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Home » DIY & Crafts » Craft Projects » Sweet as Honey: DIY Stenciled Bee Jar Candle

Sweet as Honey: DIY Stenciled Bee Jar Candle

April 27, 2017 By Amy 12 Comments

27 Apr
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Last weekend I made some stenciled bee jar candles. A honey bee stencil, black paint and several $5 jar candles from the dollar store. Pretty easy peasy for a Saturday afternoon project. I’m going to give them away as Mother’s Day gifts to a few of the special moms in my life.

How to make bee stenciled jar candles | Stowandtellu.com

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy. 

I found several of these vanilla sugar jar candles at the dollar store. Oddly enough they aren’t all the same color (and they don’t smell the same either??), but they reminded me of bees wax and honey, which made them an easy sell because I was in the market for something else to stencil some cute little bees onto.

I already had my trusty honey bee stencil which I used on a green and gray side table, not too long ago.

Since I was stenciling the pattern onto a non-flat surface this time, I had a little bit of paint bleed, but I also found a fix-it solution that worked pretty well, at least for me it did.

dollar-store-jar-candles

Removing original candle label

Not all jar candles labels are equal. As many of us know, getting a sticky label of bottles and jars can be a messy challenge.

First try to peel off the label. If sticky residue doesn’t come off try this method:

You will need:

Dawn soap, baking soda, hot water, non-abrasive scouring sponge, paper towel, glass cleaner

  • Lay a paper towel dampened with hot water over the label for a few minutes, the remove
  • Sprinkle baking soda and a few drops of Dawn soap onto a non-abrasive scouring sponge also dampened with hot water.
  • Rub label off in circular motion until it comes off completely.
  • Rinse and dry with paper towel.
  • Go over the whole jar with glass cleaner and paper towel

Make bee jar candles. Bee and honeycomb stencil | stowandtellu.com

Applying the stencil

You will need:

Bee stencil, Multi-Purpose craft paint, color: black, pouncing brush, thin craft brush, painters tape, paper towel, wooden toothpicks.

how-to-stencil-bee-jar-candle | stowandtellu

  • After removing labels and cleaning candle jars, tape stencil onto jar.

paint-bee-stencil-jar

  • Dip brush in paint, dab off most of the paint onto a paper towel.
  • Pounce over stencil with black paint. Pounce straight down. Repeat until the entire image is covered completly
  • Let paint set for 3-5 minutes
  • Remove stencil
  • Let paint dry completely (15- 30 minutes)

Note: This bee and honeycomb stencil came as one sheet. I used scissors to cut them into two separate stencils.

Tip: Making sure the stencil is flat to the jar is the trickiest part. Don’t use too much tape, just enough to span the size of the stencil. I taped across the top first, then the bottom, and the sizes, re-adjusting as I went.

bee-stencil-on-jar | stowandtellu

Cleaning up the stenciled image with a toothpick and touch up paint.

You may say, “hey this must not be too easy to do if you have to clean up the stenciled image…”

I’ll admit, I thought, “oh, this isn’t going to work”, when I first looked at the bee image after I removed then stencil.

Stenciling tips on jars | Stowandtellu.com

But I let the paint dry, and then used a toothpick to scratch off the little bits of paint that bled over. (I actually sat on the couch with the jar in my lap while I did this. It was kind of relaxing, although that’s beside the point.)

DIY honey bee candle gift idea | Stowandtellu.com

Last step done on as needed basis. I touched up a few spots with the small thin craft brush. This can also be used to darken the image for more contrast. I did some touch up on two of the three candles I made. You may notice that two of the bee images are darker than one of the other.

Honey bee honeycomb stencil jar candles | Stowandtellu.com

diy-bumble-bee-jar-candles | Stowandtellu.com

How to stencil a jar candle. Honeybee honeycomb stencil | Stowandtellu.com

All in all, though, I think they ended up looking quite similar similar to each other. Maybe, not perfect but handmade with charm:)

I have found that jar candles are pretty easy to decorate and they make for an inexpensive gift idea, as well. For other examples, you can see these Jar Jack-o-Lanterns or these Easy Pine Tree Jar Candles.

DIY jar candle and gift bag using honey bee - honey comb stencil | Stowandtellu.com

Bonus: I always like making my own gift bags. I stenciled the honey comb onto a few brown paper lunch bags just to see how they would look. This would probably be even cuter on white paper bags.

Don’t you just love the honeycomb pattern? Such a great texture, right?

DIY Stenciled honey bee dollar store jar candle craft | Stowandtellu.com

I didn’t light these candles up, because I’m giving them as gifts, but I was thinking how pretty a bunch of these would be all lit up.

Happy day ~ Amy

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Filed Under: Craft Projects, Popular Posts Tagged With: Gift Ideas, JARS, SEASONAL SPRING, Stencil

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Comments

  1. Marie says

    May 8, 2017 at 10:21 am

    This is so clever! I’ve never thought of taking the labels off of jar candles to make my own designs on them. Thank you for the wonderful idea!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      May 8, 2017 at 10:04 pm

      Thanks so much, Marie. I wasn’t sure I would be able to get the labels off, but it wasn’t too hard at all.

      Have a great week ~ Amy | Stow and Tell U

      Reply
  2. Angie @Knick of Time says

    May 9, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    These are adorable, Amy! Thanks for sharing them at Talk of the Town- you’re my feature pick for next week’s party!

    Angie @ http://www.knickoftime.net

    Reply
    • Amy says

      May 10, 2017 at 10:36 pm

      Whoop!! Thanks so much, Angie. That’s so awesome!!

      Reply
  3. JaneEllen says

    May 11, 2017 at 12:58 am

    Mind if I ask which $ store you got your candles at? Noticed you said candles were $5 so figured had to be $general or Family $? Want to make these for when I have my bee decoration time in summer. Where did you buy your stencils?
    Have several bee images printed from Graphics Fairy then framed in thrift store frames.
    Your candle jars look so cute, great job painting. Not easy on curved shape.
    Happy Mother’s Day

    Reply
    • Amy says

      May 12, 2017 at 5:36 pm

      Hi JaneEllen,

      The Graphics Fairy has amazing stuff to use for making your own art.

      And no problem, I got the candles at Dollar General and I got the Bee stencil at Hobby Lobby. I hope you have both stores nearby or something similar.

      If you can’t find the bee stencil at the store, see the (affiliate) link above that has the same stencil. Good luck and have fun with your summertime bee project!

      Amy

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Talk of the Town #72 - Knick of Time says:
    May 16, 2017 at 6:55 pm

    […] Stenciled Bee Jar Candles – Stow and Tell U  […]

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  2. Talk of the Town #72 - My Repurposed Life™ says:
    May 16, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    […] Stenciled Bee Jar Candles – Stow and Tell U […]

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  3. Talk of the Town #72 - Sadie Seasongoods says:
    May 16, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    […] Stenciled Bee Jar Candles – Stow and Tell U […]

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  4. Host Favorites | Daily Dish Magazine | Recipes | Travel | Crafts says:
    July 19, 2017 at 2:50 am

    […] Stenciled Bee Jar Candles […]

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  5. Talk of the Town #72 - My Repurposed Life® says:
    September 30, 2017 at 9:00 am

    […] Stenciled Bee Jar Candles – Stow and Tell U […]

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  6. 30 Minute Halloween Craft:Jar Candle Jack-O-Lanterns says:
    October 22, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    […] Remove the labels. Most jar candle labels are pretty easy to peel off. The slower you pull, the more lightly the label will come off in one piece.  If you have trouble removing the label, try this method. […]

    Reply

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