Reuse Candle Wax to Make Christmas Ornaments & Melts
Equipment
- Cookie cutters
- Jelly roll pan
- Parchment paper or tin foil
- Fork or something to fish out old wick parts
- Matches & bamboo skewers
Ingredients
- Melted candle wax
- Ribbon or string
Instructions
- Cover the jelly roll pan in parchment paper or tin foil and lay out the cookie cutters you'd like to use to make the ornaments.
- Follow the instructions in the article to melt old candle wax over a double boiler until just liquid and pourable. Do not overheat the old wax or it will take longer to set up and be more likely to leak* out from under the cookie cutters.
- Slowly and carefully pour the melted wax into the cookie cutters one at time. Hold the cookie cutters down by pressing them firmly onto the pan.
- Fill the cookie cutter 1/3 or 1/2 full, depending on their thickness and your desired final product.
- Allow the wax to cool a few minutes to set up just a bit.
- Place a matchstick into the wax, keeping it straight up and down. This will form the hole to hang the ornament on the Christmas tree.
- Allow the wax to cool until it begins to pull away from the sides. If you work the ornaments any sooner, they might still be warm on the inside.
- Being very careful and pushing evenly, remove the wax ornament from the cookie cutter mold.
- Remove the matchstick carefully by carefully wiggling it around in its hole. Use finesse for this, not force or you'll pop the ornament apart.
- Poke the bamboo skewer through the matchstick hole to widen it a bit and clear it of extra wax.
- Place a ribbon or string through the hole to hang as an ornament.**
Notes
* If the wax begins to leak out from under the cookie cutter, don't worry! The wax will set up quickly and you can simply re-melt it and reuse it later. To finish filling the cookie cutter, pour a little slower and wait a bit in between pours for it to set up a bit. Be sure to push down firmly on the cookie cutter to keep the wax inside.
** If you're going to be using these little wax figures as wax melts instead of ornaments, you can omit the matchstick hole and the ribbon.
Wrap these ornaments in parchment paper to keep them clean and prevent them from being scratched. Commercial jar candles can be softer than homemade for a variety of reasons, so be gentle with these ornaments.
If you give them as gifts, be sure to instruct the receiver to hang the ornaments some place warm to release the remaining fragrance oils and scent the air.