Welcome to Expressive Candles Newsletter Issue 5

Hello everyone. How is everybody today? Happy Holidays from down south. Well its not that warm for us Floridians today, suppose to hit the high 20's tonight. Spent last week finishing putting up my decorations around the house and tree. Busy is what I'm calling this month. My husband and I just finished an exhausting Christmas Craft Fair here in West Palm Beach. And we will be at the next Craft Fair in Feb. at the South Florida Fair Grounds.

Well we have a couple of new items, nothing too earth shattering. Why you may ask, right before Christmas. Because we are having a HUGE sale on all candles. And a special sale to all Newsletter Members. We have allot of upcoming things to talk about as well.

As our company grows from month to month, we strive to bring you quality and original service. We grow because of our loyal customers. Thank you to all of you who have helped us grow and spread the word of our candles. In fact many of our new customers are people who heard of our company from a friend or relative. These are the best customers any company could get. Thank you.

In this weeks issue:

What's New
20% Off on all candles until Jan. 15th. Stock up now and save money. We have two new Tarts this month, Ornaments and Presents. We have a new 16oz Jar style. It is a little more sleek and much nicer looking.

Expressive Candles Members we have a special deal for you. Take an additional 10% off on our new 16oz Jar. already marked down 20%. Normal price is $12.00, 20% off price is $9.60 and your price is $8.40. This will only be from now until December 20th at Noon. Click Here.

Still very new are our two holiday candles. Our first one is a Triple Layer 16oz Jar Candles. It comes with three scents and multicolored.

Our second candle is a Christmas Chunk Candle Holder Pillar set. It comes with three different size pillars 3", 4" and 6" high. Each one has a votive holder inside, allowing you to burn tea lights inside while preserving your pillars for decoration.

We have decided to extend the Breast Cancer Awareness tarts until the end of the month. We will continue to give proceeds of our sales on this particular product. Expressive Candles will continue to support various charities and organizations every month. This is our way of giving back to the community. Thank you for all your help.

Upcoming News
We have a ton of new things coming up. New scents will always be coming in as well as new shaped tarts. We hope to have a new candle or two out in Jan as well.

The Big News.
Expressive Candles is expanding into Expressive Candles and Gifts. Relatives in our family are also crafty and we will be offering their crafts online too. This will mean a complete redesign of our web site to accommodate all the new products. Keeping it all in the family will ensure the same customer service and quality of products.

This spring we hope to launch a new program in which we offer other crafts and gifts made by local crafter's. It will be an exciting time for 2004. Allot of changes and new products.

Candle Holders

Ah yes the good old Tin Can. The tin can has been around for years, providing many different projects to be made from tin cans. They are one of the most versatile mediums for crafts, besides wood and foam. Now I don't want to go over the normal tin can crafts, but rather share some unique ideas with you.

There are two primary size tin cans, soup cans and coffee cans. Both offer a wide variety of different craft ideas. Of course any size and shape can will work great. Tin cans can be painted, cut or rusted. With a nice sealer paint, tin cans can be used outside too.

Let’s start with the basics. Most people will decide to punch holes into the can. It is the easiest. However you can use any type of cutting tools. A drill is handy, but even better is a Dremel tool. But for those who will be using a hammer or even a drill, let’s start there. Before you start anything, fill the can with water and freeze it. This will allow you to punch holes easier, with out bending the can.

Starting your cut design can be easier on a piece of paper. This way you can draw out patterns and shapes. Then you can tape the paper to the can. But you can always use a marker on the can itself. There are certain patterns I like more than others. For example, I like to create thousands of tiny holes to simulate stars. Another favorite is to create large diamond bans around the top and bottom of the can, with an image in the middle.

Once you have a design, painting time can finish the look of your candle holder. Allot of times I'll choose black, because the light will shine through better at night or in a dim room. You can add almost any type of embellishing to the can, such as colored stones or ribbon. Sometimes I will punch two holes at the top and string wire through to create a hanger to hang the tin can up on. This is great for outside use as well.

For those who are artist, you may want to try the larger coffee cans. They provide a larger area to work with. You can create full scenes and works on the them. One idea for the larger cans is to cut wholes about half inch in diameter and place a piece of stained or any colored glass on the inside of the can. You could create an entire stained glass tin can candle holder.

The larger cans are also great for outdoors. Their large base is perfect for decks and walk ways, as they will not tip over easily.

By cutting the tops of the cans and bending them downward, you can create nice flared out effects. Just remember to file down the edges, they will be sharp. For an added flare, twist the ends with a pair of pliers.

With a little bit of imagination and paint, you can turn any tin can into something worth putting on a table or mantle. So experiment and have fun. Don't worry about messing up, I'm sure you have plenty of cans lying around.