How to turn tall white candle jars from the dollar store into patriotic candles to use as holiday décor. This easy craft idea is made with inexpensive candle jars, patriotic American flag decorations made from vinyl, and twine.
One of my favorite ways to add simple and inexpensive holiday décor to our home is with decorative candles. Dollar store jar candles are easy to decorate with vinyl or stickers and look great on a tablescape or fireplace mantel.
I like to use a set of three and find holiday designs to cut with vinyl. Adhesive vinyl acts as a sticker decoration that can be cut with an electronic cutting machine or craft punches.
For this project, I used an American flag design on one candle with only red and blue vinyl. The USA letters on the second candle are placed vertically with small stars around. For the third candle, I found a fireworks SVG file to decorate around the candle jar. I only decorated the front of the candle jars, but if used on a tablescape I’d decorate around the entire candle.
For more patriotic inspiration check out:
Supplies to make patriotic candle jars
- White candles
- Adhesive vinyl from Expressions Vinyl
- Cricut machine or craft punches
- Transfer paper with grid lines
- Twine
How to make patriotic candle jars
- Select designs from the Cricut design store or use a patriotic design SVG file. Upload and adjust the design to fit the candle jar. The United States flag and USA design with stars were sized to 1.5×7 inches. I chose a variety of sizes for the fireworks.
- Place the adhesive vinyl on a cutting mat and cut out the designs.
- Weed out the excess vinyl then use clear transfer tape to apply the designs to the front of the candle jars.
- Wrap twine around the top and trim wick to ¼ inch. Note: watch the lit candle carefully if adding twine or ribbon around the jar.
How to decorate candle jars without a cutting machine
- If you don’t have an electronic cutting machine, craft punches work great with adhesive vinyl. Use a variety of star punches to decorate the candle jars in red, white, and blue stars. Recreate the American flag design with a small star punch and paper trimmer by cutting out red strips of vinyl and blue stars.
- Letter stickers are another alternative to creating the USA candle design. Then cover the jars with small vinyl stars around the letters.
