DIY Teacup Candles

For our Joyful Simplicities Activity this week, we continued with our candle theme by making teacup candles. I had never made candles before, but it proved to be real easy!

Supplies

• Candle making kit (we used a soy wax kit that came with dye, scents, and wicks)
• A "Presto Kitchen Kettle" from Walmart or wherever (or you can research how to use the "double boiler" method) 
• A flat bottomed wisk or something similar to stir with
• A thermometer 
• Super glue 
• Teacups or small glass or ceramic containers (I got ours from the thrift store for cheap cheap cheap)

We first measured out our soy wax according to the directions on the kit (Well, sort of. We mostly guessed.)  We turned the temperature on our little Kitchen Kettle to "warm" and poured the wax in. Stick the thermometer in since keeping track of the temperature of the wax is important (do not let your wax get to hot or it might burst into flames). 

In the meantime, we place our wicks in the candles using tape and popsicle sticks to hold them into place. I recommend you use a dab of super glue instead. Just put a drop on the bottom of the wick then press it against the bottom of your teacup. After you've place the wicks in, go put your teacups in the oven on warm. You want to avoid pouring hot wax into cold cups.

When the temperature of our melted wax got to 170, we stirred in some dye. We chose yellow first since it seemed to work well with the "Hawaiian Dream" scent we were going to use. Soon after we added a little bit of our scent (the instructions in your kit should tell you just how much. We, again, guessed). Stir in the scent for a couple of minutes. 

Get your teacups out of the oven and get ready to do the final step...

We let the wax cool down to 150 then poured from the kettle into a pouring cup. From there, we carefully filled our teacups with wax making sure not to knock over the wick.

Let those puppies harden for a couple hours and don't light them for a day or so. Hope this DIY gives you the joy that comes from making something beautiful with your own two hands!

Lacey