When I was 14 years old my mom, sister, and I decided to make a Christmas gift to send out to everyone. Something that was creative and full of holiday spirit but also something that would be useful. We came up with Christmas candles. My mom has always been super creative and always knew how to make a project look perfect. She came up with the idea to make a Christmas tree shaped mold out of cardboard and aluminum foil. We then used real pines from our Christmas tree and and soy wax to make these adorable little Christmas tree scented candles. They were a huge hit and everyone loved the natural scent of them. At the time I remember thinking wow, my mom is so creative. Since then I have strived to come up with creative and adorable ideas for crafts, just like my mom.
Three weeks ago when Conner and I were unpacking the kitchen at our new apartment I found these adorable mason jar glasses with chalkboards on them that I had bought my Freshman year of college. I thought wow, I haven't really used these that much and then I thought about the Christmas candles and how my mom used what we had around the house to make these adorable candles and I thought I could do the same with these mason jar glasses. This is when I had the cute idea to create drink themed scented candles. So here is how I went about making them:
Supplies Needed To Create:
Mason jar glasses with handles and chalkboards (I can't find the ones that I used because I bought them 4 years ago from Target and they no longer have them but these are similar and you can get them on Amazon Prime)
Approximately 4-5 lbs of soy wax, I got a 10 lb box of soy wax because it was cheaper and they came with:
The zest of two lemons
Cinnamon
Pink Betty Crocker Gel Food Color (optional)
Colored Candle Wax or colored crayons (optional)
A stove or heating top
A double boiler or pot and bowl used as a double boiler
Estimate Time To Create: 1 1/2 hours for candle making and label making
24 hours for candles to set
There are a lot of things that you can do with these candles to make them your own. I wanted to experiment with using some natural ingredients for coloring and flavor along with using some candle fragrance oils to compare the effectiveness of both. I am hoping that this tutorial will give you some basis of how to make candles so that you can get started with candle making and create all kinds of different and creative candles.
Step 1: Bring a double boiler to a boil, you can just use a heat resistant bowl over a boiling pot of water, just make sure it fits probably so that it sits on top and make sure you don't have too much water where it is spilling out of the pot. I used my Tasty One Top which is a smart induction heating top that you can plug in anywhere and use to cook things. It also comes with a plug-in thermometer and the whole thing connects to your phone where it can be controlled by an app. I used this because I could do it anywhere and it was easier to shoot pictures. Side note: the Tasty One Top is also a great thing to bring camping if you have an outlet so that you can cook full meals. Anyways, while the water is boiling use your hot glue gun to glue the candle wicks to the center of the bottom of the glasses. Don't trim the wicks until after the candles are hardened so that you can get the desired length that you want compared to the height of the candle wax.
Step 2: Once the water is boiling add 30-32 ounces of soy wax to the double boiler bowl, measured with a measuring cup. Stir constantly until fully melted and the wax has reached around 180 degrees, this temperature will allow the wax to absorb the fragrance added to the wax but it won't be too hot that it will evaporate the fragrance when it is added.
Step 3: Remove the wax from the heat and add your fragrance and color. I did one candle at a time. Meaning I heated 30-32 ounces of wax, added the candle's fragrance and color, and poured the mixture into the candle glass three separate times (one for each candle). For the cinnamon candle I just added natural cinnamon, approximately 3-4 tablespoons. This candle is pretty fragrant however a lot of the cinnamon settled on the bottom and I am sure that the candle would be a little more fragrant with a fragrance oil. For the strawberry lemonade candle I added 1 ounce of strawberry fragrance oil, 10-15 drops of pink food coloring gel, and the zest of 2 lemons. I added all of these ingredients at once but after seeing how the candle set I think it would be better to just add the strawberry fragrance oil and then about 30-45 minutes after letting the candle set just when it is a little thicker I would add the lemon zest and food coloring gel so that the zest and gel would be suspended and make a more appealing look. For the root beer candle I just added 1 ounce of root beer fragrance oil. For all of these candles I could've added candle coloring, used colored candle wax or added a colored crayon but I liked the white wax and I wanted to see how these natural fragrances and colors made the candles look. The cinnamon did naturally dye the candle so it is a light brown color. The pink food gel coloring didn't work how I thought it would. I thought because it wasn't water based it would mix better but it stayed pretty suspended. However if I had waited about 30-45 minutes into the hardening process to add this I think it would've looked really cool suspended and it would've added a strawberry look to the candle. The root beer candle I left uncolored so I could see what the natural look was like.
Step 4: After removing the bowl from the boiling water and adding the fragrance and color to the bowl, use tongs to lower each candle glass into the boiling water. Let the glass sit in the boiling water for about 1 minute and then remove each glass using the tongs. This helps prevent pull away between the candle wax and the candle glass.
Step 5: Set a candle wick setting device on the jar with the wick inside the device and pour the wax mixture into the glass. I suggest pouring the wax into a measuring cup or something with a pouring spout so that wax doesn't get on the top part of the glass and create an undesirable look.
Step 6: Let the candles set for approximately 24 hours. Once set, remove the wick setting devices and trim the candle wicks to your desired length.
Step 7: Using a cricket, create a vinyl label for each candle scent. Since these are chalkboards you could also use chalk and just write the flavors on the glasses.
Step 8: Apply the labels to the chalkboards on the candle glasses and now you have three homemade candles. Grab a lighter and light them up.
Thank you for reading about my first craft. If you have any questions don't hesitate to email or direct message me. Also if you do complete this craft and you feel like posting a picture of it, I would love it if you tagged me in it. I am so excited to share many more crafts with you guys. Until next Saturday...keep crafting on my friends!
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