Making Homemade Candles

Last time my sister came to visit, as we always love to do, we visited the many antique stores in town. While there we found some really cheap punch bowl glasses (maybe 2 for a dollar). She got the idea that we should go buy wax and make candles in them. Of course the only option in town to check for wax is Walmart, and the craft section is pretty lacking, so there was no wax to be found and our project came to a halt. 

I wasn't going to give up on our candle project that easy, though. The next time I went to visit my parents in NC I stopped by AC Moore and picked up a bag of wicks and soy candle wax. With a 40% off coupon I think I spent about $6.

A few months earlier I had purchased an assortment of 5 aromatherapy fragrant oils on eBay for about $3, which would be perfect for the candle scent. I decided to use lavender, one of my favorite scents. 

I got all the cups together, along with some other ones around the house that I thought would make cute candles. I dropped a few pieces of wax into the bottom of each glass and then melted them with a lighter. 

 

Then I placed the metal circle of the wick on top of the melted wax to hold the wick in place.

Next I poured the bag of wax into a measuring cup that I didn't care about. I would recommend using one you don't care about, because I had trouble fully cleaning the wax off afterwards.

I microwaved the wax in 15 second increments like the bag said to do. This was taking forever, so instead I decided to up the microwave time to 2 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes until the wax was totally melted and clear. Next I added about 15 drops of my lavender oil to the wax. 

I poured the wax into each container. To make sure the candle wick stayed in the middle of the candle I made little tape barriers to hold it up straight while it dried.

The candles smell great and cost a lot less, than buying that many candles at the store. They are fun and easy to make and are perfect for gifts. 

Do you have any tips for making a great candle? What scent would you choose for your candle?

Triptych Tandem

Years ago my sister made a triptych painting of a white two seater bike with a navy blue background.

I have been begging her for years to make me one, but finally decided to make my own. I am decent at painting, but usually dread it because it takes me forever to draw the object on the canvas. My husband on the other hand is great at drawing and is much faster than me, so one night I convinced him to draw the bike and told him that I would paint it in. When I woke up the next morning he had stayed up hours working on it and had already painted the background and started painting in the bike. I took over from there and painted in about 5 coats of white over his bike drawing. So thanks mostly to my husband, we now have this awesome painting in our bedroom.

 

We used acrylic paint and chose "English Ivy" green for the background to match our green dresser and lampshade.

Here is the painting we had hanging there before, which I painted back in high school.

It now lives at the end of our hallway.

What do you guys think? Has anyone else ever done a triptych painting? Or a painting made by two people?