The Mess-Free Way to Recycle Spent Jar Candles into New Candles

Again, one of those thoughts, "how can I do this with what I have?"

The other day, I cleaned out an armoire for one of my daughters to use in her room. I found 4 spent candles that had some sort of evergreen scent, some fir, cedar, and pine. There was between 1/4 inch and 1 inch of wax at the bottom of each jar. My goal was to combine the wax from all 4 of the jars into one evergreen-scented candle, and not have a pot to scrub out afterward.

This was so simple. I can't believe I haven't tried this before. I placed the jar candles into my crock-pot and added about 3 cups of water to the pot, enough so that the water level was as high as the wax remaining in the fullest candle jar. I set it on LOW, and left it for an hour.

An hour later, the wax was melted. I removed the jars from the crock-pot and set on a towel.

I poured the melted wax into one of the larger jars and put that jar back in the crockpot to keep the wax liquid and left the other jars on an old towel. I chose another of the larger jars for my candle and wiped it out with a paper towel. I have some candle wicks leftover from making candles many years ago.

I took one of the wicks and dipped the metal end into the melted candle wax then placed it in the center of my cleaned-out jar. Once that wax hardened, I poured the melted wax into the jar, screening out the largest of the burnt wick bits/ash with a plastic fork.

After the wax had set, I trimmed the wick. I now have a candle with about 4 or more burn hours left on it.

One of the bonuses is the cleaned-out candle jars that I have saved for future candles. This particular one, above, was from a Thymes Frasier Fir votive candle. Thymes sells the votive refill candles at a fraction of the price of the votive candle in the container. Next Christmas, I'll buy the refill candles for this container and have a "brand new" holiday candle.

Just to let you know how simple all of this was, I spent way more time writing this post and taking the photos than I spent in hands-on time melting and pouring the spent candles into one container. Using a crock-pot with the candle jars set inside saved me from having to scrape out and wash a wax-coated pot.

Making Heart-Shaped Chocolate Candies Without a Mold

You know, this is just how my mind works. I think about the great products out there, then try to think of a way around buying them. Owning a heart-shaped silicone candy mold would be a nice thing to have, but in truth, I would only use it one day per year. The other night I was thinking, "how could I make my own heart-shaped candies for Valentine's Day?"

Here's how it went:
At first, I thought that maybe I could freehand some melted chocolate with a piping bag. I tried one, and then realized that I did need some sort of guide, a template.

To make heart-shape chocolate candies, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, red candy melts, white chocolate chips, Crisco shortening, 3 snack-size ziploc baggies, 1 sheet of waxed paper, 1 sheet of white paper, scissors, pen, small bit of scrap paper.

To make a template, I cut a paper heart out of the scrap paper and traced its outline onto the sheet of white paper.

On the kitchen counter, I laid a sheet of waxed paper over my template. 
I used the baggies as piping bags, one for each color of chocolate, snipping a tiny corner off of each before filling with melted chocolate. In a glass measuring cup, I melted 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips with about 1/2 teaspoon of Crisco. I used my microwave and melted in short 10-15 second bursts, stirring with a table knife in between bursts. When the chocolate was melted I scooped it into one of the prepared baggies.

I piped the outline of the heart onto the waxed paper which was over the template, following the lines of the heart.

I filled the outline in with more piped chocolate. (This is the single larger heart that I made. After my first heart, I decided to make a smaller template in order to make hearts the size of a Dove chocolate piece. So I made a smaller template.)

To make multiple hearts, I slid the template around under the sheet of waxed paper. Whenever the chocolate became too thick to pipe smoothly I put the baggie of chocolate into a custard cup and microwaved for about 6 to 9 seconds.

The hearts were thin, so I decided to build up the hearts with a second layer of chocolate. I added the second layer inside the outline of the hearts by about 1/8-inch. You can see the difference between a single layer heart and the built up heart in the photo below.

I didn't worry about how neat the hearts looked as I had a plan for concealing the messiness -- add some deliberate messiness in contrasting colors!

I let the hearts firm up while taking care of other tasks. 

Next, I melted some red Wilton Candy Melts. I have these leftover from last summer when I planned on making red, white, and blue dipped pretzel rods. I had a coupon for JoAnn Fabrics and the candy melts were on sale. However, the chocolate hearts could also be drizzled with just white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, or a combo of both of those. Just so that the color contrasts with the semi-sweet chocolate hearts. Here are the hearts ready to be dressed up.

I only used about a dozen of the red wafers. It melted into about a 2 tablespoon pool. I scooped this into the 2nd prepared baggie. Before drizzling, I zapped the filled baggie in the microwave for about 6 seconds, to insure that it would flow easily. 

I drizzled in one directions, then turned the sheet of hearts around and drizzled in the other direction.

Following the red drizzle, I added a bit of white drizzle, using about 2 tablespoons of white chocolate chips and 1/4 teaspoon of Crisco melted in short 10 second bursts in the microwave. Again, just before drizzling, I zapped the filled baggie for about 6 seconds for a smooth flow. Whenever the tip became clogged, I either microwaved for additional few seconds, or cleared the clog by squeezing any hard lumps out of the bag on onto a bare spot on the waxed paper with my fingertip. 

As you can see, the imperfections of the semi-sweet hearts are concealed with the contrasting drizzle. After the hearts had set up, I used a paring knife to trim the edges a bit. For a first time go at these, I think they turned out nice. I am still working on how I'll package them, although I can tell you this much, I'll be just using what I have on hand for the packaging, which may include recycled cracker boxes, ribbon, and spray paint.

FYI, because of the white bloom that develops on candies made from packaged baking chips, they have a shelf-life based on best appearance (not taste or safety) of about 10 days. The white and red candy coating should maintain a good appearance for a longer period.

For this project, I used 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (68 cents), about 10 cents each of red and white chocolate candy, and about 1 cent of Crisco, for a total of 89 cents for 30 Dove-size small hearts and 1 larger heart, about 4.5 ounces of candies. I've made these as gifts for 3 people, so each gift cost under 30 cents.