Heart Carved Log Candle

If you follow me onInstagram, then you know that yesterday Jake and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary.

Jake gave me these beautiful roses. Two dozen roses for a dozen years.

 He’s the best – I’m a lucky girl to have him.

And then every year I like to surprise him with some sort of thoughtful handmade gift,

This year I decided to carve our initials into a log. 

 I got the idea fromhere.

I picked these logs up from my uncles home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Can you believe they were in his wood to burn pile?  Me neither, that is why I rescued them and brought them home with me.

To engrave my log, I first cut out a heart to make a stencil.  I then traced the heart onto the log.

I free handed the initials and then got started on carving them out.

A wood burning pen would have worked wonders here, but since I don’t own one,  I had to do the carving the old fashion way…. I used a pocket knife.

 I guess I should also mentioned that I sanded the log down to get a lighter wood color.

I also traced over my carving with a pencil.  I wanted the engraving to look dark and old, as if it was done ages ago, and the pencil seemed to do the trick.

I  used a large drill bit and drilled out a hole on top of the log for my tea light candle to go in.

Well it wasn’t actually that simple, it also took a flat head screwdriver and a hammer to chisel it out.

I’m not so sure how safe it would be to burn this candle considering it’s made up of wood and all.

So we will use it for decorative purposes only.

I’m happy with the way it turned out.

And Jake thought it was pretty cool too.

Thanks for stopping by,

Emily