Pagan candle templates provide a unique and creative way to incorporate pagan symbolism into your candle making process. These templates come in a variety of designs and shapes, allowing you to easily create candles that reflect your spiritual beliefs and practices. Many pagan candle templates feature symbols such as pentagrams, moons, suns, and elemental representations. These symbols are often associated with pagan traditions and can add a touch of spiritual significance to your candles. Using these templates can help you create candles that align with your intentions and rituals. One of the benefits of using pagan candle templates is that they provide a consistent and professional look to your candles.
Use a program like Canva or PicMonkey to design your sayings. Width should be about 2-1/2-3″ across and no longer than 7″ long. That size will fit on the prayer candle so you can easily read the words. But if you want to get creative, you can create a design that wraps all the way around. Use fonts that will be easy to weed out. I first tried some very detailed fonts the end result was not as successful as the simpler fonts. Save your design with a transparent background, it will make the next step easier!
It helps keep the main label from feeling too cluttered and makes it easier for the customer to refer back to if they decide to remove the main label. Then you sort of roll your hand around to thoroughly glue down one of the two side edges, moving your hand up and down the paper to eliminate air bubbles.
One of the benefits of using pagan candle templates is that they provide a consistent and professional look to your candles. Rather than relying solely on freehand designs, these templates ensure that your candles have precise and symmetrical shapes. This can be especially helpful if you plan on selling or gifting your candles, as it adds a polished and intentional feel to your creations.
How to Create a Label for a 7-Day Candle
Plain 7-day candles are great, but they certainly have that je ne sais quoi appeal when festooned with colorful labels. Most of the readily available labeled ones are of Catholic iconography, though, and buying them makes me feel guilty. There are plenty of specially designed hoodoo candles on the market, which the manufacturers call “mystical candles” or “v eladoras místicas “. These are essentially the same candles, only with different labels promising love, luck, and money. They just cost $12-15 instead of $1-3.
If you’re going to go through the process of making your own 7-day candle, you can magically charge the stuff that actually gets burned rather than slapping a label over the same old same old. In fact, you can add herbs, oils, and small stones to the wax if you want. Or, if you’re using the coconut oil additive trick, you can steep herbs in that oil before making the candle so that every speck of wax has a special correspondence with your purpose. But it is awfully fun to have a corresponding label, too. And it’s dead easy to whip one out.
Measure twice, cut once. And laugh at my horrific drawing and handwriting.
The first thing you are going to want to do is measure your specific candle jar. There are loads of manufacturers out there, and I’m fairly sure each one uses a few different glass molds as I’ve seen the same candle from the same company use slightly different jars. Most of these 8-inch tall jars are straight cylinders, but they have slight bends or tapers at the top and bottom. You just want to measure the straight bit and not any of the bends. It’s easiest to measure this with a sewing tape measure, which is flexible and will hug the glass. Once you’ve taken the height measurement, subtract 1/2 inch. Then measure around the circumference of the jar and add 1/2 inch. For example if the “rectangle” you measured is 7.5 inches tall and 7.5 inches long, the label you create will be 7 inches tall and 8 inches long. The shorter height will leave about a quarter-inch glass border at the top and bottom, which will look nice and give you some fudge factor. The longer length will allow your label to have a 1/4-inch overlap seam in the back, which will help the label remain stuck to the jar when glued.
Choose something tall and skinny, not short and wide.
The other major thing is that you need a picture that is in “portrait” orientation. And this is a case where you would want it to be much skinnier than a normal portrait. If your final image should be about 7 inches in height, you really do not want the image to be more than 5 inches wide. 4 would really be the preferred maximum.
Once you’ve got an image you like either drawn, photoshopped, or simply uploaded and cropped into a rectangle you think looks decent, you’re ready to print it. The easiest way I have found to do this is by using Microsoft Word (I know!) on standard letter paper (8.5 x 11) and manually trimming your paper to the desired size.
Begin by setting your page to print in landscape orientation (see how the icon with the man on his side is darker?) and setting the document’s margins to .5 inches on all four sides. I’m running an older version of Word for Mac, and I know it’s different on the newest Windows OS, but those are the settings you want for whatever version of Word you are using. Once that is set, go to Insert > Photo > Picture from File and select the picture you want to use from your files.
At this point, the image should insert itself into the document and automatically resize itself to fit within the top and bottom margins of a letter-sized paper. We need to re-size it. If your height measurement of your label is 7 inches, then you would likely want something between 6.5 and 6.75 inches as the final height of your image. It is very easy to set the image height in word by simply dragging a corner of your image to shrink or enlarge the image. At whichever corner you click, a little yellow box will appear that will display the width and height of the image, as shown below.
Resize the image to your desired height, then center on in the page, either by selecting the center alignment button in the home tab, or by clicking on the image and hitting command + E for Mac or control + E for PC.
Finally, I like to soften the edges of the image, simply because I think the harsh straight lines look a little weird with candlelight coming through them unless they are a decorative border, and I do not have the skills to fiddle with creating a decorative border. If you want to soften the edges, you just select “Format Picture”, go to “Glow & Soft Edges” and move the bar on the soft edges right from zero. I tend to think somewhere in the neighborhood of 19 points looks pretty decent.
And with that, your need for the computer for this project is at an end. All you need to do is print the image. I prefer to use a translucent vellum paper because it looks a bit like frosted glass on the candle jar, and it lets the light come through the image beautifully. It also “softens” the image, so if you’ve stolen a fairly low resolution image from the Internet like I did here, it will still look decent when it is printed and when light shines through it. Alternately you could use a parchment or even one of those transparency sheets used for overhead projectors. You just want to stay away from a very opaque paper, especially since this label will wrap all the way around the candle. When you print the image, you may find that you will get a cleaner image if you use a laser printer. Inkjet printers lay down strips of ink, and those strips do not always blend together well. When backlit, even the best ones can be fairly obvious.
