DIY Treasure Candle

September 30, 2018/ Shelah Moss / Holidays, Crafts / 1 comment

When my daughter became interested in making candles we decided to make our own DIY Treasure Candle.

Not only did we have fun making the candles together, but we also found that they are great gifts. Treasure Candles are easy to personalize for whoever is lucky enough to get their own DIY Treasure Candle. It really makes us think about the person getting the candle and what that person likes when choosing the charms to include. We made my niece a Treasure Candle with 13 charms to find on her 13th birthday. We enjoyed making the candle and thinking about what charms she would like.

Materials for a DIY Treasure Candle:

An old pot for melting the wax
Candle Natural Wax – you can recycle used candles by melting them down but the candles need to be the same color and you need to pick out the old wicks as they melt.
CANDLE WICKS
A Glass container
Crayons
Something to stir with. – We used disposable chopsticks.
Charms for Crafting and/or treasures that won’t be ruined by melted wax.
A tube with one closed end. We used a cardboard roll wrapped in wax paper.
Essential oils or extracts for scented candles (optional)

This activity should only be done with adult supervision. Never put fingers (or any other body part) in hot wax!
You will need clean glass containers and a covered work area.
Melt the wax at low heat in the pot.
If you are re-using candles for wax, pick out the wicks, etc. with tongs.
Add broken crayons to add color. Stir to incorporate the color.
Add essential oils or extract for scent. We used vanilla.
Cover a cardboard tube with wax paper so that one of the open ends is now closed. Wrap the waxed paper as tightly as you can so the outer surface is smooth.
We didn’t wrap ours carefully enough so one of the tubes was difficult to get out.
Put one tube in the center of a glass container. You will need to weight down the tube so it doesn’t just float. We put a couple of marbles in ours so it didn’t float away.
Pour the wax into the container and allow to cool and harden.

You can kind of see how the wax on the tube on the left candle isn’t smooth enough. It was really hard to pull out but luckily the cardboard and wax paper will peel away with a little work.

Once the wax has cooled and hardened pull out the wax covered cardboard tube.
Put the wick in the center. If you are using a new wick tie the bottom of the wick to a nut to weigh it down and keep it in place. Tie the top of a wick to a pencil/pen and lay it across the top of the container to keep the wick straight. If re-using a thinner candle just stick it in.
Add a charm to the bottom and cover with wax.
Allow to cool a bit, then put the next charm, cover with wax. Repeat this step until the charms are in the candle and the center has been filled with wax. The wax tends to sink in the center as it cools so you may need to repeat this step quite a few times.
Allow the candle to cool and harden. Clean up any excess wax and your DIY Treasure Candle is ready to burn!

While you are waiting for your candles to cool you can learn all about the history of candles. Or you can read a great book like Winter Candle and learn another candle decorating technique.

When you are ready to light your DIY treasure candles watch for the treasures to appear as the candle burns. Use tweezers to remove the treasure.

It's really fun when the treasures appear!

Tags Crafts DIY Keepsake DIY Candle