My family wanted a Disney Marvel Menorah for Hanukkah this year. So I came up with this project and after some amazing transformations, I made the Marvel Menorah a thing. Who’s a superhero now?
2019 was the year I finally embraced the MCU (Marvel Classic Universe). So naturally, I made a Disney Marvel menorah to add to our extensive DIY menorah collection. Looking for a fun novelty menorah project that doesn’t require a lot of skills or cost a fortune? Welcome to this year’s DIY.
How to Make Your Own Decoupage Menorah
Note: This post contains affiliate links to supplies used. This doesn’t affect the price you pay for these items, but does offset the cost of running this blog!
My intro to Marvel was late, but better late than never. I’d all but managed to ignore the movies and shows for over a decade. Then it dawned on me. I was missing out. Marvel was a big part of my kids’ childhood movie experiences. My husband was obsessed. And I … was clueless.
So I took a scholarly approach. I started with Captain America and moved on to Agent Carter. Then I made my way through all three Iron Man films. Captain Marvel, Thor, Ant Man, Guardians of The Galaxy, The Avengers… I’m four seasons in to Agents of Shield. I still have a ways to go but I’m also almost caught up to my family members. I am no longer in the dark when my family begins to debate Marvel stuff.
And I’m lighting my house up this Hanukkah with an awesome Marvel Menorah!
I really thought long and hard about how to best accomplish this year’s menorah. In the past I have incorporated toys into the mix. But this time I wanted to keep it simple, as well as inexpensive. I opted instead to do some decoupage.
This entire project cost less than $20 and I think it looks awesome. It’s definitely going to be with us for many years to come!
What You Will Need to Make a Disney Marvel Menorah
- 1 length of 2×2 wood cut into 9 sections – 8 x 5.5 inches, 1 x 8 inches
- Sand Paper in fine and super fine grit
- Craft Paint
- Mod Podge or Decoupage Medium
- 3-4 Old Marvel Comic Books
- 9 1.75 in Metal Washers with a half inch center hole
- Metal Candle Cups*
- Hot Glue Gun/Glue
- 1/2 in bit for drill or drill press*
* These items are optional. If you don’t have the drill and bit, grab 9 1/2 in nuts or whatever size you think will hold your candles.
Prepping the Blocks for the Menorah
We picked up our length of cheap 2×2 pine at the hardware store. Home Depot will cut the wood for you, so if you don’t want to saw it up at home, get it cut before you leave! You will, however have to sand that wood to get it nice and smooth. We did this while watching Agents of Shield, naturally.
After we were done sanding, my husband got out his drill press. He loves that thing so much. That’s lucky for me!
He carefully drilled down into each block about two and a half inches, with a half inch bit. The idea was to be able to set the removable candle cups that I had purchased, into the holes, when we use these for our menorah. But I also want the option to use these blocks for other uses, in the future. I can see them working well as a table marker. Who knows what I will come up with for them?
Once the holes were drilled, I did a quick coat of craft paint on the sanded wood blocks. No need to prime and I wasn’t particularly worried about getting it perfect or even. We had some old leftover paints around the house, so I pulled them out. We went with a mix of primary comic book inspired colors. Because I knew I would be decoupaging over the painted surface for the most part, it didn’t need a second coat. I use a plastic boot tray on the kitchen table when I have a small project to paint.
Time to Decoupage the Marvel Menorah with Avengers Comic Books
While my paint dried, I headed out to my local “Friends of the Library” book store. They always have a great selection of kids books and comic books. I didn’t want to use anything truly vintage or valuable for this craft project so I stuck to more recent and beat up comic books. I managed to score 4 that were Avengers, Inhumans, Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther related. All of these had the glossy style paper, which I was worried about using. But it turned out fine in the end. Four comic books was also overkill. I really only need 2-3. But at $1 or less each, I figured better safe than sorry!
Back at home I used my blocks to trace and cut out comics to decoupage. I laid the blocks right down on top of the books, on top of the section I wanted to use, and traced around the block with a pencil. I then cut it out once, and then went around the outline a second time, trimming it down a bit to be a little smaller than the surface I would be decoupaging it onto. Again, I did not worry about things being too “perfect.”
For each block, I needed four images. I tried to get at least one clear character for each. I also cut out images of words like “BOOM” and flaming backgrounds and a few titles. There was more than enough for me to use.
At last it was time to decoupage. I can’t say that I am great at decoupage. I tend to get impatient and mess things up. But I just did my best and followed the Mod Podge directions. First I applied a thin coat to the wood. Then I applied a thin coat to the paper. then I slapped them together and used an old credit card to gently press out the air bubbles and smooth it down. Then I let it dry.
Waiting is not my strong suit, but it really has to get good and dry before you move on.
The Finishing Touches on this Handmade Novelty Menorah
After it was nice and dry I used the extra fine sandpaper to go around the edges, making sure there were no overhanging bits and sort of roughing up and distracting the comics (very gently) here and there for a more vintage look.
Finally, when I was satisfied, I dusted it all off and applied a final coat of decoupage to seal the blocks.
All that was left to do was glue down the washers on the top of each block. The washers gave each block a more finished look plus I figured they are a good idea when using them with candles. The candle cups I purchased on Amazon fit down into them perfectly, and fit most Hanukkah Candles.
Now I cannot wait to use this Marvel Menorah. One of the super cool things about it is that it never gets boring. You can spin the blocks around, rearrange them and have a whole new menorah to look at each night. The combinations make it extra fun.
If Disney Marvel characters were around in 200 BCE, they probably would have been Maccabees. Who knows, maybe they were. The whole Hanukkah story has a bit of a Marvel feel to it in my opinion!
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