Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Homemade Tea Cup Candle

I made a tea cup candle today inspired by an earlier post. It was very easy and took all of 15 minutes. I used a scented tea light candle that I purchased at a thrift for .45 cents in the center of the tea cup. The tea cup and saucer was also found at a thrift for $1.00.



I decided to use a scented tea light candle, and surround this with plain white wax. I salvaged wax out of a tall container candle by gently softening it in the microwave for about one minute. I then scooped it out with a spoon into a glass measuring cup set in boiling water. Keep the temperature on low while the cup sits in the water, otherwise it may crack. I don't have a double boiler, so this was my make-do.




I set the tea light candle on a rock from my garden, and poured the white wax all around it. The wax will dry white; this picture shows it right after I poured the wax.

It turned out nicely; however I did not sink the tea light candle down far enough, so it stuck up out of the wax a little.




*It will burn out quickly because of the short wick, but I figure this is much safer as the thin tea cup could break if I had a wick going all the way to the bottom. Another safety mechanism is to sink a tea light sold in those thin tin cups in the middle. That way you could replace it, and continue to enjoy the candle.

*I'll update this theory when I have burned the candle down.

See more entries at this week's Make-It-From-Scratch Carnival.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like this idea.

Linda

P. said...

Beautiful. Nice idea.

Romany said...

I like the idea of recycling wax and using the tea-lights. I have lots of those!

Alexandra said...

Thanks, it looked a little wonky with the tea light stinking up, but it still works!