Concrete Pillow Candle Holders

Concrete is a great material that can be easily manipulated into different shapes and will take on a lot of different textures. So use these properties to make some super confusing and contradictory tea lights!

Only some common household materials are needed:

- a plastic bag (not the very thin kind, something a little more sturdy but still pliable)

- duct tape

- concrete mix + something to mix it in

- tea lights

- something to use as a weight

First construct some bags to pour the concrete in. Flatten a plastic bag and draw a square for the size that you want the tea lights to have. Make two for both sides of the square (I made two bags at the same time, although you could reuse them later). Cut out the squares with one side intact, so you can fold them on top of each other.

Use tape to seal the other two sides of the bags. Make sure there are no folds underneath the tape. I used duct tape, but it ended up giving an imprint on the concrete, so I would suggest using something a little more flexible.

Make sure the bags are sealed leak proof!

Prepare for filling the bags! First make sure you have a piece of duct tape laying nearby, so you can seal the bag after filling.

Then mix up the concrete according to instructions. Be careful to cover the surface you are working on, because it may get messy. Fill the bags with the concrete until somewhat above three quarters, there needs to be some space left in the bag to shape it later. Use the piece of duct tape to completely seal the filled bags.

Now the fun part: giving the bags shape! Get the tea lights and press them slightly down into the center of the bag, in the position where you'd like them to be. Then flip the bags over, so the tea light is covered by the bag, and set a weight on them. I used some paint cans.

It's very important to flip the bags, because the leftover air in the bag will migrate to the top. The first time I didn't flip the bag, and I ended up with air gaps in the top surface!

Let the bags dry for about a day or whatever is indicated on the concrete mix.

Once dried, remove the weights and tea lights, and cut open the bag to reveal the nice, pillow-y surface! Let them dry completely.

Then fill with tea lights and enjoy!