Recycling Old Candle Jars | DIY Candy Jars

-  Blogmas  Day six .   Do- it- yourself .  Recycle .  - 

Do you ever wonder what to do with those leftover candle jars hanging around your house just collecting dust? Today I'm going to share with you what I do with mine. This is an easy DIY project and a great way to recycle both the candle jars and the leftover wax in them. This is actually like two DIY's in one!

Any sized jar will do!

What  You'll  need :

A candle jar with a low wax level

A semi-flexible little container  

Dish-cleaning supplies, dish soap (Dawn works best!), a rag, perhaps some steel wool, etc.

Some kind of sweet treat to fill your jar with in the end

Decorative ribbon is optional

Easy as 1,2,3!

The  Steps :

1. The wax in your candle jar needs to be melted. You can either light your candle for a couple of hours until the wax is completely liquefied, or you can simply boil your candle jar in a pot of water and get the same results faster. If your jar has a label on it, I found that boiling your jar also helps with the removal of that, depending on the stickiness of your label. I used a Burt's Bees candle for this tutorial and the label came right off with the hot water! Otherwise, I suggest getting some help from Goo Gone or some other chemical agent, and some steel wool, to remove your label. Click the following link to an awesome recipe for making homemade Goo Gone. I've tried this recipe and it works! Homemade Goo Gone Recipe


2. Once the wax is melted, either blow the candle out or if you went the route of boiling your jar, then remove it from the pot of water. Either way, the jar will be hot so BE CAREFUL. You may want to use an oven mitt, or a cloth when handling the jar. Next, immediately pour your hot liquefied wax into your little semi-flexible container. Set it aside and let it cool for several hours.


3. Now that you are left with an oily waxy jar, remove the wicks that are left, most likely held in place by a weak glue, and go wash and dry your jar out until it is oily and waxy no more!



4. Congratulations! Now you have a beautiful jar to repurpose and regift. Fill your jar with some kind of sweet-treat or little-happy and give that baby away!

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5. After a few hours, revisit your wax in your semi-flexible little container. It should appear cooled down and solidified. Next, you want to remove the wax from the container. Do this carefully. Being that your container is semi-flexible, give it a little squeeze until air is able to slip between the sides of your block of wax and the container. Then just jostle it a bit until the block slides loose out the container.


6. Congratulations now you have a block of wax for yourself! What do you do with the block of wax, you ask? Well, you can reuse your blocks of wax to make new homemade candles, but I'll save that for another blog post. You can also simply use your fragrant blocks of wax as potpourri. Stick them on a shelf in your linen closet to make your towels smell good or if the wax is not too oily, I also like to stick them in a few of my dresser drawers with my clothing to make them smell good.

Enjoy!

melting the wax the old-school slow way by flame

boiling your candle jar in a pot of water is another option

transfer the wax into your little semi-flexible container and remove wicks from your jar

Let cool.

All cooled down!

Using a heart-shaped container I got from the dollar store, some of my wax molds came out in the shape of a heart! How cute!

My glass jar is all cleaned and ready to be used for anything!

The finished products are ready to be given away!

Isn't that a fine looking bow?

learn how to tie your own perfect bow here!  

Glass jars are really trending these days thanks to the Mason Jar phenomenon.

I hope You find this DIY useful. let me know what you thought 

about it in the comments below!

What other kinds of DIY's are you interested in me posting about? Thanks for stopping by! And until next time, Happy Crafting!
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