Teacup Candle

I love crafts that don't involve me going to the craft store.  Something about going to Michaels and roaming down the aisles of overpriced, perfectly prepared materials just feels like cheating (plus, the temptation to make impulse purchases is often more than I can bear :-)

This craftstoreless craft was inspired by Martha Stewart.  Of course, her finished product is more perfectly beautiful, but I got a kick out of adding my own little twist.

I found this mini teacup at a thrift store for 2.99.  (a bit overpriced, but I liked the fact that it was miniature, which seemed especially suited for a candle.)

I wanted the wax inside of the cup to be brown to look like a real cup of tea, but didn't have any old brown candles I wanted to part with.   But then I realized that of course this is the perfect time of year to be in need of brown candle wax....after Christmas sales!!   I bought a red and green taper candle at Walgreens for 9 cents each.

Using a hammer, I smashed open one of the candles to extricate the wick.  (By the way- I didn't actually use the candle in the picture for the wax- you'll notice that the red is only painted on)

 I broke the red and green candles into pieces and melted the wax.  Everyone seems to say that wax should be melted in a double boiler or in a special wax melter contraption.  I melted mine under the broiler in the stove.  This method actually worked fine the first time, but the second time the glass container I was using got too hot and shattered.  (terrible, TERRIBLE mess...next time I may use a double boiler)

Because I was using an old wick, I needed to tie something to the end so that it would sink.  I used a paperclip that I folded in half and twisted around the wick.

I left the wick extra long to imitate a teabag string, and held it in place with a popsicle stick while the wax was cooling.

Tracing around a tea bag label as a guide, I cut my own label out of cardstock and used it to write a birthday greeting to my sister (an avid tea drinker- as are all the women in our family)

Such a fun little craft...I think I'll be on the lookout for pretty teacups at garage sales from now on!