Tip of the Day - Melt Down Old Candles
Posted on January 22, 2008 by
If you light candles in your house, you’ll know that there’s a point where there’s still wax left, but the wick is gone. Recycle the wax and make new candles!
I’ve done this a few times before and it’s a lot of fun. You can make new candles in jars, old tea cups, or small bowls. It’s a great use for thrift store china, or your favorite mug that ended up with a chip at the rim. It’s also a nice way to dilute the scent of candles that are a little too strong.
The way I melted down the old wax was a little fly by the seat of my pants, make it up as I go along, so I did a little digging and found real instructions for you.
Envocare has some very detailed directions.
Fabulous Foods has great ideas on scenting your recycled candles, and a neat idea for making fire starters.
CandleHelp has play by play photos of making votives and tea lights.
And here’s a candle craft that uses old crayons. I remember this one from second grade. I believe you can also use crayons to color regular wax candles.
Recycled candles make great gifts, but you might have a hard time parting with them.
making candles is such a great way to recycle materials…you can use almost anything you have laying around to either be a mold or add to the candle for aesthetic benefit. once you’ve done it a few times and you’re comfortable with it all it is very easy to start tweaking things a bit…it is soooo messy though! your old newspapers and pots/pans get a good workout during this craft time.
Ooh! Nicole you added some great points! It’s a great way new life for old pots and pans, and you can add things like shells, stones, glitter, bits of old jewelry and other non-flammable things to your candles too.
can you make melts with recycled candles? can you melt down a new candle in a jar and would you pour onto cookie baking pans with side on it, let it get alittle firm then cut out with cookie cutters??could you do it that way???