How to Decorate a Plain Candle │ 7 Tips

Candles are, more often than not, treated as decorations and presents that you can give to others. Therefore, candles are usually bought, stored in a box, and are delivered to others as is. However, you can always find ways to make it your own and personalize it. You can inject your own “style” and personality into the candle, or customize it to make it suited for the occasion. Thankfully, there are so many awesome ways on how to decorate a plain candle.

Giving personalized gifts to your friends and family will definitely always be appreciated. Compared to sending them a box of untouched and “boring” gifts, giving them something that is custom-made is more thoughtful as they could see the effort you put in. 

How to Decorate a Plain Candle

1. Doodle on your candle jar. You should start with something simple and just do it as you wish. You can put whatever you want on the glass jar as long as it suits your personality. For example, if you are a person who particularly enjoys music, you can draw some musical instruments on the jar! If you are someone who likes calligraphy, you can write a personalized message on the jar using stylized texts with swirls and patterns to make it look extra pretty.

All you need is a bunch of permanent pens and your imagination. The sky is the limit because you can do with it as you wish! If you are sending this as a holiday gift, you can draw snowmen or Christmas trees on the glass jar to make it relevant to the celebration. Sending it for a birthday celebrant? Write your birthday wishes on the candle jar or draw the things that the recipient of the gift enjoys.

2. Put photos on your candle jars. There is no better way to personalize a candle than putting a photo on the jar. These DIY candles can be done so easily but the results look like it took a lot to do so. For this customization, you would need clear, high-quality packing tape, a laser-printed photo on plain printer paper, and your candle in its jar.

The first thing you should do is to print whatever you want to put on your candle jar. This can be a quote you like, a family photo, or even a couple photo if you plan to gift it to your partner. After printing it out, pick up your high-quality, clear packing tape and place it over the photo. Ensure that you smooth it out and no air bubbles are between the photo and the packing tape. You can do this by using a credit card (or something similar) to smooth it over. Go over it multiple times to make sure that the tape has been properly adhered to. After doing so, cut the photo out and put it in a bowl of water. Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Take the photo out of the water and remove all the paper fiber out by gently rubbing the paper from the back of the photo. If you find it difficult to do so, you can dip it back on the water to soften the paper fiber once more.

Once the back of the photo looks translucent and no paper fiber is left, let the packing tape dry. If you used high-quality packing tape, it should become sticky if it dries sufficiently. When fully dried, stick it to the glass jar of your candle.

This customization takes minimal effort and no time and cost at all. However, the resulting product looks and feels more genuine and heartfelt compared to other gifts. Our soy wax candles are on plain white glass jars, so they're the perfect canvas! Check out our scents here!

3. Washi tape candles. Washi tape is fun, decorative masking tape! The interesting patterns and colors are so eye-catching that we think it would be cool to use them on your candle jars. You can washi tape pretty much anything to make it look super awesome!

To do this DIY hack, all you need is your candle jar and multiple washi tapes with different designs that complement each other. Get your candle jar and place a washi tape from one end to another. You can do this either around the candle or from top to bottom. Afterward, you can change the washi tape design and place another pattern beside the one you just laid down. You can alternate two different variations of washi tapes or you can also as many styles of washi tapes as you would like. Continue placing different designs of washi tapes until your candle jar is fully wrapped with multiple styles of washi tapes. You can never go wrong with this one as long as you pick complementary designs. We hope that the mosaic you come up with would look cool.

4. Wrap paper cutouts around your candle. You can also cut out geometric and unique patterns on a piece of paper and wrap it around your candle. You can draw triangles, diamonds, and squares to give your candle a different vibe. All you need is a pair of scissors, a piece of paper, and glue to be able to do this DIY.
5. Tie plants and herbs around your candle. If you are looking for a unique spin on your candle jars, you can do so by putting a bunch of leaves, herbs, or anything small and pretty like lavender around the glass. Make sure to arrange it nicely so that your candle looks presentable.

To do this DIY, you should hot glue your chosen plants on the surface of your glass jar. Afterward, tie it to the glass with a thin piece of rope or twine to secure it in place. This DIY will allow you to continuously change after the leaves dry out. Just remove the leaves, scrape off the remaining hot glue, and do all the steps all over again.

6. Stick on whatever’s appropriate. Another way you can personalize your candle is by gluing decorative things on your jar. With this DIY, we go 3D as opposed to the first two. It gives your candle more dimension and glamour because the candle looks and feels a lot more bedazzled. If you plan to give it as a Christmas present, you can stick holly berries and a miniature Christmas wreath on it. You can also recycle some scrabble tiles and write a name out if you plan to give it to your friend. You can put a ribbon around it and a bow on one end to give it as a birthday present.

You can quite literally do anything with this DIY! You just need to choose the perfect embellishment to adorn your candles and do with it as you like. Your creativity can take you anywhere in customizing your candle however you prefer.

7. Wrap it up in twine and rope. If you have a piece of twine that is lying around, you can use it to wrap around your candle and do whatever shape comes to mind. You can also use thin ropes and hot glue them around to the bottom of your candle jar and end up with a beautiful personalized present to give.

To do this DIY, all you need is a candle jar, a thin twine or rope, and hot glue. Pick up your candle jar and put hot glue on the surface to your desired shape or pattern. You can also write words or the name of the recipient of the candle using the glue and then use the twine to follow the pattern. You can also thicker ropes and wrap them around the bottom of the candle to give it a unique look.

Conclusion of How to Decorate a Plain Candle

We hope you enjoyed these tips on how to decorate a plain candle! Most of the DIY personalization on this blog post can be done in just twenty minutes or less. We assure you that doing these little tweaks on your Hidden Candle would mean a lot to the recipients of your gifts. Take a small amount of time off your busy schedule to make these cute customizations so that your presents feel more personal.

If you're going for a more modern look, our candles are also designed to look chic and elegant so you can also give them as a present as is and we are sure that your loved one will appreciate it anyway. Our hidden treasure candles have unique messages inside of them which are sure to be a hit! As the wax melts, their message is revealed.

If you do plan on doing any of our suggestions, be sure to take a photo and share it with us on our social media! You can reach us via our Twitter and Instagram. Don't forget to visit our website to shop our candles and spoil your friends and family!