GraceAdkinsDesigns: 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.