Summer Project: Tart Mold Candles

This is a great inexpensive project to do with your kids once school lets out. (I recommend children be 9 or older.) It's also a terrific way to recycle old candles.

I make tons of these and put them all over my garden on summer evenings.

You will need:

• Small metal tart tins or metal jello molds (available at garage sales, estate sales, thrift stores etc.)
• Soup cans (cleaned and dried)
• Wicking (available at craft stores like Hobby Lobby or Michaels)
• Saucepan you don't care about too much (it will be hard to get all the wax out)
• Plastic toothpicks or small sticks to tie to wicks while candels are setting
• Wax - you can get new wax at the craft store or use old broken candles or candles that have burned the wick out but still have lots of wax.
• Hotdog tongs

Directions:

1. Measure the depth of your molds and cut several lenths of wick that will be 1 inch taller than the depth of the mold. 
2. Tie the wick to the plastic toothpicks (or sticks) and set aside.
3. Cut or break wax up into pieces that will fit into a soup can. You can mix different colors of candles together but watch out for colors that just make brown when mixed :-) (Use different soup cans for different colors if you don't want the colors to mix)
4. Heat a saucepan filled with water on the stove over low heat. Don't fill the pan too full - about 1/3 from the top
5. Put the soupcan full of wax into the hot water and keep it there all the wax melts. The can will want to float so it helps to hold it down with the hot dog tongs.
6. Once the wax has melted, use the hot dog tongs to pour it into your molds. (you don't want to burn yourself so the hot dog tongs keep you away from the hot wax). Fill to no more than 1/8 inch from the top of the mold.
7. Now take the prepared wicks and balance the toothpicks across the mold so the wick is hanging down.
8. Set aside to cool
9. After the candles are set (usually an hour or two) they will release more easily from the mold if you stick them in the freezer for 10 minutes. (Don't leave them too long or they will crack.