Candle Making Basics

Once you have mastered the art of candle making, there is virtually a limitless amount of candle making crafts that you can do for every occasion.  There are crafts simple and safe enough for you to teach your children, even preschoolers as well as crafts intended for more experienced candle makers. You can make candles specifically for the Fourth of July or customize candles for that special someone’s birthday party. Wedding candles, Christmas candles and devotional candles will be no problem for you to hand make from home.

Who knows! If you truly master the art of customizing candle crafts, people may be willing to pay money for your creations and with a little business sense and know how, you might be able to give up your day job.  However for the purpose of this article, we are going to showcase just a few really easy candle making crafts that you can do right away.

Here are just a few of the Candle Making Crafts I found from a quick search on the internet:

Fourth of July Candles

Heat wax to 200 degrees and add scent of your choice. Center the wick pin in the bottom of the mold and place a wick clip at the top to hold the pin in place. Pour wax into your molds.

Heat your wax and re-pour to fill the void if your wax formed a void around the wick pin. Remove the candle from the mold once the wax has completely cooled. Remove the wick pin and insert a pre-tabbed wick.

Paint over your candle with white paint if the wax is a natural color. Depending on what wax you use, a couple of layers of paint may be needed to get a bright white color. If the candle is bright white, skip this step. Let the paint dry and paint the stars red and blue.

When paint is dry, cover the entire candle with silver glitter glue to give it sparkle!

Scented Wax Melts

These wax melts are used in the top of oil burners, the wax reduces the speed at which the oil evaporates and can last up to 8 hours which means you don’t have to keep topping it up with oil or water.

Using a double boiler method melt down the wax, add some dye and add around 20 drops of essential oil for each melt you would like to make.

If you know your scents you can blend them to create your own fragrances too.

If you don’t have a round mold, use the bottom of a glass bowl and just fill to 1/2 inch in height. Or use miniature pie tins.

The dye is totally optional, but it makes it easier for people to see that there is HOT wax in the burner.

These melts store really well, all you have to do is pop it onto the burner.

To clean up between melts use a heavy paper towel and whilst it is still warm wipe around the top of the burner bowl to lift any wax residue and remaining scent away.

Shot Glass Candles

Break up all your old half burnt candles into the measuring cup. You can use discolored wax if you are using wax dye

Put the measuring cup in to a pan of boiling water and leave to melt

When the wax has almost melted down completely add the wax dye

Cut wick to fit the shot glasses

Put the wicks inside the shot glasses (Make sure only to use glass shot glasses, plastic ones will melt)

When the wax is melted completely pour a measure in to each shot glass(careful not to submerge to wick)

When the wax is almost completely set move the wick in to the center of the glass and leave to set

Wedding Favor Candles

This project is an ideal wedding favor. It is very easy to make and looks fantastic. You will need a photocopy of a picture of the happy couple.

You can cut down on costs by photocopying with black and white but color is better if you can afford the copies. If you have photo editing software and a scanner you could also scan and print these images. A hint of tint on the images with a matching table setting color makes a very nice added touch.

Trim the picture of the couple into an oval shape then melt some wax in a small pan. You will need only a very little wax, a tablespoon at most for each candle. Once melted, dip a paint brush into the wax. Working quickly, press the picture flat against the candle and begin brushing the wax around the edges of the picture.  This will seal the image to the candle and make it secure.

Once the image is stuck firmly to the candle you can begin decorating it. Using a nice lace run it around the bottom of the candle and secure with small metal pins or with hot wax. Be careful not to add decoration to the flame end of the candle as this may cause it to flare when it is burned. Use bead trimmings, rosettes or various other items for extra decoration.