Pool noodle candles

So I wanted some LED candles for the decorations inside the house this year, but the quantity I wanted would have cost over $100 (at least) and the ideas I found online for using PVC pipes and spray foam were really not that much cheaper. I was close to giving up on this idea when my wife suggested pool noodles. Given the time of year, I was only able to find skinny pool noodles at Dollar Tree, but these ended up working out just fine.

What you need:

• Several Pool Noodles (I got 4)
• Foam cutter (it makes things easier. Trust me)
• Parchment paper
• Painter's take or masking tape
• Gorilla glue
• Hot glue (lots) with glue gun with a high heat setting
• White or off white, or black, etc. spray paint
• LED Tea Lights 
• Amazon has white base, warm LED lights for $7.00 for 24
• For black base lights, I will have to wait for Dollar Tree or Walmart to get their Halloween lights out

I started out by cutting the pool noodles up into various lengths. After arranging them the way I thought they looked the best on the parchment paper, I used the gorilla glue to glue them together. Please not, the gorilla glue oozes and takes a few hours to dry and cure. Because of that I used painter's tape to hold the stack together while the glue did it's thing...

Once the glue is dry, you can ditch the painter's tape. At this point I used the thicker tip of the foam cutter (not the wire cutter) to carve out holes big enough for a tea light to fit inside. I went about an inch deep.

 

From here you can go one of two ways. You can do a base coat of your color, or you can start using the hot glue to make the lip of the candles and the wax drips down the sides and then paint. I did it both ways and it did not make a difference either way.

Here is how they look once completed. 2 more sets to go...