How to Make Candles Using Items Around the House

Candles are fun to make, but the kits at the store are so expensive we decided to make our own using items we have around the house. First some tips if you ever buy candles in glass containers, after the candlewax burns away clean out the container and save it for future use, or you can use any candy dish or small glass bowl, I would stick with glass to prevent a fire don’t use paper or plastic containers for your candles.

Ok so you have your containers, Next I always go to the nearest dollar store and buy a large candle white, or I take my tapered candles that have burned down and use them. If you have a crock pot this is your ideal way to make the candles, but if you don’t have a crock-pot. A microwave and old cooking pan will do fine.

Grab some crayons, if you don’t have any lying around the house( I save my children’s broken ones just for this purpose) You can buy a box for cheap like 50 cents. These are for adding color to your candles.

Next the scent, I buy the little containers of flavor, you know like for hard candy that smell really strong and thats what I use, but you can also get aromatherapy oil and add a couple drops to your wax, and It seems to work well. Now I don’t guarantee that these will smell great forever, but its a fun project to do at home, and they do smell good for quite sometime.

Now for the wick I use twine thin and a small safety pin, so have some wicks already cut and safety pins ready.

OK now we all the key ingredients. So first take your wax and if using a crock pot just cut into squares and put in crock-pot with lid on high, if using a microwave put wax in a microwave safe bowl and heat until melted, You can also use an old cooking pan, use cooking spray to lightly coat the pan and cut chunks of wax and cook over low heat until melted. Now you can add your color I would keep adding color until darkness is reached, just remember when cooled the color will be slightly lighter than in the pan.

Next I add the scent I add a couple drops to get my desired scent. Now the wax is ready, Now its time to set the wick and pick out what container you want to use first.

Take your twine and wrap a piece around the safety pin then latch it, this will go in the bottom of the candle to weigh the wick down. Now after your wax is nice and melted pour a little in the bottom of your container, about an inch. Then take your wick and place the safety pin in the middle of the container, then holding the top end of the wick wrap around a pencil and place on top of container, this allows the wick to stay placed in the middle of the candle. You can also get creative with colors and layer the colors, allow one to dry before pouring the other color or you will just mix them together. After candle is dry, I always place mine in freezer to speed up the process, remove the pencil and cut your wick, and voila a beautiful handmade candle at half the cost.

This is fun for the whole family to help with.