Make: New Candles Out of Old Ones

Luckily I created this post before I broke my toe, so this week won't be entirely filled with posts about said toe and my movie marathons.  Thanks so much for all the movie recommendations! I love Midnight in Paris, one of my faves and my Fisher hasn't seen any Hitchcock either. So I am definitely putting those on my/our movie watching list (yes, i am playing the sympathy card to force my teenage son to hang out with me on the couch). Anyway . . .

This is a project I always take on around the holidays. It may be because I have a habit of burning candles day and night (especially in the fall and winter) or that I am trying to focus buying for others and not myself. I buy a lot of candles and my favorites can be on the more expensive side, and while they burn pretty well there is always left over remnants -  sometimes a lot. Somehow I ended up saving them several years back (my inner hoarder perhaps?) and one day I decided to try to melt them down to get a second life out of them - it worked. I have been saving them and making new candles out of them since. It also gives me an excuse to buy pretty new little dishes and vessels to hold them in.

What you need: Wicks and wick tabs, double broiler (i just use a regular pot and a metal bowl that i got at the thrift store that fits inside it with the edge over the lip of the pot), candle remnants, candle holders (little cups, bowls, you name it), chopsticks (several of the kind that are still joined together and one single stick). *If you don't have the awesome collection of take out chinese food chopsticks that I do you can use single chopsticks or kabob sticks and join two together with a rubber band on each end.

Measure your wicks so that the tab is flush to the bottom of your holder and the wick is about one and a half inches above the rim. Set aside.

Put water in the bottom of your pot and turn stove on to medium heat. Break up candle remnants and let melt. You can stir them around while you wait with your single chopstick (that's what i do). You can also pull out any weird things you might find in your melted wax with the tip of your chopstick. 

Slowly pour melted wax into your container.

I use my single chopstick to make sure the tab is secure in the middle. The wax gets sticky pretty quick when it hits the container so a little poke and it should secure it into place. Then just set aside and let them cool down. These make a really simple little holiday gift too. If you we know each other in real life, you have probably been on the receiving end of one of my frankenstein candle creations before.