I love candles, who doesn't right? I love ones that are shaped or decorated in some unique way. Or ones that match a theme to your decor. My kitchen theme is apples & roosters so I love to display & use candles in that room that have an apple or some type food scent. And my living room is a lodge theme so I like to use candles in there that both have an outdoors scent & theme.
A few weeks ago my grandson & I along with his other nanny, took a trip to The Smokey Mountains and we stopped along the way to look inside Bass Pro shop. He just has to go inside Bass Pro for all his fly fishing lures that he loves to fish with. And as we looked throughout that awesome store which has so many pretty lodge themed decor items. I saw the cutest little cast iron skillets that were made into candles, ones that simulated a baked pie. They had other ones too like mugs that housed a hot cocoa candle. Oh, they smelled so good. And the prices were not that high, I think most were like $10+ depending on the sizes. I know what we will be on my Christmas wish list to send my hubby ;) this year.
But until then, I thought I would see if I could mock one of my own with a DIY project. So that's just what I did!!! I had bought a tiny decor skillet in a yard sale for $1 (it's not cast iron but I'm still on the look out for some) this one is more of a metal skillet that had the two tone speckled paint on it, of blue with white specks. It has a handle and was so cute! As soon as I saw it I thought it would be great to try to make a pie themed candle to match my lodge themed decor.
First, I had to melt down my candle wax. You can buy candle wax tarts that are scented and use those to melt down. I do sometimes buy the tarts, but most times I just buy the small scented votive candles and use those to burn down into my tart warmer. You can even save any candles you have that are burnt down and almost gone in jars & scrape those out of inside to use and melt down, or old pillar candles that are chipped, etc from yard sales or that may have gotten bent due to heat & stoarge. Many ideas to gain your scented candles besides buying them brand new to create ones like in this DIY project. So watch out for where you may see all the ideas mentioned. By melting tiny voltives, I know it gives me a free wick & tin plate to use again. Because those wicks that came out of the votives I melted have a tin plate attached to the bottom of the wick, which helps it stand up with it begins to firm up & the wax dries. You can buy the wicks in different sizes at your craft stores. Then just gather up the containers you will pour your wax into. I save glass jars with lids and create the cutest candles. You can melt down your old waxes by using a tart warm or a hot plate in which I just hover over the top of the hot plate (not really sitting my old metal pot on the eye which I have on the lowest heating setting) Today, I used both for this project. I bought this awesome tart warmer at Ben Franklin Crafts about 3yrs back & I love it!! I use it in my livingroom. It not only melts my tarts in the top little pan that provides a great scent, it has punched holes in the outside of the bottom cantainer that shine through it & onto the walls & cast such pretty design & light to enjoy.
Now onto how I made the pie pan candle.
Well, I wanted it to have 3 different scents (just like the ones you buy that are layered and give you separate scents as it burns down). So as my pie crust (bottom layer) I wanted that candle to be lighter in color. So I melted down slowly in my tart warmer, the scented candle pears which was just the remaining bottom portion of a glass candle. I simply took a knife a chunked out tiny pieces to melt down. And I slowly poured in that candle scent into my pan, and moving the pan around to spread it across the bottom of the pan and onto the upper sides very thin like until it was covering the whole pan but in a thin layer so that I will have enough rough for my 2nd scented layer. When you first begin pouring in your first layer, that's the time to add your wick with its tin plate attached (that I used from the votive candle I melted down) Now still on the 1st candle layer, to get the pressed crust outer trimmed look. While the wax is drying but still pliable, I took a pencil and pressed it up against the outer edge of the pans rim (to make it look like the crust of a pie) then I poured more of the same wax into the pan but directing it as I moved my pan about, so that it would flow into the crust shape & sort of fill up the indentations. After that dried pretty good, then I melted down my 2nd scent wax which was pumpkin scented tarts that were a bit darker in color. I noticed that as the wax melts for any candle color, that your color gets lighter and I wanted it darker in orange color so I melted in with the pumpkin scented wax a tiny piece of orange crayon. Then added that to the fill up the pie pan for my 2nd scent of pumpkin. Then I took an old candle that was a Carmel apple scent and crumbed it into tiny pieces and just dropped those onto of my pie as the strudel topping.
It plugs in & there is a low voltage light bulb inside the bottom that heats up the tiny tin plate on top that is removable. That is how I am melting (slowly) my tart wax to pour inside my pie pan to create my candle.
