Making Candles…

So it’s a rainy day here at Fishtail Cottage and I’ve been collecting craft ideas for when I have a day like to today to just play…

Curious if anyone else has been saving up all that extra candle wax that is left over in your candles after the wick has been burned out?  I have a whole cabinet stuffed with jars with just a little candle wax left over. 

I’ve purchased some pretty expensive candles from time to time, and I hate throwing them away ~ so I figured if I save enough, maybe I can melt down what I have and use re-melt the wax and make a new candle.

Using a butter knife, I emptied the jars of the candle wax into a pan that I picked up for .99 cents at the thrift store.

Being my first time trying to do this, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money in case I failed..I used a 40% coupon at Michaels for the new wicks and rusty food cans that I’ve been using outside for flowers now and then.

 

Wrapping the wick around a pencil to hold it in place when I filled the cans was an awesome idea.  it worked great because I didn’t purchase the special stickers that was suggested.

Not sure what I was doing, I decided that melting wax might be like melting chocolate and thought the idea of a double boiler was worth a try. Like chocolate, I continuously stirred until all of the wax was melted.

 

 

 

Once melted, I carefully poured into the cans that I had prepped before melting the wax.  A little disappointed that the amount of wax I had only made enough to fill two and a half 8 oz cans.

 

 

 

 

 

While the wax hardened, I cut paper to fit around the cans!

 

Once the side of the cans were cold to the touch I adhered the paper by using modge podge. and using rubber bands to hold the paper in place. 

 

After the paper dried, I decided that my candle project still needed more. So I went to my Pinterest Ephemera page and printed a few pretty pictures that I have saved. Again, using modge podge to adhere the pictures and rubber bands to keep the prints in place until dry. 

 

 

Once dry, it still felt to “put together” and formal, so I sanded the edges of the print and then distressed it using a water base stain.

 

 

 

I really love how these turned out! My favorite part of this project is the curly cue wick that I left at the top.  What do you think?  I had a lot of fun and plan to make more in the future! Who knows, maybe I might even sell them eventually in my Etsy Store?  Thanks so much for coming by today!  

To see where else I am linking to this week – please check my “Cottage Links” label…xoxo, tracie

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