diy: repurposed candle holder

today i have a little crafty project to share with you.  you may even of seen this before...it's nothing new really.  i just thought i'd share my version.

i am a little bit obsessed lately w/ the bath & body works candles.  twice at the end of last year when they were having their 2 for $20 sale i stocked up. if you could look in my closet you'd see them nestled on a little shelf between shoes ;-)

so what do you do with the left over glass once you've burned the candle?
do you throw it away?  maybe just wash it out and stick it in a corner and throw all your hair bands and clips into it?

i decided i wanted to to make mine a beautiful and functional piece for my room.  i'd recently seen this video my missglamorazzi on youtube and thought what a fun way to transform this used candle!

i first decided that i was going to use this first try to replace my poor pen/pencil/marker/misc holder that i use for scrapbooking.  as you can see it definitely was no longer getting the job done!..ha!

i didn't really like the idea of freezing the candle as missglamorazzi had done in her videos.  so i went to my mom for advice as i knew she had removed all the leftover wax out of some of her candles.  she went right to it with mine as well!  no need to freeze...she just took a butter knife and removed all the wax pretty easily along with the metal circles that had held the candle wicks.  next we easily removed the labels.  then we placed the candle holder in the dishwasher and once it came out it was good to go!

i have quite a few martha stewart glitters and since i'm still loving rose gold i decided to go with the copper glitter.  i also already had this matte glue/sealer on hand along w/ the foam brush from some other projects.  so i dipped the brush in the glue/sealer and then simply coated the inside of the glass in one even coat.

next i poured in some of the glitter then began to swirl the glass around to move the glitter so it would be evenly coated all on the inside.  i also have this little tray used to catch glitter so i made sure that i held the glass over the tray as i swirled the glitter around.  it took a bit more than i thought and so i did actually put glitter in about 3 times to get it all coated.  oh, you do want to move pretty quick as you don't want the glue to dry before you can get the glitter to adhere.

after i made sure all the glue/sealer was covered with the glitter i emptied out the unused glitter out of the glass and onto the tray.  then used the tray to transfer the glitter back into the bottle.  as you can tell, from the outside the glass still appears streaky, but the glue dries totally clear so it looks even once dry. 

i then sat it aside for a few hours to make sure it was completely dry. i wanted some glass beads to use as filler for the jar, but was too impatient and this decorative chunky sand was the only thing i could find at my local walmart that would work.  surprisingly it only took 1/2 the bag to fill the jar 2/3 full.

all that was left to do was transfer all my markers/pens/etc into their new home!  i'm really loving it so far and can't wait until i burn through some more candles!

- jess