The Quilts Zone Blog

Beginner Candle Making Instructions

Store bought candles can be expensive. Color, fragrance, style, and decor all increase the cost of the candle. Let us resist the urge to spend money and make them ourselves! Maybe you wanted to make your own candles but you were not aware of how to go about it.

So how about trying the candle making recipes below? It will surprise you on how little it will cost.

Balloon Candle Making Recipes

This recipe will assist in creating one of the simplest candles there is available. There are only 3 items needed to make this balloon candle!

The steps are straightforward and uncomplicated:

* Take the balloon and fill it up with water (you heard right – water).

* Close of the top of the balloon.

* Place the wax in a double-boiler, electric skillet or sauce pan to melt it (be sure skillet or sauce pan is an old one).

* Keep temp somewhere near 165 to 185 until wax is fully melted.

* Allow the wax to cool until it is almost firm.

* Put water balloon into wax, pull it out quickly, leave it and let the layer of wax cool.

* Redo the process of dipping and cooling until you have about 1 cm think of wax around the balloon.

* Burst the balloon and remove from center of the candle.

* Pour warm wax slowly inside your balloon shell candle, rolling shell constantly until the interior is full.

* On the last pour, position wick in center first, allowing the final warm wax to surround it.

* Wait for the wax to cool to support wick before you release it.

Beeswax Candle Making Recipes

Wasn’t that easy?

Try out this recipe for making beeswax candles! Supplies include: 1 pair of sheers, 1 sheet of beeswax along with 1 cotton wick. Instructions? Just as easy!

* Seal the cotton wick in place by gently spooling the edge of the beeswax around the wick. The heat from your hands will assist in seaming the wax candle by softening the wax.

* Follow through by slowly rolling the candle wax, making sure the it is straight and tight.

* The heat of your fingertips will help you bond the edge of your wax candle when you reach the end of you sheet.

* Cut the bottom part of the wick then cut the top part to about a quarter of an inch.

With a little practice, you will soon master the art of making beautiful candles with these short and sweet candle making recipes!

It will be enjoyable making beeswax candles with the kids.

 

The simple acts of drawing and coloring are  literally childs’ play, however, they both play an important role in a child’s physical, emotional and cognitive development. Like no other activity, drawing and coloring allows young children to express themselves and their emotions, experience autonomy and build their confidence. Drawing and coloring are also excellent pre-cursors to developing writing skills because the toddler is honing his or her fine motor skills which are essential when learning to write.

Parents and caregivers can promote drawing and coloring  as a way to improve physical, social, emotional and cognitive development – and to have a lot of fun along the way too. Here’s a few pointers:

1.Provide kids with nontoxic materials, blank sheets of white paper and coloring pages.

2. Model drawing. Show children that you like to draw and color too -  make designs but do not show your children what they  should draw.

3. Encourage all drawing and coloring  efforts by talking about the beautiful colors, the lines and  shapes the child has made.

4.Rather than ask, “What have you drawn?,”  say “Tell me about your drawing”.Asking “What is that?” suggests to the child that s/he has failed to depict what they intended.

5. Talk about concepts like  thin, thick, wide, narrow, dark, light, edge, shape, contour, etc.

6. Display their art on the kitchen fridge, in their room and in places where visitors to your home will see them. Point them out to visitors, friends and relatives – the praise fthey will receive for the work will boost a child’s self esteeem and confidence.

7.Give kids the freedom to choose the subjects of their drawings and the types of coloring sheets they would like. For example little boys  may enjoy coloring images of  cars, trucks or a favourite character such as Pokemon -  and at sites like Pokemon Coloring Pages you’ll find free Pokemon coloring. Little girls on the other hand prefer images from fairy tales such as Princess pictures - choose whatever pleases your child to encourage their enthusiasm for the activity and their interest in it. 

8.  Always supervise younger children while they draw and color – crayons pose a choking risk.