For a holiday craft that creates light, try making marbled candles by hand

Candles, already an integral part of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Eve, can be made even more special when they carry a personal touch. Try marbleizing them by hand, or simply using candlelight in creative ways.

Paula Lavender Tucker of Bellows Falls, Vermont, started marbleizing simple white candles about five years ago. Before that, she marbleized quilt fabrics. Both are for sale at her Etsy site, HippyDippyDyed.

Her marbleizing process is simple and inexpensive, and the results are mighty (directions below).

“You want to think about using contrasting colors,” says Lavender Tucker. “Black and white are a stunning combination.”

She recommends learning how to marbleize candles with only two or three colors, and the holidays carry traditional color combinations: red, green and white for Christmas; blue and white for Hanukkah; red, green and black for Kwanzaa; and black, white and gold, or dark blue, light blue and white for New Year's Eve.

SCENE SETTERS

One easy way to display holiday candles is to wrap a small Mason or jelly jar with ribbon and insert a small pillar candle inside, says Oma Blaise Ford, executive editor of Better Homes & Gardens magazine. Accent them with seasonal items such as a small pine cone and a sprig of evergreen.

“You can customize the display for whatever holidays you’re celebrating,” she says.

While marbleized candles — tapers, pillars or spheres — can decorate the home for Kwanzaa, traditional black, red and green candles are used in the holiday’s seven-candle Kinara, or candle holder. The Kinara is lit daily during the holiday’s seven days, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

Erica Jones of Duluth, Georgia, sells 300 to 400 hand-carved Kinaras each year at her Etsy site, BlackandFIT, and at Walmart online. “There aren’t too many things the Black community can say, ‘This celebrates our greatness.’ This holiday does that,” Jones says.

BEYOND CANDLES

For a New Year’s Eve party, Blaise Ford suggests filling jars with strings of tiny (called fairy) lights and tie the jars with velvet ribbon in shades of icy blue, winter white and pale pink. Wrap that in metallic star garland for extra sparkle.

“The added benefit here is that no one has to remember to blow out the candles after the midnight toast,” Blaise Ford says.

HOW TO MARBLEIZE A CANDLE

Supplies:

Unscented, paraffin wax candles (Lavender Tucker recommends shopping at a discount store), in a votive, taper or pillar shape

Disposable cup or small container that is taller than your candle

Tight gloves, such as surgical

Paper towels

Newsprint or drop cloth

An oil-based, marbleizing paint, such as Easy Marble by Marabu, available in craft stores and online

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Directions:

Put on the protective gloves. Cover your workspace with newsprint or a drop cloth.

Fill a plastic cup with water and add just three drops of paint from each of two or three contrasting colors. Slightly swirl the color in the water.

Lower a candle into the cup, twisting it while doing so (the twist creates the swirly design).

Skim the surface of the water with a small piece of paper towel to clear the water of ink, so the candle won't pick up more ink, creating a muddled design, when you withdraw it. Remove the candle.

Place the candle on a drying rack or clip it to a hanger by its wick.

Before dipping your second candle, skim the water surface with another piece of paper towel to clean it.

Proceed with second and subsequent candles in this same way.

Throw away your gloves, cup, and other soiled supplies to avoid staining your skin and other surfaces.