See, the top tart pie plate has a handle and is removable :)
Now it is melting the wax slowly so I can pour it into my pan
I also used the bottom cantainer of the tart warmer to just sit my pan on and heat it slowly to melt my wax (very low heat from the light bulb so it takes a while to melt)
Now I add my wick with tin plate to the center
Then move around the wax to coat the bottom of the pan & the outter edges (for my crust look layer) It get's prettier...I promise
At this point, my first layer has dried but still pliable, so I added my second scented wax (for my filling of the pie which is a darker colored wax of orange) And as you can see, I took a pencil and pushed against the sides of my first wax layer to create the crust and the ripples of the crust edges. Then , while all the wax was still pliable and not hardened yet, I dropped onto the top of the pie, crumbles of my 3rd wax scent to simulate a strudel crumb. (This was an old glade glass jar candle that you see in the picture inwich I took a knife and dug around in it until it was tiny crumbly pieces to drop on top of my pies top. )
Let it set up firm and your done! I now have a 3 scented candle that I can burn and enjoy with the scents of Carmel apple, pumpkin, then pears. And It matches my lodge theme decor just great!
I love black bears"can you tell?" LOL
A better look far away
A closer look with it lit :) The scent is so nice!
I do advise that if you try to make any type candles, do it with no children around, stay with it until your completely done and never get your wax to hot. I use the tart warmer that I already have to let my wax melt as usual and poured it in slowly and it was never extremely hot but wax is wax and is hurtful & harmful to burn if it gets on you so take caution and be safe. Because of the way I melted my wax down and created my pie pan candle, it was a slow process and took about an hour. So patience is needed when you take on the project.
You can create tiny jar candles in the same way. Examples are below that I made from tiny jelly jars and they had the cutest lids! Those would make great gifts to put inside a gift basket. And~~do you see my ziplock bags in the photo , just behind the jars? Well, those are my wax pieces that I had used in my tart pan.. A great tip to remove a wax scent from your tart pan (if your top tart pan is removable like mine) is that after you have turned off your tart warmer, let the wax in the pan cool & set..then you place the pan tart in your freezer..when it is ice cold..take it out & just pop out that wax shape the same way you would pop out ice from an old type ice tray..They pop right out! Then store them in ziplock bags to savor there scents. And that way you can constantly change out the scent you want to enjoy.
This weekend I plan on making wax dipped pine cones so maybe I will be back to share that craft as well :)
What type crafts do you enjoy making? I would love to hear about them so leave me a comment :) Or share ideas you have with me on candle making. Though I am in my work shop allot & do my hand painting and wood work then my seamstress work, this was my first attempt at candle making just using found objects, but I really enjoyed how they turned out. I seldom through anything out that I can reuse in some way and give it new life & charm. So I will be saving all the objects I come across like pans, jars , etc that I can use as candle items to create in someway. Have a great Fall day ya'll :) ~Julie
A few weeks ago my grandson & I along with his other nanny, took a trip to The Smokey Mountains and we stopped along the way to look inside Bass Pro shop. He just has to go inside Bass Pro for all his fly fishing lures that he loves to fish with. And as we looked throughout that awesome store which has so many pretty lodge themed decor items. I saw the cutest little cast iron skillets that were made into candles, ones that simulated a baked pie. They had other ones too like mugs that housed a hot cocoa candle. Oh, they smelled so good. And the prices were not that high, I think most were like $10+ depending on the sizes. I know what we will be on my Christmas wish list to send my hubby ;) this year.
But until then, I thought I would see if I could mock one of my own with a DIY project. So that's just what I did!!! I had bought a tiny decor skillet in a yard sale for $1 (it's not cast iron but I'm still on the look out for some) this one is more of a metal skillet that had the two tone speckled paint on it, of blue with white specks. It has a handle and was so cute! As soon as I saw it I thought it would be great to try to make a pie themed candle to match my lodge themed decor.
