cinnamon stick candle holder

Today we are making this cute cinnamon stick candle holder. It is certainly a holiday item, but for some decor, it could be a year-round item. For our house, you'll probably see this year-round. I cannot take credit for being the brilliant genius behind this ~ I saw it on the 'net somewhere. Lost track of where.

To get started to you will need: a glass candle holder with straight sides, cinnamon sticks, ribbon, hot glue, and scissors (not your good sewing ones). But, Andrea, those are not scissors in that picture! Right. I tried using the wire cutters to cut the cinnamon, then moved on to the scissors. They work better.

The glass candle holder came from the dollar store. The ribbon was 98 cents as you can see. The most expensive part of this project was the cinnamon at about $5.50. I got mine from the bulk section at the grocery store. My candle holder is about three inches tall because that's what I was able to find. You can use any size and any shape.

Hold a cinnamon stick up to the glass to measure for your cut. I made mine just over the top of the glass, but you could leave some glass poking up at the top. You could even just have the cinnamon sticks going halfway up the glass. Whatever suits you. Cut the cinnamon stick, then use that one to measure the others. Or I guess you could use a ruler, but why be complicated?

Run a bead of hot glue along the back of the cinnamon stick & glue it on the glass, making your way around the glass. My glass was angled a little bit, so the cinnamon sticks did not butt up next to each other. If the glass had been completely straight up and down, I would have made them all touch nicely.

When you are done, you will have a hot mess from cutting the cinnamon. My cinnamon sticks did not have any aroma until I cut them. Then, that beautiful cinnamon filled the air. We put all the nubby left overs in a pot, covered them with water and simmered them on the stove to fill the house with the scent.

Here you can see that not all the tops are perfect ~ kinda rustic.

Tie the ribbon around the middle with a bow or just a knot. The ribbon is not secured, so you can use a holiday one now & change it later.

Pop in a tea light and you're good to go. This one is a cinnamon spice tea light.