How to Make Your Own Personalized Candy Wrapper

I have added a page called Candy Wrapping Tips and Ideas to my web site... It will take time to grow as I replace an old tip on the home page and archive it in the Tips & Ideas page.

Did you know you can make personalized custom candy wrappers in a word program?

To size the wrapper:

Choose the candy bar of your choice. Unwrap it being careful not to tear the paper. (Of course you must eat the candy!) And if it does tear, no biggy...

Lay it on a flat surface then get your ruler and measure the width and length.

Add about 1/8 of an inch to all sides because you're not going to remove the original candy bar wrappers from the candy bars. Instead, you are going to wrap your wrapper around the all ready wrapped candy bar.
Measure the front of the wrapper that is indicated by the folds. This will be the front of your wrapper.

Get started creating:

After you've written all your measurements down, take your notes and the original wrapper to your computer and open a new document in a word program. In page settings, change the measurements to your measurements plus .25 inch both width and height.

Create a text box for the front using the measurements your wrote down. Use the original wrapper you removed from the candy bar as a guide. Center the front text box side to side.

Center the front text box top to bottom. Now move it up about 1/4 inch. You don't want it exactly centered because of the glue area.

You might find a border to be useful for cutting the wrapper to size.

Also, you might find it easier to create text boxes to hold your images. The text boxes are easier to move around.

When wrapping candy bars that have edges not folded or glued under - like a Hershey (R) bar - you'll like the appearance of your finished product better if you fold the edges of the original wrapper under.

I made several mistakes when I first started making my own personalized candy wrappers. But with practice and effort, printing and test wrapping, I honed the skill.

Got questions? Leave a comment...

Personalized Custom Candy Wrapping Website

I'm not a professional web designer. I know very little about how to get a web site known and have been studying up on the subject through Google's help and web master centers. My personalized custom candy wrap web site, Miller's Wrapped Expression at https://sites.google.com/site/millerswrappedexpression/, gets no traffic.

It's clear to me as to why. 1) There's not a gazillion people demanding personalized custom candy wrappers here in the Midwest. 2) There are tens of thousands of people all over the world wrapping candy bars, etc. who have had web sites for years.

One suggestion Google made is to exchange links with other candy wrap web sites or sites with similar content. The reasoning is sound: The more web sites you have your company's name on (with a link) the more chance someone will find you.

Guess what my next goal is.

Candle Wax or Making a Candle Out of Leftover Wax

Candle wax scraps... What to do with them. I don't know about you but I hate throwing them away especially the ones I really enjoy the scent of.

You could do a couple of things. One is to go out and buy wicks for votive-size candles. But the easiest is to make wax melts for your wax warmer because you need only melt and pour the wax.

To make candles:
1) Keep a yogurt container or two, wash and dry (make sure they're good and dry) then spray the inside with Pam or rub the inside with vegetable oil on a paper towel.

2) (If you're doing wax melts, ignore steps 2 through 3a) Tie a nut or bolt or washer to the end of the wick, drop the wick with the nut (or bolt or whatever) to the bottom of the yogurt container and snip the wick a couple of inches above the top ridge. Tie the end you snipped to a skewer.

3) Now lay the skewer across the top of the yogurt container. Is the nut you tied to the wick touching or near the bottom of the container? If not, fix it so it does.

3a) Is there a lot of slack in the wick when the nut touches the bottom? If so, fix it so it doesn't.

For wax melts or votive:

4) Melt your wax. You MUST use a double boiler to melt the wax otherwise you're going to have scorched wax or a fire. I use a fondue pot as a double boiler. You could also use a deep skillet or a stew pot, add water, insert the pot containing the wax into the water. I fill the fondue pot about half way up then I put my wax into an old sauce pan I no longer use and put the pan containing the wax into the water. You could also use an empty, clean vegetable can to melt the wax in.

I set the temperature to simmer. If you're doing this on your stove, still put the temp to simmer. You don't want to get your wax too hot.

Then wait. Once the wax is melted, pour it into your yogurt container. Center the wick... Wait several hours... Voila! You have another candle.

If you're making wax melts, everything is the same except you won't need a wick. Simply melt the wax and pour into an oiled container. When it has cooled pop it out, put it in a votive holder or suitable container to sit on the wax burner.

Mix scents... cinnamon and vanilla... rose and chamomille. Mix colors... white and yellow... yellow and green... blue and red... red and yellow... green and blue... It's all fun.

Most importantly don't be scared that you'll screw up. How can you? You've already spent the money on the candle(s). Unused left over wax is money thrown in the trash.

Imperfect Dreams - Lilly illustration by Deborah A. Miller

I told you in an earlier post I enjoy being artistic. My life centers around thinking up creative things to do.

Last week, I took an old cork bulletin board, covered it with left over fabric we used to redo kitchen chairs then hung it behind our kitchen stove. It serves as a back-splash but it also adds color to our otherwise white walls. I took more of the same material and made a small valance for a kitchen window which ties into the back-splash.

I found an outdated calendar with pictures of flowers. I traced these flowers (above) onto the appropriate paper then painted them with acrylic paints. I will use this for a candy wrap or perhaps a candle applique.

In between creating paper face-plate covers, painting pictures, cleaning and caring for animals last week, I also began to experiment in making drink looking candles. They aren't perfect, the top of the chocolate drink candle is concave but who cares? I uploaded the picture to CraigsList and stated in the description that I am not a professional candle maker; I do it for fun. If someone purchases one, two, three or more, that bonus will be added to the fun I had creating them.

In the mean time, I will continue to create and building an inventory of everything I enjoy doing. I foresee a garage sale this summer in which much of the inventory will be priced and hopefully sold.

After all, the more people you show your stuff to the better chance you have of selling. Right?

Dreaming of Change

One of my pet peeves is switch plates on walls. They're an eye-sore in my opinion.

One day while allowing myself some free time to sit, imagine and dream I eyeballed the light switch plate on the wall next to our front door. It's made of off white plastic and looks cheap. It isn't that our house is a fine specimen of a house. It was built in the 40s and has been a rental house for a number of years. It has cracks in the ceilings, ugly linoleum in the kitchen, cheap carpet in the middle room and wood floors painted white which shows numerous scuff marks in the main living area. But I reside here and want it to be a reflection of me.

Above the switch plate is a Southwest sand painting with earth tones and fits nicely in our Western decor in that room. A portion of the painting illustrates a kokopelli (shown above). It occurred to me that I would neither have to purchase a new switch plate or paint it. It occurred to me the I could scan the painting, crop the kokopelli portion, print the kokopelli on plain white copy paper (after measuring the switch plate), cut it out and wrap the switch plate with the print. I did this after cutting out the holes for the switches. I didn't use glue or an adhesive of any kind. I simply wrapped the paper around the plate and screwed in the little screws that hold the plate to the wall. The plate tightly held to the wall holds the paper in place.

Now the light switch plate that hangs on the wall by the front door no longer looks like cheap plastic. It is uniquely designed and matches the sand painting above it.

Then I went back to work designing new candy wrappers satisfied that I had embellished the ugly plastic plate. See where a little dreaming will take you?