DIY Hand-Dipped Birthday Candles

Birthday season is upon us, at least here in our family; seems like we’re celebrating a birthday every week through May and June. So birthday projects are on my mind. Last year when I was making rolled beeswax candles for our advent holders, I thought it would be fun to try making some tiny ones for birthday candles (Caitlin shared a DIY for how to make your own rolled beeswax candles here). Then I read an article about hand-dipped candles and wanted to try that – and that brings us to today’s DIY!I had so much fun making these, and once I got my method down, it was pretty simple & easy. I first tried making these with a washer attached to the bottom of the wick to add some weight to keep the wick straighter, but found that just made the process longer and more difficult. I also tried hanging a few from a dowel and dipping them together (with the washer attached on those), and found that made it more difficult as well. Just dipping one at a time, and using my fingers to straighten the wick was the fastest and easiest method for me. Of course you can just pick up a package of already made candles for a few dollars which is the easiest (ha!), but I love the challenge of trying to do something myself and the slightly imperfect look to homemade ones. Plus I’m on a kick with using beeswax for projects right now!Materials:

– beeswax pellets
– wick
– scissors
– tin cans (or any old container that can sit in boiling water)
– water
Directions: Pour beeswax pellets into a tin can (the can should be a little taller than you’d like your candles to be, tall and narrow cans work best). Set can in a small saucepan of simmering water and let wax melt. Once the wax has melted, make sure it’s the height you’ll want your candles to be (add more pellets and let them melt if needed). You can remove the can from the saucepan and keep it in a bowl of hot water or just keep it in the saucepan of warm water during the next step.
Fill another can with cold water and set the two cans together. Take a piece of wick (I just used a really long piece and cut it to size after the candles were dipped) and dip it into the wax, letting it sit for just a second or two. Remove it, let cool for a second and then straighten the wick as much as you can – yes it will be warm, but shouldn’t be burning hot, and yes, you’ll get some wax on your fingers. Once it’s straight, dip it back into the wax for a couple seconds, remove and dip it into the water for a couple seconds. Straighten the wick again. At this point, the wick should be fairly straight and you can just keep dipping into the wax and then the water without needing to straighten the wick anymore.
Repeat the process until the candle is as thick as you’d like. Trim the wick and set on wax paper to completely cool.Once you’ve got your candles made, you can make this cake to put them in, this cake stand for your cake, this candle display for extra candles and this garland for decor – ready to party! 😉

-Manda