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Monday, February 25, 2013

Tea Cup Candles

This is my favorite craft so far!  I am so excited to share it with you I am pretty much jumping in my seat!  I got the idea off of Martha Stewart's website.

So the worst part about this craft is that these are my bridal shower gifts so I will be spoiling the surprise for the guests at the bridal shower.  However they have something to look forward to!

My mother and I made these together and we had a lot of fun together.  It only took us one and a half hours to make 33 candles!



Here are the things that you will need :
  • Tea cups (with or without saucers)
  • Pot
  • Candle Pouring Pot
  • Candle Wax
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • Wick Sustainers and wicks
  • Popsicle Sticks
  • Wooden Spoon
  • Candle Dye
  • Candle Scent
  • Super glue
Now before I explain how to make these gorgeous candles, I should explain where I found some of theses items.  I am not associated with any of these companies so this is my personal opinion.

I started with the candle wax.  My mother and I had no idea what kind of wax we wanted or where to find it at so we started searching online.  I found a great site Lone Star Candle Supply that explains the different types of wax and which you should use for each type of candle.  We ended up choosing IGI 4636 from the website since the description was helpful and it was a decent price for wax.  We also choose our pink dye and Japanese Cherry Blossom scent from the site as well.   

The candle pouring pot and the candle wicks we bought from amazon.  I highly recommend the Candlemakes Store for the wicks because you get so many for such a cheap price!

Lastly the tea cups which is the most fun part!  My mother and I went to thrift stores like Goodwill (yes the thrift shop happened to come on every time we were looking and we would blast it) and bought tea cups and matching saucers for a total of $1 each.  A lot of the places we went to had around 10 tea cups that we liked (and that was us being picky) so it is really easy to find them!  This is probably the best part because you get to see all of these different types of tea cups!

Before I begin, I want to mention that my grandma was afraid that the hot wax would melt or ruin the tea cups, it did not!  So don't be afraid to use them!

Now for the fun part!

Preparation of the wax:

Cut up your wax into smaller pieces (ours came in one giant 10lb block) by heating up a knife under hot water.

Cutting Wax

Put water in the pot, and put it on the stove to start heating up the water.  Put your candle pouring pot inside and place some of your wax inside.  Do not overfill the pouring pot with wax.  You can always add more blocks after you have melted it all of the way.

Candle Pouring Pot

Once the wax is melted, add scent until you can smell the scent inside of the wax.  You don't want add too much so that you don't over do it for when the candle is burning.  Also add drops of coloring to the wax.  We wanted a light pink so we put 8 drops of the hot pink into the wax.  Mix it together so it is consistant throughout.  When you let the candles dry, they will dry whitish.  Mother and I kept making the dye darker because we thought it was turning white but it drys white and then will go back to your dyed color after.

Adding candle scent


Preparation of the tea cups:

To prepare the cups, you need to glue the wick inside the cup.  Put hot glue on the bottom of the wick sustainer and place in the center of the cup.  Use one of your popsicle sticks to push it down in the bottom of the cup so you don't burn your finger.
wick sustainerspreperation of candles

Combine:
Before I begin, you need to make sure your cups are where you want to keep them for at least 2 hours.  You can move them after than to let them finishing cooling but you will not be able to move them before that.

Pour the hot wax into the tea cup.  Pour a little more than you actually want into it because the wax will condense a little while it is drying.
Filling candle container

Using your popsicle sticks, bend the wick over it so that the wick is centered in the candle.

Candles drying

Let them dry.  This is the worst part because you just want to see the finished product!

Finishing touches:

Take off the popsicle sticks and trim the wick.  Your candle is all done!

Tea cup candle

Optional step:
We had saucers for our teacups as well so we super glued the tea cup to the saucer after the wax was dried.

Extra assistance:
If you want to see a real-time video of how to do this, head over to this great video that my mother found where she shows you how to make candles.  We used this so we could figure out how to properly make them.  The lady isn't that social but her husband does a great job clarifying what you need to do and she doesn't over complicate the process.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Crafting,

Alyssa


P.S. I have linked this blog post to House of RoseMod Vintage Life, One More Time, The Charm of Home, No Minimalist There, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Boogie Board Cottage, DIY Showoff, A Bowl Full Of LemonsA Diamond In The Stuff, The Blackberry Vine, Crafty Confessions, Life on Lakeshore Drive