OCTOBER 2015 Project of the Month - Holiday “Votive Candle” Cubes
Hello,
The Holiday “Votive Candle” project is fun to make and is easily customized too, by adding your own “sayings” to the letter cubes (make as many cubes as you need). The included layout spells “Noël” for display during the Christmas Season, but you can change it to whatever you like for a nice Folk Art item you can display year ‘round. TIP: You can even make the cubes a “reversible design” by adding different word/letters to the back panels of the cubes!
The “candles” are compact (less than 1.5" diameter) battery operated tea lights placed inside a recessed area at the top of each cube for a safe and economical lighting effect.
All components are carved and cut out using just the 1/16" Carving Bit and the 1/8" Cutting Bit. No other bits are required. Each letter cube is 3" x 3" x3".
Main items you will need:
1) The Project Files (included):
• NOEL_Votive_Layout.mpc
2) Board with the following dimensions: 0.75" x 9" x 34"
Do not use boards that are smaller than specified above unless using an appropriate jig. Larger boards are fine in all cases.
3) Four battery operated LED tea light “candles”. I purchased AGPtek 24 Battery Operated LED Cool White Tea Light Flickering Candles from Amazon for only $14.99 (less than $0.63 for each light). Here is the current link at the time of this writing:
http://www.amazon.com/AGPtek-Operate...WX09BMYKEGMBKQ
If you prefer, Warm White LED candles are also available and will yield a "warmer" (yellowish) light.
4) Wood glue, sandpaper, wood stain and/or paint and clear finish
5) A Dremel-type rotary tool with assorted sanding wheels and bits to sand small details and speed up preparation for finishing.
Apply your choice of finish. Here’s what I used on my own “Holiday Votive Cubes” made from Select Pine:
• One light coat of thinned Bulls Eye SealCoat (50/50 SealCoat and Denatured alcohol), then sanded
• Applied slightly thinned red, yellow, green and blue acrylic craft paint to the blocks
• Painted the letters with a white Paint Pen (2 coats)
• Applied two light coats of Krylon Clear acrylic spray
• Applied Rust-Oleum Carrington stain overall, then wiped off to yield an “aged” appearance
• Several light coats of Krylon Clear acrylic spray as the final topcoat
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