60th Anniversary Celebration - Vinyl Monograms for Candles

Just a couple of days after Christmas my husband's parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.  2014 was a big year - they both turned 80 last summer!  Our family is very fortunate and we are all so happy that they are healthy and were able to enjoy this milestone.

They hosted an afternoon Open House reception at their condo for their many friends and then we had a family dinner at a lovely local restaurant.  All of their children and nearly all of members of the next generations were able to be with them for the celebrations.  I'll share some other projects from the Open House in another post.

I made some simple candle holders for centerpieces at the restaurant.  We had very little time between the two events so I had to make something that could be assembled and placed very quickly.  The restaurant had Christmas decorations that were fine since the celebration was just two days after Christmas.  The little golden trees were very festive on the cake table.

I used the monogram font from the Art Deco Cricut cartridge.  This cartridge is included in the Image Library Subscription and in addition to the font, it has lots of great images from the era.

I will do another post showing how to set up the monogram in Design Space - there is a new update to Design Space 2 coming very soon so I want to wait until I can share up to date images (I have been previewing and testing the update and it has lots of nice improvements over the first version that I think Explore users will love!).

As you can see from these photos, when I am working with vinyl I like to add a box around the image that I am cutting to make it easier to weed (remove) the negative space parts of the cut.  Once I remove these, I use transfer tape to pick up the image so it will stay perfectly aligned for my project.  You can reuse the same piece of transfer tape several times - this one is curling at the edges because I had used it for several cuts already.

Just be sure to burnish the tape to the image using your fingernail or a tool and then peel it up from the shiny backing.  When you cut vinyl, you want to make a "kiss cut" that cuts the vinyl and leaves the backing intact.  Using the vinyl setting on the Explore dial works perfectly for me but you should try a few test cuts before launching into a large project.  I used indoor repositionable vinyl in a metallic gold.

I chose a simple straight sided vase to hold the candle.  The straight sides make it easy to add vinyl and it will stay nice and flat.  I had a couple of rolls of washi tape sitting on my table and placed the tape rolls on either side of the vase to keep it from rolling on the table when I added the monogram.

I found these vases at the Dollar Tree store - here is the UPC label if you want to try to find them at a store near you.  The candles are wax with battery operated lights.  I found them at Costco and they are available at other stores as well.  The candles are three inches in diameter.  The six inch height is ideal but five inches will also work (I had some of each size).

The transfer tape allows you to carefully position the image and make sure that it is straight before you adhere it to the vase.

When you are satisfied with the placement, you can use your fingernails or a bone folder to burnish the vinyl to the glass.  You can see how the image appears darker after you burnish the vinyl.

To remove the transfer tape, it works best to pull the tape back on an angle.  If the vinyl starts to lift, just put the tape back down and burnish it a bit more.

Using the tape will help you to avoid bubbles but you may see a few tiny air bubbles like the one on the "P" in this photo.

Just rub the vinyl gently to work the bubble to the edge of the letter - it will then be smooth and flat like this.

 I rotated the vase to put the monogram on the bottom side and then followed the same procedure to apply the "60" to the other side.

I just "eyeballed" the placement so that the two sides would line up pretty well.  The candle actually hides any slight miscalculation on the placement.

 Once again, burnish the vinyl and peel away the transfer tape at an angle.

Here is the vase with both the monogram and the year added.  Now all you need to do is to turn on the candle and pop it into the vase.

The restaurant provided the circular mirrors and the smaller candles.  I brought some gold starry garland to circle the candles and create a nice reflection in the mirrors.

This is a quick cell phone photo showing the candles and some wedding photos on display at their condo.  Some of the candles you can buy have a timer so you can set them once to go on every day at a certain time and then "burn" for five hours.

We are having yet another snowstorm in New England - records keep getting broken and the snow just keeps falling while the snow piles are getting higher than ever.   I took this photo and shared a digital page I made on Facebook yesterday.

Here is the birdbath this afternoon - almost completely buried!

This is the view of our deck from the sunroom (trust me, there is a deck under all of that snow!).

If you are also in the midst of this crazy snow - stay warm and safe.  If you are living somewhere warm and sunny - enjoy it!

Subscribe to Capadia Designs if you would like to have new posts delivered directly to your email. 

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product using the link I may receive a commission. I only participate in affiliate programs for products that I use or can recommend without reservation.