How to Make a Faux Sea Glass Candle Holder with Triforce

Easy to make Triforce candle holder.

As a crafty mamma, I love browsing Pinterest just looking for neat projects where I can add my geeky flair. One of the things I keep seeing over and over again are different varieties of a faux sea glass candle holder. I really wanted to make one.

Enter Wonder Boy…

He thought that after making this awesome rupee nightlight we needed to find a way to make a Triforce light. Well he actually wanted to make THIS Triforce light, but that folks is way, way, WAY above my crafting skill level. A wood worker I am not.

We finally settled on making a faux sea glass candle holder with the Triforce on it. I was stoked I finally got to use the faux sea glass technique and he was excited to make a Triforce light.

If you’re looking at this tutorial about to bounce because don’t even like Zelda….STOP. Think of all the cool things you can do with this project without the Triforce on it.

You could skip the tissue paper step and have a lovely faux sea glass look candle holder, or mason jar, or charging plate.
You could even pick any simple pattern and use tissue paper to put it on your candle holder. I’d love to do one with a Pac Man on it. It would even be cute a flower on it. Egg shapes for Easter time. Oh, oh, how about a silhouette of Yoda?

You get the point. The Triforce is irrelevant, you make it for what you and YOUR kids love. My kid likes Zelda.

So let’s get started.

Supplies needed for Faux Sea Glass Candle Holder

Clear glass candle holder (ours came from a garage sale for 50 cents)
Elmer’s glue
Food coloring
Black tissue paper
Foam paint brush

Making faux sea glass is easy with these handy supplies.

Creating faux sea glass

Before beginning I did a lot of research on how to give clear glass a “sea glass” look. Most tutorials either used Elmer’s Glue or Modge Podge. Some used water, and some even added dish soap. Honestly, my head was spinning after reading it all. I had no clue the “best” way to do it. So I decided that the “best” way, was the cheapest and easiest way. Thank the maker that cheap and easy worked perfectly for giving the candle holder a sea glass look.

The first thing you want to do is take your Elmer’s glue and put it in a plastic container with a lid so the paint won’t dry up between coats. I used a whole small bottle of glue. This turned out to be a ridiculous amount of glue, but I was worried I wouldn’t have enough of the tinted sea glass paint. I don’t even think I used a third of it.

Now stir yellow food coloring into the glue. Start with a few drops, if you don’t like the shade of your yellow, add a few more drops until you get a shade that you like. I wanted a bold yellow, so I used quite a bit. This concoction of glue and food coloring is your sea glass paint.

Keep adding food color while stirring to get the color you want for your sea glass.

Painting the candle holder

Before you begin painting elevate your candle holder and put a paper plate under it. That way you don’t have to hold the candle holder and you can paint all the way down to the bottom of it without hitting your work space. I recommend using a sponge paint brush for this project because it’s easier to get smooth coverage, especially if you have kids helping you.

To start, you are going to paint a VERY thin coat of the sea glass paint on to the whole candle holder. Let it dry. Then repeat until you have the desired effect. We did 7 coats. Yeah, I said 7. The coats dry pretty quickly, but we waited at least 30 minutes between coats.

With just one coat it looks dismal, but keep adding coats of the tinted glue until you get the effect you desire.

Wonder Boy was nervous about doing the painting himself because he didn’t want it to look streaky, he’s such a perfectionist. I just assured him that we would be doing multiple coats that would cover up any mistakes. That made him happy so he started painting away.

I actually loved the way it turned out before we added the TriForce. It would make a great candle holder in any room, but we were doing a Triforce candle holder. So we needed to add the Triforce.

Even without the Triforce this candle holder looks amazing. When the tea light is on it gives a beautiful soft glow.

Adding the Triforce to Sea Glass candle holder

Thankfully the Triforce is easy to make. It’s just three triangles. I had a stencil the perfect size, but if I didn’t I would have found a triangle clip art and sized it in Google Docs. Either way, you need to take your black tissue paper and cut out 3 triangles. Keep in mind that 3 triangles have to fit on the candle holder, so you may need to fool around with the sizing a bit. I got lucky. Like I said I had the perfect stencil.

I suggest placing your Triforce on your candle holder before putting it on with the tinted glue. Before I used any of the sea glass glue, I actually placed mine exactly where I wanted it, and then lightly drew on the spot where I wanted to put the top of each individual triangle. Then, to affix your triangles to the candle holder, add a thin layer of your sea glass paint on the side of the candle holder where you want your Triforce.

Take each piece of the Triforce and place it carefully in it’s spot on the candle holder. Then gently brush another layer of the glue over it to seal it. You can smooth out any of the wrinkles with your foam brush. Once the layer of glue has dried your Triforce candle holder is finished.

Since Wonder Boy is 9, I’m not about to let him have a real candle in his room. I just added a battery operated tea light to it. It looks amazing!

I love the look of our faux sea glass candle holder. Sometime in the near future I’ll make some for the rest of the house. I just think I’ll leave the Triforce off of those.