Make a Liberty Print Candle and Gift Box With Sania Pell
With Mothering Sunday just around the corner on the 10th March, we’ve teamed up with renowned interiors blogger Sania Pell to create a beautiful home-made gift which will make any mum’s day. Sania has designed a simple Liberty print candle and handmade gift box – follow our step-by-step guide below to create your own.
Sania Pell is a professional interior stylist and author, working for magazines such as Elle Decoration and numerous brands. She is the author of two interior craft books, best-seller The Homemade Home and her follow-up The Homemade Home for Children which launched at Liberty last April. She lives in West London with her husband and two children. Visit her blog for cool, graphic ideas for things to make and do.
Liberty Print Candle and Gift Box
This is a really simple idea to turn a plain candle into something unique and special. One of these patterned treats, wrapped in tissue in a beautifully decorated box, makes the perfect Mother’s day gift. Choose a beautiful Liberty print in your mother’s favourite colours to make a gift she will love and display with pride.
YOU WILL NEED…
For the candle:
Glass candle
Liberty print fabric
Double-sided tape
Fabric scissors
Pencil
Ruler
Ribbon
For the gift box:
Plain cardboard box
Emulsion paint
Small flat brush about 3cms wide
Ribbon
Scissors
Swing tag
Fabric
Bondaweb
Iron
Needle and thread
To make the candle:
1. Measure the height of the candle and cut your fabric at least 3cm shorter than this height to give at least a 1.5cm gap at the top of the glass and the bottom. To measure the circumference, wind some thread around the candle adding a 1cm overlap for the cross-over at the back, then stretch it out and use it as your guide for your length. Draw this long rectangle lightly, but visibly in pencil onto the reverse of the fabric and cut out carefully.
2. Stick double-sided tape along both short edges on the wrong side of the fabric. Stick the first side straight to the glass, then wrap the fabric around the glass and stick the other side down with an overlap of fabric, ensuring your fabric is straight and taut and that there is at least a 1.5 cms gap at the top. Snip any stray threads off.
3. Cut a ribbon to the correct length and wrap it around the middle, tying with a bow, or wrap a strip around the bottom of the candle using double-sided tape at both ends of the ribbon to fix.
To make the packaging:
1. Paint the box with emulsion paint in one of your mother’s favourite colours, outside and inside until covered. This could take two coats.
2. Add some detail to a tag using a piece of Liberty wrapping paper fixed to the bottom with double-sided tape and write or stamp on your mother’s name or initials.
3. To make the fabric leaves, iron bondaweb onto the reverse of some Liberty fabric then iron a plain fabric to the other side. Cut out a leaf shape either by hand or by pinning a real leaf onto the fabric using it as a template to cut around. Stitch these fabric leaves to either end of the ribbon you will tie around the box.
4. Wrap your candle in complementary coloured tissue paper and place inside the box. Tie with ribbon and add your swing tag.
Inspired to make your own? We’d love to see your projects – share them with us on Facebook, twitter or Instagram with the hashbag #saniapellliberty