Old to New…Candles

Yesterday one of my very best friends came over and helped me with some small projects I wanted to get done before baby arrives.  We still have a while, but I have a lot of small projects so every little bit helps.  Anyway, we hadn’t really planned on doing the project I’m writing about, but I’m glad we did!  It took a while, but the end result was a fun, colorful, and great smelling new candle.

Now I know some of you may have already figured this out, but it took me a while!  I love candles, but it always ends up having that little bit of wax left over and I just hate to throw it away.  So that leaves me saving all these glasses of little bits of candle and taking up valuable storage space. 

                                 

Since I am now in the process of getting rid of things I don’t need and trying to make room for baby, I decided to compile all of my pieces of candles into one new candle.  If you have the same problem as I do and need a solution, here is how I did it!

After we finished last night, I decided there were a few extra steps I would have taken to make it a bit easier. All in all it is pretty simple, just time consuming.

First a list of supplies:

• Some type of jar (One that can withstand the heat of the flame)
• Wicks (I bought mine at hobby lobby)
•  
• Your left over candles
• Wax paper
• Tweezers
• Stove and pot (There are probably other ways to do this, but we did ours on the stove)
• Something to protect your hands from the hot jars
• Scissors
• Anything you want to decorate your finished product with

Once you’ve gathered your supplies, it’s time to start! I would suggest putting wax paper down under your new jars to help with any wax spills and makes clean up easier. (We didn’t do this, but I wish we had) You may also want to try some way of gluing your wick to the bottom of your jar before getting started.  We also did not do this and ended up holding the wicks to try and keep them straight when we first got started. I’m not sure if hot glue will work because of the hot wax melting it, so if anyone has any suggestions I would love to know! We decided the best way to melt the wax was in a pot of water on the stove.  I used a small pot because most of my candles were small.  As we got started we decided we needed something in the bottom of the pot to keep the candle from actually sitting completely on the bottom.  So Amber grabbed a spaghetti spoon and it actually worked perfectly and helped with lifting the candle out of the boiling water.  So we let the candle sit in the water until the wax was melted.  Sometimes the original wicks weren’t stuck to the bottom, so you need something to get those out with before you pour out the wax.

Once your wax has melted, carefully lift the jar out of the water and place on a towel or something that is easy for you to grab the jar and pour. 

Let that layer completely cool before pouring the next layer in.  Just keep repeating those steps until you have used up all your old wax.  I would not pour all of your old wax in because a lot of times the old burnt wax settles in the bottom and that doesn’t make a very pretty new candle. We also found it helpful to sit the new jars in the refrigerator for just a few minutes to help the wax cool faster.  Although this is not necessary and don’t leave them in for long because it will cause the center to cave in.

Once you have finished with as many layers as you want in your new candle, you can decorate your jars with ribbon or leave them plain.  You can either clean your old jars and reuse them, and if I had room to store them I would have. I have seen a lot of instructions from pinterest on how to do this, so I will try to find one and link it on here.  I hope you enjoy your new old candles!

Janna Banana