Since this area of the site is so quiet (echo... echo), I'll post some candles I made last night. These are scented Red Papaya and are for a friend.
This is a gift. Tried a little different technique on this.
And here's a candle made from recycled wax.
I made this three wick pillar scented Harvest for fall.
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Here's some pillars for my girlfriend. She wanted baby blue layers, so that's what I did.
They didn't turn out exactly as I would have wished, but ah well. It's a new scent I'm playing with, and testing out.
A while back, Aimee sent me some yogurt jars. They're the cutest little thing, and I finally got around to filling them. I used soy wax, and swirled it a bit. This isn't the best picture, but ah well.
Okay, so this technically isn't a candle, but it's made with wax. They are dipped bears. My first attempt. I'm more critical than my husband, who says, "They're fine - sell em!!" I think they need a little work. I'm going to try again and see what happens. Maybe these will be some discounted bears...
Anyway, the idea is you dip the bear in scented wax and it is a cute air freshener. I've never bought one, but I guess people like them.
They were a terrible mess to make, but scented up my house nicely!!
New candles:
The Moon, scented with a clinique Happy duplicate.
Christmas candles, scented for the Holidays.
And last, some Raspberry Cordial chunk pillars.
My snowball candles:
I'm going to put them in the store, probably tomorrow. I thought I would today, but I'm always behind.
More pillars. These are patchouli.
There's no wicks in there yet, and I haven't leveled them. But, I was excited to get them out of the mold and see if things went as planned. They did. Yay!!
A housewarming gift:
She wanted Baby Powder scent, but the green color. I can't wait to give them to her. The 2 bigs ones are her gift, the smaller one is my tester. These were made with straight paraffin and fragrance.
Scented chunk candles:
I used a Christmas fragrance that I have (and love). These are so fun. I wanted a deeper green, but I'm happy with how they turned out.
Pillars:
This one the blackish color was supposed to be lighter. They are scented with a fresh laundry fragrance.
I melted down a big pillar that I had and made some recycled candles. They're nothing I'd sell at my store, but they were fun. I'll probably throw them in as fuglies, or give some away.
The first one I used an ice bath on for ??? reason. The middle ones were from pill bottles (got the idea from a fellow chandler), and the bottom were just votive molds.
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Packer Colors!! (Completely unintentional, actually.)
Well, I finally finished pouring 2 quart mason jar candles. I filled the jars for a couple family members. One is Lettuce Crunch scented, the other is Crispy Cucumber. They look lovely, and (will) burn well (I tested my ass off with these), but I don't think I'll be adding quart masons to the store any time soon. They were a pain in the booty to make.
I still have a slew of other candles to make. I'm currently pouring some Mulberry ones, and will be also pouring some Fall Harvest ones, too. The kids thought I was making candy. Haha!! Fools!!! It's wax. Mwahahahahaha.
In the progress of making some candy corn candles for fall. Below are the pictures of the candles, sitting in their molds, then after I take them out.
And here they are, after they are released from their molds. The pins are still in them, except for one that I took out to put a wick in a test to see how it burns. You can see that I made some tarts with the leftover wax.
Burning
I just lit the burning candle, so it doesn't have a full melt pool yet. I'm hoping the wick I'm using will be sufficient enough for the candle. When I'm done testing, I'll put them up at the store.
Nakachi asked me how to make incense. Lemme tell you...
Making homemade incense is super easy. All you need is the stuff to make it. I bought the supplies (sticks, solvent) here.
I'm sure if you did a Google search, you could find other incense suppliers, as well. However, I used this instruction sheet (I printed it out so I could highlight and make notes on it).
Basically you make a solution/scent mix, lay the incense flat in it for 24 hours, then remove them (you can re-use the scent solution) and let them dry. I hung them by the bundle out on my clothesline, because that was the fastest way to get them to dry and I didn't have to worry about the drops of solution mucking up the house.
Lemme tell you, I really like the insence that I made. I used an apple scent and you could smell it pretty well, along with the regular burning-insence smell.
I thought about offering them at my store, but am not sure if I will.
You can find pictures of mine here.
Happy insence making!!
Oooh. I'd like to try making these Fredom Candles. However, I don't think I'll be making them for the 4th of July, since that's in only a day. But, I'd like to try the technique.
Finally, I got around to putting Grubbies up for sale at my store.
I love these things. Problem is, they're so dang cute, I have a hard time burning them.
Burn Again candle kits. You know I love this idea. This is a fabulous kit and gives you everything you need to get started, at a good price, too. Believe me, I know this from buying candle stuff.
Of coarse, you can always do it the Brandy way with the little paper cups. But, if you don't want to do that, and feel like you must have "official" supplies, try the kit.
Stop throwing out old candles!!
I got some orders at the store. Yeehaw. I'm working in filling them right now, so I can get some out in the mail tomorrow. I got a request for 8 doggie bones, here's 2 of my favorite so far:
Those are "lettuce" scented. And then there's some candles that are cooling right now:
I'm eager to get them out of their molds and have a gander at them. I layered them (my personal favorite) and want to see how they turn out.
