Easy Glass Votive: Pretty and Fun

I thought I'd give you an extra "bonus Valentine's craft.  I originally did this as a Christmas craft with my MOPS group, and it was a big hit with all the moms.  Makes great little homemade gifts for friends and family too. 

Christmas Glass Votive with fabric paint

After the Valentine Doily heart T-shirt craft yesterday I had all this left over fabric paint that was still wet and I didn't want to let it go to waste, then I remembered I had a few of these glass votives left over and knew I could make some Valentine's day themed ones.  Now I know you're saying, wait a second here, did you say FABRIC PAINT?  Wouldn't those be made of glass, not fabric?  Well I'll tell ya, these won't ever go in the dishwasher and I would recommend not getting them wet in any way, but if you are just going to use them for tea light candles or the new pretend tea light battery operated candles, it will work just fine.

Ok so you will need:  A 4 inch glass votive (found at the Dollar Tree).  Mine was a round cylinder shape but you could go for whatever size and shape you want.  The round lends itself to easier taping which I will show you in a minute.

So take some masking tape and tape off the top 1/4 inch of the votive.  Make sure the tape is tightly pressed to the glass.  Do the same thing around the bottom of the glass.  I cut the masking tape in half down the middle to make it thinner and it would wrap around the base easier.  This gives the finished piece a nice edge and looks more professional than painting all the way up to the top or getting paint on the brim at the bottom.

fabric paint votive with tape removed

So then I just started dipping into my left over fabric paint with my round foam paint brush. Dabbing between the two lines of masking tape.  It is good if you use a transparent or sparkly color so it is more see through for this first layer  I used all three colors or purple, red, and hot pink here and there, adding some of the left over silver sparkle as well.  As SOON as the whole surface was covered the way you want it, REMOVE all the masking tape right away.  If you let the paint dry before removing the masking tape, it will stick in places and pull off chunks of dry paint with it.   If you have trouble getting the paint on you can also put your hand IN the candle votive and hold it upside down while you dab paint on.

Hold the votive with your hand inside of it to get a better angle to paint

This is how I was holding it while I was dabbing on the sparkly fabric paint.  Now you can let this part completely dry for an hour or two, or, if you are impatient like me, you can start hand painting decorative touches using metallic paint.  Metallic fabric paint is the best for this because it really stands out and adds some shine.  Thankfully, the tips of the paint bottles are very slender and lend themselves to some neat designs.  As you can see above, the Christmas ones I tried snow flakes, dots, holly, swirls, you don't have to be an artist here.  Since it was Valentines I added some hearts which I filled in, and some swirls.  I went back after and added some hot pink dots here and there as well.

Two glass votives using opposite colors

I did a second votive using the same idea, only reversing the colors.  The transparent layer looks awesome with a ton of sparkle, then the metallic layer comes out a bit in a raised 3D effect.

Here they are all finished the next day and standing guard over my pretty roses my honey gave me for Valentine's day.  They look even better when they are all lit up.  (See below)

Let me give you a list again of materials you will need to do this project:

4 inch glass votive
masking tape
fabric paint (both sparkly and metallic)
foam sponge brush
paper plate
steady hand and a couple design ideas in mind
tea light



And here they are all done and lit up.  Didn't they turn out so cute!! I know you want to run and make these.  The shimmer of the sparkle paint really reflects when the candles are lit.  Very romantic if I do say so myself.

finished Valentine's tea light candle votives