{Valentine Exchange} with Annalea from Make It Give It!

It was all I could do not to post this as soon as I made it, but I wanted to wait until Annalea recieved it so that I didn't spoil the surprise. As part of Happy Hour Projects Valentine Exchange, I was paired with Annalea from Make It Give It.

In all of my excitement, I forgot to take a picture of the complete package. So I have my tutorial pictures and some pictures of semi-finished projects, but maybe Annalea will have pictures of the finished project.

The package included a homemade candle in a major jar, Valentine's magnets, a birds nest necklace and a cute jute tote as the giftbag.

I'll start with the magnet tutorial for these little guys:

All you need is a few simple things:

1. Glass tiles

2. Scrapbook paper

3. Stamps, letter stickers, or you can draw them by hand. I used stamps.

4. Mod Podge

5. Magnets

6. E6000 glue or Superglue

{Step 1} | Paper
My tiles were 7/8" square, so I cut my paper using my paper cutter to fit the tiles. Simple.

{Step 2} | Stamp
Stamp, stick, write, however you want to do it. Or don't write anything at all. It's up to you.

{Step 3} | Glue
Using Mod Podge, brush on a litte to the face of the paper and attach to the back of your tile.

{Step 4} | Attaching the magnet
Now you would think this would be easy. This step required a lot of trial and error for me. One, be sure to cover the BACK of your paper with Mod Podge before trying to attach the magnet. If you don't, the glue will bleed into the ink and make your magnet look like this (Sorry for the blurry picture):

Also, don't use hot glue, it won't stick. I made this mistake too. E6000 or Superglue work, though. Not difficult, but you have to use the right materials. Do this, and you have a set of magnets!

Now on to the candle!
(Cut off the string and you have the finished product... sorry!)

You'll need:

Parafin wax (I used about 3 boxes)
Old crayons (for color)
Candle scents
Glass jar
String for a wick
An old coffee can or double boiler
Embellishments

{Step 1} | Decorate
I used some jute ribbon, jewelry wire, and pearl beads to embellish my jar.

{Step 2} | Candle, melt the wax.

Place the coffee can inside of the pot with about an inch of water. Bring it to a boil and place the parrafin and piece of crayon inside the coffee can. You don't need a lot of crayon to get the color. A small piece will do. Add in a few drops of candle scent of your choice.

Once melted, pour into jar. Take a piece of string and dip it into the wax and then, using a stick for support, drape it into the wax.

If you want a layered look, allow the wax to completely dry before adding more. If you want the candle to be all one color, you can melt it all at once. To fill this jar, I needed about 2 and 3/4 blocks of paraffin.

To top it off, I sprinkled a little glitter on top. That's all there is to it! Be sure to visit Annalea at her blog, below!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!




Also, a big thank you to Adrianne from Happy Hour Projects for organizing this! :)