Wedding Crafting, Flower Votives

The other day I had a mini panic attack. It wasn't just about wedding decor but it was about the fact that I hadn't crafted any of my wedding decor. I claim to be Miss Crafty-Pants but I hadn't done anything more than shopping for shabby chic decor for my wedding tables. Well, I decided that wasn't me so I obviously took to Pinterest for inspiration. Afterall, I had been pinning things this whole wedding planning experience but hadn't put anything to good use. That was when I was reminded of a craft that I had seen on Dollar Store Crafts. She had compiled some of her favorite wedding craft finds over time and I was immediately drawn to these Rose Votive Candle Holders from Two Crafty Mules. I am not one to follow tutorials exactly so here is my take on the candle holders. You'll have to let me know what you think!

This is actually a really simple craft and once I figured out how I wanted these to look, I was busting a move and turning these out pretty quickly. My only initial mistake was not picking up enough faux flowers to create enough of these for my need. I have a return trip to the dollar store scheduled for tomorrow ;-) which by the way is where I picked these up. For the votives, I used some long burning options from Save-On-Crafts, so, you know, the candles would stay lit for the duration of the wedding!

I started by breaking up the fake flowers into the "petals" and the "leaves". These were to be the layers of the flower votives, duh. Something I learned right away was that I should separate the smaller petals from the larger ones. The smaller petals served better from the top down and for obvious reasons, the larger petals added fullness to the bottom.

Once I had my petals and leaves separated, I started my gluing. Please note, if you are using a hot glue gun, especially a high temp version, please be careful not to burn yourself... trust me, it hurts... a lot. Starting at the top, as mentioned before, I worked my way around the top, then moving down, smallest petals first, ending with the largest petals closest to the bottom.

Once I really made my way around the votives, I could tell where I had some less full areas that needed some pumping up. I filled those "bald spots" with some extra petals and manipulated them with the hot glue (again, be careful). At the bottom, I decided to use the leaves to add a lil' something to the whole craft. Unlike my inspiration, I wanted these to look more natural and a little funky. With each one that I did, I fluffed it up and added where I thought would be most dramatic... well, as dramatic as a flower votive can be.

I noted on about the third one of these that I did, that a flat bottom helped keep the candles flat, go figure. For burning purposes, obviously this is a smart use of time. I used the leaves, which worked beautifully, to basically be a mat for the votive bottom.

So what do you think? Do you think these will be a nice addition to my guest tables?