Assembled tools: Printed image, cutting mat, straight edge, X-Acto knife, glue, candle. Not pictured: wax paper for gluing.
Once you’ve got your images printed, all that needs to be done is to cut them down to the desired label shape and glue them onto the candle. Cutting can be done with scissors instead of an X-Acto blade if needed, but you will likely still need a ruler with a straight edge to make your measurements and a pencil to lightly mark your cut lines.
Finding the top and bottom cut lines can really be done by eye. If your image is a quarter of an inch smaller than the label height, you just scootch the straight edge up or down the border a small tad, make sure the line is parallel with the paper edge and mark your line. Left and right will require some subtraction and division. If your paper is 11 inches wide and your label needs to be 8 inches, subtract 8 from 11 and divide by 2. You would in this case need to take 1.5 inches off the left and right sides of the paper.
Left: Demonstrating where cut lines should be. Middle: Demonstrating size (and perfectly square cuts!) of the final label. Right: Demonstrating gluing. Remember to turn the image over (easy to forget with vellum!), use washable glue, and protect your gluing surface.
Once you’ve got your label cut, you just need to apply the glue. Choose a washable glue stick, and choose one that is “repositionable” if you can. Washable formulas will allow you to easily wash off the adhesive with normal soap and water when you go to make a new candle after using this one, and the repositionable formula will allow you some fudge time if you really botch gluing the label down the first time. You will lay a thorough smear of glue not only in a few places in the middle of the label (total coverage is not necessary), but along all four edges (where total coverage is pretty necessary). You’ll need to get glue on, not just near, the edges, so protect your surface with some paper before beginning gluing. Wax paper seems to resist the glue and it doesn’t leave any smears on the vellum, so it’s a great choice if you have it.
I couldn’t take pictures of how to apply the label, but you basically line the top edge parallel to the cylinder edge, but a touch lower. Then you sort of roll your hand around to thoroughly glue down one of the two side edges, moving your hand up and down the paper to eliminate air bubbles. Then press the label down as you glue it around the jar, again moving your hand around to eliminate air bubbles. If you’re worried about your skin oils leaving prints on the vellum or smearing the ink, use a clean rag to press down the label. When you get to the overlap seam in the back, make sure the edges meet neatly and make sure you glue it down so that you get no little “ripples” along the seam. If you’re using vellum, it is stiff enough that it will not crinkle or crease, or even move that much along the glass. Gluing it neatly is very easy–far easier than the gluing projects we did in grade school! Once the label has been smoothed down to your satisfaction, let it sit to dry for about 5 minutes, and then you are free to light your candles!
The final products. As you can see, it is impossible to see any of the frosting or cracks in the purple candle, thanks to the vellum label, so a warm cooling environment isn’t a necessary step unless you’re a perfectionist. The artwork on the purple candle is a “Beltane” print from Neil Sims. The artwork on the green candle is a drawing of Gerald Gardner that was recently done by David Michael Johnson.
I know it’s a little silly, but I really love the idea of labels. If you were a talented artist, you could draw iconography pertaining to a type of spell you were doing if these were spell candles, rather like Sabrina Underwood or “Sabrina the Ink Witch” has on her line of 7-day candles. And how cool would it be to make a few of these up showing black and white images of our dearly departed? That would make for a gorgeous Samhain altar, especially for a coven. I think the artwork is a great way to add just another level of oomph to whatever working you’re using these candles for.
Pagan candle templates can be used with a variety of candle making techniques, including traditional wax pouring, dipping, and even gel or soy candle making. With these templates, you have the flexibility to experiment with different materials and techniques, allowing you to create candles that suit your personal preferences. If you're new to candle making or unsure of how to incorporate pagan symbolism into your candles, using templates can be a helpful starting point. These templates provide a visual guide and inspiration for your designs, making it easier to translate your spiritual beliefs into candle form. Overall, pagan candle templates offer a convenient and artistic way to infuse your candle making process with pagan symbolism. Whether you're creating candles for personal use or to share with others, these templates can help you create candles that align with your spiritual journey and add a touch of magic to your space..
Reviews for "Exploring the Magic and Beauty of Pagan Candle Templates"
1. John - 2 stars - The Pagan candle templates were a disappointment for me. I was expecting beautiful and intricate designs, but unfortunately, the templates were quite simple and underwhelming. The patterns lacked creativity and variety, making them not worth the purchase. I ended up finding much better candle templates online for free. Overall, I wouldn't recommend these templates to anyone looking for unique and intricate designs.
2. Sarah - 1 star - I can't believe I wasted my money on these Pagan candle templates. They were advertised as high-quality and detailed, but they were just basic and uninspiring. The designs were repetitive, and it made the candles look all the same. It felt like a lazy attempt at creating Pagan-themed templates. I was expecting something more captivating and magical. Save your money and look elsewhere for better Pagan candle templates.
3. Alex - 2 stars - The Pagan candle templates fell short of my expectations. The designs were mediocre and lacked originality. It seemed like the creator just used generic Pagan symbols without any thought or creativity. The templates were also poorly made, with some of them not aligning properly when printed. It was frustrating and a waste of time. I would advise against purchasing these templates unless you're okay with average and flawed designs.
4. Emily - 2 stars - I was excited to try these Pagan candle templates, but unfortunately, they didn't live up to the hype. The designs were too simple and didn't have the intricate details I was hoping for. Additionally, the templates were not user-friendly. The instructions were vague, and it was difficult to get the desired design on the candles without smudging or ruining them. I wouldn't recommend these templates to anyone looking for a high-quality and easy-to-use option.