Monday, November 12, 2012

Cinnamon Stick Candle


When I saw this festive cinnamon stick candle DIY on Pinterest, I knew I had to make one. This beautiful display is by Beth at Home Stories A to Z


There are a few different tutorials out there in the world of Pinterest. Some have you hot glue the sticks to the candle, but this one uses a rubber band to secure them all, and then covers it with twine.

I thought this was easier, and plus, then you could always re-use the candle AND the cinnamon sticks.

I asked the world of Facebook where I could get a bunch of cheap cinnamon sticks, because the little bottle in the spice section of the grocery store is anywhere from $4 to $8! No thank you.

Dollar Store, people. Dollar Store!! I should have known.  I also live near a Mexican supermarket that has them pretty cheap, but the 99 Cent Store ones seemed to be more uniform in size.
So I bought up a bunch of those, found a short stubby candle to use, 'borrowed' a rubber band from my desk at work, and got crafting!

Oh, and after refusing to spend like over $10 at several stores I checked, even Walmart, for a candle like this, I found a huge supply of all sizes at Ross and TJ Maxx for around $3.99 each. Love that.

See Beth's Full Tutorial here, for all the details, but basically, you place the rubber band halfway up the candle, and begin tucking each cinnamon stick into it.  
The other problem I ran into, was if you have an especially fat stick next to a thinner stick, the thinner stick falls right out of the rubber band! I had to play with it a bit to get them all to stay in place.
I suppose the hot glue method was on to something in this sense.

Anyway, this really took no time at all to get all the cinnamon sticks into place, and then I cut a piece of burlap, and a piece of burgundy ribbon, to wrap around the candle, covering up the rubber band.
(I added the ribbon because the burlap is translucent, and you could see the rubber band through it.)
The twine pictured above and in the full tutorial would also look great.
I am just am on an extreme burlap kick right now.

Check out my adorable finished candle below!
So festive!

The question most asked on Pinterest, was if it had a wonderful cinnamon-y smell as the sticks warmed up from the burning candle.
Don't go into it expecting a strong cinnamon-apple-cider-boiling-away-in-your-kitchen scent right away, but yes, it does definitely smell of cinnamon!

I love this DIY!
So there.