Smickerdoodle, welcome to the forum. I started on the GJ forum then found Painting, Crafts, and this one. I love them all and get so many hours of pleasure on them as well as great ideas. I haven't seen the plastic candy canes, but that would be a perfect solution. No worries about them melting away. I may play with making the back one a bit shorter so the easel will not sit up quite so straight. Please join in on any and all of the posts on here, and share your ideas and pics with us too. Luvs

Speaking of the ability of these types of things to cause damage ... I had placed a pillar candle on the side of my tub, just to inspire me while working on the bathroom. Well, they have little metal pieces on the bottom holding the wick. I was so careful not to put anything metal on my tub and had no idea there was metal on a candle base : ( Somehow it got wet over there and left a mark. Thankfully, I found it early and it's very faint, but soooo disheartening : (( And, yes, candles leave gray soot all over the place. I recall something about the other residues, also, with regards to later painting. Though a family member burns a lot of candles on the weekend and repainted without difficulty. Wasn't aware of a fire hazard from it, though, and will have to look into that. Definitely affects my lungs! Have also read where the fragrances and oils can be fatal to birds. So what about our kitchens? Cooking oils, grease, gas burners. Gets on the walls there also and migrates. Many don't have the super cooking exhaust systems of today. Not sure my place could even handle one. I've got an otr 300cpm microwave unit, exhausting to the outside, that doesn't seem to work all that great (and is horribly noisy at that level).

Forgive my ignorance for not reading this thread (not my read) and seeing previous comments if anyone stated this before, but if you do enjoy candles try soy candles. Regular wax burning candles (Yankee being one of them) leek potential hazardous fumes and chemicals that can be carcinogenic (no sourced article here but there are several sourced medical journals with this study). I would stay from candles all together and use artificial ones for that glow, or mood lights, aromatherapy oils are fine too.  Soy candles if you really want candles. Keep the wick short no matter the brand, dont let it burn for more than a couple hours at most, immediately cover the candle with the topper or a plate after done using it. It exhausts the fire, preventing any stains on walls. And keep it in the middle of the room you're using it in.

I would do stained glass with timer lights behind the panels. Something like flameless candles, or timer string o lights that are around during Christmas. Or if you are lucky and can find them, there are remote control lights out there- I picked some up during Halloween that were supposed to go in pumpkins. Then you would have the niches lit up or not at will, or timed during the later evening hours when a little ambient light is nice. Even the stained glass could be easy- they sell the fake stuff at most home improvement places, or you could make your own using liquid glass. I've made several fake glass panels out of the liquid glass stuff. Or you could use rice paper, and just do solid frosted panels.