Concrete Baptism Candle Holder; How To DIY

I have six children with baptismal candles that are hand decorated and beautiful, and also tall and unwieldy. They are about 1.5 inches diameter and about a foot tall, which leads to a beautiful result when hand painted, but it took me twelve years to figure out how to create something that can safely hold one of these babies upright! Encouraged by the approaching baptism of baby number six, and by recent conversations among fellow Catholics, prompted by our beloved holy father Pope Francis, about remembering and celebrating the anniversaries of our baptisms, I decided to find a way at last. So, naturally, I turned to pinterest. I link my pinterest board here. I determined quickly that concrete would be a great solution to my tall, unwieldy candle problem, and after looking at some ideas, here's what I did. (And after I blog this post, I will pin it to my board! My first pin made by me!)

 Here's a candle exactly the diameter of the baptismal candles I needed to stand up. I took it with me to my fave store, Goodwill, to look for a mold.

 I must have prayed before I went, because boy did I score! Then I bought this stepping-stone concrete from Hobby Lobby. 

The box says this is enough cement for one 12 inch stepping stone, or two 8 inch. It turned out to be exactly the right amount for this mold! I mixed it up according to the directions in this old ice cream bucket.

 I just checked, and the mold holds nine cups of liquid. I greased it well with Crisco, because my number one worry in this project was that the thing might not come out of the mold well.

 I left it completely undisturbed for 24 hours, and joy and rapture! Frabjous day, it unmolded like a dream. I put a section of tp tube inside to help the candle snug in and not scrape against the concrete.

 Voi-la!

 I also cut out a piece of craft foam to keep underneath to protect tabletops. It appealed to me more than felt, for some reason.

This project worked just as I hoped. I toyed with the idea of the paint-dipped look, or some other painted decoration, but decided against it. I like the natural look. 

Hope someone finds this interesting and helpful!