.

Grab an old box of tea....at one point I was on a green tea kick because I read that it was so healthy for you....the problem is that I had to kind've gag it down because it's so gross.....so I had A LOT of green tea left for tea-staining!

Briefly soak your paper.....the second one I stained I actually dripped some drops of the tea bag on the paper (by accident, of course!) and I really liked that effect because it left darker marks....

It takes forever to dry!!!

Once your paper is dry, grab some Mod Podge.....now this is the first time I have used Mod Podge.  I had read a recipe here for homemade Mod Podge, but it just sounded a little complicated because I really don't know what varnish is......



But truly...it just smelled like glue.

Run to The Dollar Tree.....grab these flameless candles.  (Or since you all probably live CLOSE to a Walmart, run there and get an actual candle!)

Now....I realize that scrapbook paper may be a better choice for this because it is 12 x 12.  My 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper wasn't wide enough to go around my candle, so I had to trim and paste it to look like one very wide sheet of music.
                                      


Hmmm.....It just struck me that maybe I could have copied it the wide way on the scanner......why don't I think of these things in the moment????


Paint your candle with Mod Podge.

Carefully place the music paper on your candle.....I've been reading about Mod Podge and everyone keeps mentioning the wrinkles.....well, I now know what they are talking about......they just appear out of nowhere!!

I then painted a layer of Mod Podge over my candle and waited for all of it to dry.

Now, because I am just not an exact-kind-of-girl....I had some rough edges at the top and bottom of my candle....so, go grab a piece of fine grit sand paper and sand it down even with the edge of the candle.

And you have this.....

Now....I have to confess that I didn't think that the tea-staining "aged" it enough, so I added some glaze.  I just took some on an old t-shirt and wiped it.....heavier at the edges.

Not bad considering that the 2 flameless candles were $1.00 each and the tall pillar was also from The Dollar Tree at a cost of $1.00.  The sheet music was free and I had some ribbon already.  (And yes....this picture was taken before I sanded my rough edges....they look all even now!)

So.....$45.00 or $3.00????

And the cool tray they are on.......a Goodwill picture frame!!!!!  (But that's tomorrow's post!!)