Diwali Tea light Decor tutorial

This year I kept a very simple and small golu for Navaratri. A golu is an arrangement of dolls on steps that celebrates women power (Shakti), creativity and positivity for 9 nights. I typically create thematic displays that you can see in my older posts – Knowledge, What is heaven, Storytelling, Psychology of green, etc. As my work schedule was super hectic this year, I decided to take it easy on the festival front. Therefore, I did not create any sets, dolls, props or decor.

To make up for it,  I decided to create some decor items for Diwali (which is next Sunday). The plan was to create vertical streamers (Toran) with mdf and mirrors and a corner piece as a tea light base. I ordered a bunch of items from online craft stores but one order got mixed up and I did not get several supplies for the streamers. Instead of reordering supplies, I decided to work on the tea light base. Here is the Diwali Tea light Decor tutorial that I made in the process.

Diwali Tea light Decor tutorial

Materials required

1. MDF base – Flower Tea light holder
2. White glue or Mod Podge
3. Gesso
4. Acrylic paints ( I used chrome yellow, green, Prussian blue, orange and maroon)
5. 10mm diamond mirrors in gold
6. Paint brushes
7. Tea light or a metal base and candle

Diwali Tea light Decor tutorial – method

The Tealight comes as a set – base and topper. It is lase cut MDF. You can also use plywood or hand cut chip board in the design of your choice. I covered both of them with Gesso to prepare them for painting. I used Camel Artist gesso. Cover the edges and sides as well.

For a festive look, I coloured the base in yellow and the top piece in a mix of green and blue. I coloured the flower in orange and shaded it with maroon.

I aged the top layer a bit with gesso to give it an aged look. This I feel provided a bit of character and vintage vibe to the piece.

I then glued the layers together. After letting it dry for an hour, I glued the mirrors. If you want you can add outlines with paint or a 3D/puffy liner.

In the end, I added white dots and edged the pieces in glue to finish the tea light base. You can add more embellishments as per your choice. You can also carefully seal all the painted areas with Mod Podge.

I filled the hollow space with flower petals and used a floral candle in a refillable tin pan for this shoot. I might use petals of pink coloured roses or white flowers on Diwali to increase the contrast. You can use a battery operated tea light if you want to go smokeless. I hope you find this Diwali Tea light Decor tutorial informative and easy to follow. I will add more pictures with different flowers and lighting soon.

I hope you find it interesting

Happy Diwali

Cheers