Do you have old Candles, or bits of wax left in jars?
Do you usually throw these away, thinking there is nothing you can do with them once the wick is gone?
Here are a few tips for those of us that are cheap and frugal! LOL
Well, I have some
tips here for you, that are going to save you money and spare you from throwing away all that good wax!
As I've told you in prior posts, I use 100% Soy Wax in my candles....
But you might have some other kinds of wax left over at your house.
Be careful not to mix the types of waxes, some are not compatible with others! There should be a lable on the jar telling you what kind of wax it is. If you aren't sure, just keep the same kind of leftover wax together.
Save chunks or scrape out the unused wax from jars, and re-melt to make more candles. An easy and inexpensive way to do this is to use a saucepan with water in it and an old clean coffee can. You place the coffee can into the saucepan on the stove and put some of the unused wax into the can to melt. This acts as a double boiler and is the safest way to melt wax. While your wax is melting, put a wick into a container (perhaps one of the old jars?) and once the wax has melted you can pour it into the container and let harden.
You can also melt the wax, very carefully if it is stuck in the bottom of a jar or container... just place it on a cup warmer (you know the ones they sell to keep your coffee warm at your desk?) and it will slowly melt the wax releasing the scent into the air. You can chose to do this until the smell is gone, or when the wax is melted, pour it into something else to make another candle! I actually sell the candle warmers
here. They are just like the cup warmers, only a bit bigger to accomodate a jar candle. Check it out!
Now,
be very careful when melting wax!!!
NEVER heat wax directly in a saucepan on the stove.....it looks safe but sometimes when pouring it can combust and burst into flames! You can be severely burned by this! Please always use a double boiler, or the cheap-0 method described above.
If you choose to use a candy thermometer to gauge the temperature, never let the wax get any hotter than 200 degrees. Always let it cool down a bit before pouring.
You want to know about wicks?? You can purchase a package of wicks at any crafts store for about $2.00 and they usually come with a wick tab at the bottom to hold the wick in place (much easier when making candles).
OR....you can use a birthday candle for your wick!!!
How cool!?!
You can melt your old candle pieces in a
Tart Burner or
Potpourri burner. The potpourri burners look like little crock pots and they plug in, and the electricity warms the pot making the wax melt. The tart burners use a tealight underneath a bowl that holds the wax, and the flame melts the wax. Both are excellant ways to use up that old wax without having to get wicks. Both of these can be found for usually around $5.00-$10.00 at
Wal-Mart or
Costco, some store like that.
Here is a
Craft tip for you..........You can melt wax in an old coffee can, and then dip pine cones in the wax for a creative and festive look, or to use as firestarters! The wax coated pine cones will help the flames light in your fireplace, or fire pit!
Another cool idea for a fire starter is to get some old empty toilet paper rolls, fill them with lint from your dryer or newspaper , and coat these in the old wax. Then use these to push into openings in the logs when trying to start a fire. This is so much cheaper than buying the premade fire starters.
Use a grater or vegetable peeler and grate some of the old wax into a pile on a covered area. Then take some of the shavings and make sachets out of the wax shavings! You can use netting, cloth, old pantyhose or bags, the choices are endless. You can hang these in your closet or hamper, put them in drawers or even in your car as an air freshener!
If you keep your scents and your colors seperate, you can make layered candles. Just melt one at a time, and pour one at a time, let harden, and you will have layered candles! With the scent being layered, it might smell like blueberry and then go into apple, then go into vanilla, there are so many choices! Just make sure that the scents go well together, or you will have a "stinky" candle that you won't want to burn. This layering method will not work with the cup warmer idea above in #2, the wax will all melt together.
Try and mix up some good scents by yourself.....a bakery scent with a different bakery scent for example.....or a floral with another floral! You can mix and match and create all kinds of different smelling
candles
Well, there you have it!
A bunch of ideas for you to use up that old wax that I'm sure you were frustrated about, and usually ended up throwing away!
Hopefully, these tips were useful and will save you some money.
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