First, I had to melt down my candle wax. You can buy candle wax tarts that are scented and use those to melt down. I do sometimes buy the tarts, but most times I just buy the small scented votive candles and use those to burn down into my tart warmer. You can even save any candles you have that are burnt down and almost gone in jars & scrape those out of inside to use and melt down, or old pillar candles that are chipped, etc from yard sales or that may have gotten bent due to heat & stoarge. Many ideas to gain your scented candles besides buying them brand new to create ones like in this DIY project. So watch out for where you may see all the ideas mentioned. By melting tiny voltives, I know it gives me a free wick & tin plate to use again. Because those wicks that came out of the votives I melted have a tin plate attached to the bottom of the wick, which helps it stand up with it begins to firm up & the wax dries. You can buy the wicks in different sizes at your craft stores. Then just gather up the containers you will pour your wax into. I save glass jars with lids and create the cutest candles. You can melt down your old waxes by using a tart warm or a hot plate in which I just hover over the top of the hot plate (not really sitting my old metal pot on the eye which I have on the lowest heating setting) Today, I used both for this project. I bought this awesome tart warmer at Ben Franklin Crafts about 3yrs back & I love it!! I use it in my livingroom. It not only melts my tarts in the top little pan that provides a great scent, it has punched holes in the outside of the bottom cantainer that shine through it & onto the walls & cast such pretty design & light to enjoy.
Well, I wanted it to have 3 different scents (just like the ones you buy that are layered and give you separate scents as it burns down). So as my pie crust (bottom layer) I wanted that candle to be lighter in color. So I melted down slowly in my tart warmer, the scented candle pears which was just the remaining bottom portion of a glass candle. I simply took a knife a chunked out tiny pieces to melt down. And I slowly poured in that candle scent into my pan, and moving the pan around to spread it across the bottom of the pan and onto the upper sides very thin like until it was covering the whole pan but in a thin layer so that I will have enough rough for my 2nd scented layer. When you first begin pouring in your first layer, that's the time to add your wick with its tin plate attached (that I used from the votive candle I melted down) Now still on the 1st candle layer, to get the pressed crust outer trimmed look. While the wax is drying but still pliable, I took a pencil and pressed it up against the outer edge of the pans rim (to make it look like the crust of a pie) then I poured more of the same wax into the pan but directing it as I moved my pan about, so that it would flow into the crust shape & sort of fill up the indentations. After that dried pretty good, then I melted down my 2nd scent wax which was pumpkin scented tarts that were a bit darker in color. I noticed that as the wax melts for any candle color, that your color gets lighter and I wanted it darker in orange color so I melted in with the pumpkin scented wax a tiny piece of orange crayon. Then added that to the fill up the pie pan for my 2nd scent of pumpkin. Then I took an old candle that was a Carmel apple scent and crumbed it into tiny pieces and just dropped those onto of my pie as the strudel topping.
It plugs in & there is a low voltage light bulb inside the bottom that heats up the tiny tin plate on top that is removable. That is how I am melting (slowly) my tart wax to pour inside my pie pan to create my candle.
See, the top tart pie plate has a handle and is removable :)
Let it set up firm and your done! I now have a 3 scented candle that I can burn and enjoy with the scents of Carmel apple, pumpkin, then pears. And It matches my lodge theme decor just great!
I do advise that if you try to make any type candles, do it with no children around, stay with it until your completely done and never get your wax to hot. I use the tart warmer that I already have to let my wax melt as usual and poured it in slowly and it was never extremely hot but wax is wax and is hurtful & harmful to burn if it gets on you so take caution and be safe. Because of the way I melted my wax down and created my pie pan candle, it was a slow process and took about an hour. So patience is needed when you take on the project.
You can create tiny jar candles in the same way. Examples are below that I made from tiny jelly jars and they had the cutest lids! Those would make great gifts to put inside a gift basket. And~~do you see my ziplock bags in the photo , just behind the jars? Well, those are my wax pieces that I had used in my tart pan.. A great tip to remove a wax scent from your tart pan (if your top tart pan is removable like mine) is that after you have turned off your tart warmer, let the wax in the pan cool & set..then you place the pan tart in your freezer..when it is ice cold..take it out & just pop out that wax shape the same way you would pop out ice from an old type ice tray..They pop right out! Then store them in ziplock bags to savor there scents. And that way you can constantly change out the scent you want to enjoy.
This weekend I plan on making wax dipped pine cones so maybe I will be back to share that craft as well :)
What type crafts do you enjoy making? I would love to hear about them so leave me a comment :) Or share ideas you have with me on candle making. Though I am in my work shop allot & do my hand painting and wood work then my seamstress work, this was my first attempt at candle making just using found objects, but I really enjoyed how they turned out. I seldom through anything out that I can reuse in some way and give it new life & charm. So I will be saving all the objects I come across like pans, jars , etc that I can use as candle items to create in someway. Have a great Fall day ya'll :) ~Julie
4th of July
