As I’m sure most of you have realized, the holidays are fast approaching! And I am thrilled! THRILLED! I absolutely love this time of year. I love decorating the house for the holidays, listening to my favorite Christmas tunes, and all the presents and parties to look forward to! Including our own Christmas soiree which has become my favorite new tradition over the last couple of years! In case you can’t tell by my excessive use of exclamation points, I get reeeally excited.

Speaking of presents, those of us going the DIY route are probably starting the brainstorming process right about now. I love DIY votives because they are easy, inexpensive, and can be customized to fit a variety of tastes.

I picked up these simple votives for a buck a piece at the dollar store.

The hardest part of this project for me was settling on an idea. With such a perfect blank canvas, I had way too many (stripes? spraypaint?). Finally, I decided to bust out my trusty Martha Stewart adhesive stencils. I wanted to make them festive but not so much so that you couldn’t use them throughout the rest of the year.

I used the same set of stencils as the wine bottle vases from a few months ago. There were a couple of blossoms that slightly resembles snowflakes, so I decided to play that up using Martha Stewart’s glass pant in Mother of Pearl.

These adhesive stencils are great! They stick to the glass, so there’s no having to hold it still while you paint. Some of the larger stencils are a little tough to smooth out on a very curved surface but this one seemed to work. You don’t need to make the entire stencil adhere perfectly, just make sure that the parts where you will be painting are fully in tact with the glass.

Now, before you start painting, take a minute to plan your design. I have had lots of instances where I just started painting without giving it any thought and ended up with a very lobsided design.  Especially if you are using a larger shape that will look obvious if unevenly spaced. I don’t measure or anything, I just stick a piece of painter’s tape to mark the spots where the larger stencils should go.

Once you have your design planned out, dab your pouncer in a bit pit of glass paint, dab it on a paper towel to soak up excess, and start pressing it lightly over the stencil to paint. You can go in with a second coat to increase the intensity of the color.

When the paint is still wet, peel off stencil and repeat! I would recommend having a paper towel or napkin on hand to wipe off any paint outside of the stencil. This isn’t hard to do, these things are pretty small.

After 4 of the larger blossoms on each votive, I filled the spaces between them with smaller flowers. You don’t need to plan these out as much. I just stuck one wherever it felt needed. I added some flowers in a bronze color using Martha’s All Purpose Craft Paint to add a bit of contrast. If I could go back, I would probably use another glass paint as the craft paint didn’t seem to produce as saturated of a tone.

I love the way they came out! The white and gold make them look like they could easily fit into a holiday tablescape, but not so much so that it would look out of place if you happened to use them throughout the year.

In fact, I like them so much that I might keep them myself. After all, it would give me a chance to grab a few more votives and try out some of my other ideas.

Do you like giving or receiving handmade gifts? I would love to hear about them 🙂

Shared at That DIY Party!