I feel like a little kid playing "store" - if only I got a cash register to play with, too. And some carbon copies for invoices. Man. I remember playing with carbon copies. I don't even know if those are made anymore...
This is what I made for my mother-in-law for mother's day:
I scented it with chocolate and vanilla for an almondyjoy kind of thang. It smelled delicious. I hope it's super scented when she burns it. It cracked a little and I tried to repair it with the pressure of my finger. I only succeeded in making it worse, dammit.
So, then, feeling the smooth wax under my fingers, I started to swirl my finger around on the top, hoping to mask my mistake. Didn't work.
Oh well. I attatched a tag and some pretty purple paper.
More candles.
I ordered some candle scents from Wholesale Supplies Plus (online). They are the best candle/soap making supplier I've come across so far. I highly reccomend them. These candles were Apple Blossom, I believe. I've been on a candle making kick. Not a big suprise, of coarse, considering it is one of my favorite things to make.
I made two more candles. I think this is getting to be an obsession, really. Actually, my mom had a sage and citrus candle (Yankee Candle Co. candle) and it was one of those big jar ones. There was about an inch of wax left over, so I melted it down and made the above candles. I used some other wax that I had, so I could make a layered one. They smell great.
I bought a jar candle that I hated. It had no scent, so I melted it down and made some wee ones out of the wax. (Easy way to melt down a jar candle, put it in the oven on "warm" - it's soooo simple. And you can re-use the jar to melt down other wax in, by doing it the same way).
I used Brandy's waxed cup mold method, for easy clean up.
I had the red jar candle and a wee bit of purple wax left in another jar canle. I also added a bit of white wax to some of the red to make a layered look. (Just wait until one layer hardens - you can speed this by putting it in the freezer - and then pour a different color on top and repeat). I also added extra scent to my candles.
My lit candle.
Two other canldes, maybe give away as little giftys.
I had one other candle, but it was terribly deformed. I'll still use it, though. Wax is wax, baby.
Hey - one great way to color your candles is to use crayons. Yes, crayons. That's one good reason I save all of my kid's little crayon bits. It doesn't take much, either. You just pop a little piece (like the length of a fingernail or less) into your melting wax and tada!! you've got color.
(NOTE: This is just a reccomendation for candle "fun". Meaning, that when you're just having fun making candles, and aren't too terribly concerned about how they will burn, and such. Crayon color can make your candle burn weird, sometimes. So, just be careful - or use it to make a pretty wax pillar that you're not going to burn...)
It's especially handy when you're wanting to have fun and make interesting or different colors. You can't find brown or grey wax dye so easy, but a brown or grey crayon? Of coarse. If you don't usually stock crayons, but make candles, it's definitely worth it to just pick up a box of 24 crayons (or bigger, if you so please).
Hey, don't throw your old wax away. I've salvaged many candles and saved lots of money by re-using wax!! Once my dad was trying to dry out our wet bedroom and turned on 2 de-humidifyers and closed the door of our room. The result? All the candles in my bedroom slumped over from the heat. About 100 dollars worth of candles. Ruined? No. I just melted them down and put new wicks in them and made new candles.
I've been burning candles like a madwoman lately and two of them were just a hairs breath away from death. So, I figured it was candle recycling time. I had just gotten done making chicken nuggets, too, so my oven was warm. Don't know how to simply recycle candles? Well, here's how:
This is for candles that come in a glass jar, folks. Like Yankee candles (see example). When they get down to about and inch from the base, put the jars on a cookie sheet and slide them into an oven set to "Warm." The wax will liquify and you can pour it into something else, combining the wax of a few candles to make a recycled one. I used a chocolate one and a pumpkin pie one.
Be careful when handling the jars. They get pretty warm. And you might want to pick out the old wicks and holders - if not, just be careful not to pour them into your new candle.
For the mold, you can use a traditional candle mold and wick, or a new jar - whatever. But, I took a hint from this crafty chick and used a Dixie cup!! Fabulous idearsky, eh? (She melted down one huge candle for hers - don't throw that wax away, folks!!) I only had one left, too. I was kind of in a haste when I was doing it, though and my candle looked pretty ghetto compared to her pretty ones (while in process):
And, I got a little nervous when wax began to leak from the side. But it was all good. It's just like making regular candles, but more relaxing. (You can even make a big jar candle with different layers of different scents over time, just setting the recycled wax jar away until you are ready to add to it. Just make sure you wait for one layer to harden in between.) Normally I'd use an old mold, but I like her idea of the cup (easy clean up) better.
End result:
And it smells great, too. All I had to do was peel the cup away, trim the wick and light.
Excellent candle-making instructions. I just finished making some candles last week. I love to make me some candles. But, instead of telling you all about it, I'll just lead you over to her, since she does such a nice, nice job of it and I'll just leave you with a picture of one of the candles that I made. (PS- I'm trying her idea with the cups and such. Perfect!!)
I used 3 new glass candle holders for the ones I'm giving away as gifts, but then just used an old glass that I never drank out of anymore for the one I kept. I'll show you the one I kept, since the others are gifts for online-folk ;)
Here's the candle in my hand.