Purple Teacup Candles and Blue Christmas Trees

So like I mentioned in the post before this one, I had this meeting with Women of Today this last weekend. 

As a part of that, I and this chick, Dawn, (totally cool peeps) give gifts to the nine people we are 'in charge" of during these meetings and events.

We wanted to give them a gift, but budget is always a bit tight and with five meetings like this one a year, it is always important to us to be thinking about the costs of the incentives and gifts we give. So I tried to find a nice gift to give to all of them that wouldn't break the bank.  

So I came up with this: tea cup candles. 

I was able to make these for about 2.00 a cup. 

(keep following on below this tutorial for a how to on how I made a blue Christmas Tree for my good peep, Dawn, for the same meeting)

First, a trip to the Goodwill was in order. I picked up a small assortment of teacups and matching saucers for the range of 30-49 cents each. I used my E6000 to glue the saucers to the cups. 

I also have here on stock candle wicks with the metal bases. 

Next was the wax. I already had some here, but for the ten I made, you would probably need about 2 pounds. I shaved off what I needed from my 5lb block. 

Wax coloring. I didn't have this on hand. I went to MICHAELS to buy it. It was about 6.00 and I used not even a third of it. If you don't want to spend the money on the coloring, I have been told color crayons will also color the wax just fine. I haven't tried it because our crayons are always being used to the last nubs and I couldn't peel them away form teh kids if I wanted to. DON'T USE FOOD COLORING... THIS WON'T WORK!!!

Melt it all together SLOWLY. 

Pour into the teacups and position and stabilize the wicks with skewers or silverware. let cool overnight.

Finally when it was all cooled, I wrapped them in cellophane and  tied a tea bag to them for effect. :)

As always, share with me if you try this and show me your results!

So once those were finished, the Blue Christmas tree for Dawn. I had these items all on hand and wanted to give her a little Christmas treat too! I LOVE Christmas decorations and thought a tree was just what she needed. Knowing she had some decorating done in her house that was blue, I thought it would be just right!

So if you havne't read it before this, I am a clearance shopper... BIG TIME! I LOVE post season sales and I picked up quite a bit of stuff at teh craft stores last year after Christmas. This is one of a few of this tree that I picked up after the Holidays. I got it marked down from 10.00 to 1.25!

The burlap HAD TO go for this project though and luckily, it was just tied on.  

I had this silver fabric that was just eh right size for it, so I used that for the base covering instead. It did have a silver front and white backing, so I doubled up the fabric so mostly silver would show. 

 Using the Blue ribbon shown, I tied the new covering on with a cute little bow then trimmed up the extra so the ribbon didn't hit the base of the tree.





 I had this really great snow flake ribbon that I am pretty sure was on a package I got last year to trim up the tree.
                                       

I had this really cute bird that I got in a basket of clearance ornaments for 5.00 (there HAD TO be at least 60 ornaments in this basket! I was a total steal!) The only problem with this bird was that she happened to be missing an eye. So I removed the other one shw was missing and did this:

I took my quilting pins (yes, I don't know how to quilt, but love the colored heads on the pins. It makes it easier to find them in projects where you pinned something together) and found two black ones. 

I stuck 'em into the bird where I could see the glue was left behind by the old eyes and then pushed them into the bird !

I wonder if this bird was kinds traumatized afterward, because after sticking pins in its head, I put a stick up its rear. (poor thing) This little guy needed a good way to perch on the branches and a pick was the best way. I used some old floral stem wire to do this. 

              See? That wasn't so bad now was it? Now the bird has a happy home atop the tree.

I next took white poinsettias, blue glitter snowflakes and silver light bulbs and placed them in the tree. 

            Finally an assortment of white foam snowballs and glittered and sequined branches went in.

 Here she is all finished up for Dawn!  I LOVE to decorate Christmas trees and will have a few to show you in the up coming season! Have a favorite tree of your own? Take a photo and share!