Be inspired by Sharon Bennett's shabby-chic paintwork and give traditional Christmas themes a contemporary twist. This year rather than opt for those rich heavy colours that we are so used to - go light! Soft tonal images can be just as striking as full colour and it also means you can co-ordinate nicely with the other elements of your project. Painted candles are a fun way to finish off a table setting and Sharon's patterns can also be carried over onto other items such as gift boxes, wooden tree decorations or even china. So, whether you are sprucing up your home for the winter or creating a personalised gift for a friend, these easy-to-copy designs should fit the bill!

Candles

1 Prepare the candle by wiping over the surface with a clean dry cloth. Make sure that the wax has no scratches Mix your chosen colours and use a wide brush to either make vertical stripes, spaced equally around the candle, or apply paint all over the sides.
2 Don’t take the brush over onto the top of candle, stop short and for neatness, try and start each one off at same point. Begin at the top and pull the stroke down towards the candle base.
3 Trace-off the motifs from the pattern pages and gently transfer onto the surface of the candle. Do not press hard as this will mark the wax. Use a darker mix of the background colour to fill in all the main images. Once the painting is completed, embellish the patterns with the outliner.
4 Add a row of vertical dots in between stripes on one candle; dots are two sizes, one slightly larger than other. The pattern is made up of one large dot, two small, then repeated.
5 Use a darker green in the centre of some of the designs to add contrast against the rest of the pattern. Some of the motifs can be added as backgrounds to fit in with the dimensions of the candle. On the green striped candle, pink central dots have been applied for contrast and to show that the colours can work well if used together.

Christmas cards

1 Make a base card in your chosen colour, 12cm x 15cm. We have used pale green and pink here. Score, cut out and then lie flat with the front face uppermost.
2 Trace off the motifs from the pattern pages. Once all the tracing is complete use a putty rubber to remove any pencil lines which are either too heavy or in the wrong place.
3 The card pattern is painted in red, whilst the green card has the images painted in pink, with some red areas picked out as highlights. Once all the painting is completed, add gold glitter outliner to certain areas such as the bauble for sparkle.
4 Draw out small candles on spare card. Paint and cut out, then stick onto card using foam pads. These can now be embellished with glitter, then add a ring of small gold dots around the flame on the base card.
5 Take care to make the wick of candle large enough to withstand being cut out. Don't embellish the candle until you have stuck it down on the card.

Candle holder

1 Take a small ceramic bowl or ramekin. Wash and dry the surface thoroughly. Using an appropriate waterbased paint for porcelain, apply a layer of background colour with a wide brush and allow to set. You may need to leave the paint to set for several hours until it is touch dry.
2 Take the detail brush and using a contrasting colour start to apply the scroll patterns in free-hand. Allow to set. Make sure that the paint is completely dry before applying dots of gold outliner here and there.