Halloween decorations don’t have to be boring or take forever to make. In a few minutes flat you’ll have some awesome DIY bloody candles your guests will scream over.
With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to start getting into spooky Halloween crafting. Typically, my style for the haunt is more cute than gory, but my nephews are getting older and are totally into the creepy thing. My glittered monsters aren’t going to have the same impact on them as they did just two years ago.
We’re all about scary costumes and bloody this and that. So, in working up some creepy Halloween decor, I decided to make them bleeding candles. I mean, what’s creepier than that?
To make your own, you will need:
- White pillar candles
- Red candle in a glass pot
- Long candle lighter
- Eyedropper
I tested a lot of candles to see what would work well for ‘bleeding.’ This candle was $1 at Walmart and worked very well. I found that most taper candles are actually white in the middle, and very expensive candles don’t have quite as much color to them. I purchased a few votives in one of my favorite scents from a boutique brand and found that the drips were dark pink at best and very see-through. Not bloody at all.
I tried wax melts but found none with a rich enough color. They wound up being a bit transparent as well. Votives worked OK, but the little glass pots were the best for getting layers of different reds with the same candle.
Allow the candle to burn for a bit, making some liquid wax. Turn the candle on its side.
Collect the liquid wax with your eyedropper (these are usually sold near the eye medicines in pharmacies).
Starting around the wick of your white pillar candle, dribble the hot wax down. You may need to actually draw a line with the wet wax to get your drips started.
Continue making drips all the way around the candle. Do 2-3 passes to get nice coverage.
The top of the candle will inevitably get lumpy. Use your lighter to melt the wax, increasing drips and evening out the top a bit.
In the next few passes, the candle will get lumpy again, which looks good in moderation. If you leave it alone in this step, however, it gets so bumpy as to become distracting.
For your next pass, turn the flame up to a higher setting. Place the fire against the wax along the wall of the jar to get it to melt. In the process you’ll also create soot up against the glass, which will help darken the red to a more burgundy color.
Tip your candle to the side to get access to the wax. If your soot is staying pretty well up against the glass, you can use the end of your eyedropper to give it a good stir.
Continue making passes around, increasing your drips. To have multiple drops in one drip, place the eyedropper at the top of the candle where the drip starts to veer off onto its own. Squeeze the tiniest amount of wax out, and it will run along the drip. Add a bit more to make the drip go down further if you wish. Gently remove the candle from your paper towels to keep the lower drips intact.
When your candles are first lit, the ‘blood’ will continue to seep down the sides, so be sure to have something beneath to catch the wax or place on something disposable. As the candles burn, they’ll burrow into the center of the pillars, and the red will remain on the outside.
These candles will rarely be lit but are more of a prop to be included in the decor. The end result costs very little money and takes so little time that it’s my favorite gory Halloween craft ever
More Spooky Halloween Crafts
Spooky DIY Halloween wreath
How to make an easy Halloween themed headband
Flying bats Halloween decoration
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