Until a couple weeks ago, I had never been thrifting. My experience buying from second-hand stores was limited to running to Goodwill to pick up clothes for a costume and working at the Habitat ReStore as a volunteer. For this Pin Possible, I decided that a trip to the thrift store would be perfect for my tea cup candle project. After visiting several thrift stores around the Plano/Richardson area, I finally found some tea cups at a store near campus off of Campbell Road. I was excited for this project because I had never made candles before. I thought that putting a candle in a tea cup would be really cute and a great decorative addition to my apartment.

What you need:

– Tea cups

– Wax flakes (found at any

craft store)

– Tongs

– Candle scents

– Wicks

– Chopsticks or skewer sticks

– A large pot with water

– A glass jar or cup

Instructions:

1. Put the pot of water on the stove and begin to heat it.     

2. Measure out the wax for your tea cup. Estimate how high you want the candle wax to go and scoop double the amount of wax flakes into the glass jar.

3. Put your wick together if it’s not already premade. I bought braided wick and the wick bottoms separately. I used pliers to crimp the ends together. Hot glue the wick to the bottom of the tea cup.

4. Use the chopsticks or skewer sticks to help hold up the top of the wick.

5. Place the glass jar/cup into the pot of water and wait for it to melt. The pot doesn’t have to be boiling because the wax will start to melt a little before that happens. Use tongs to hold the jar or cup in place.

6. Take the glass jar/cup out of the pot and add in your candle scent. A teaspoon of the scent is probably more than enough.

7. Pour the melted wax into the tea cup.

8. Let it set over night.

One of the best things about craft stores is that they often do the hard work for you. If I had to figure out where or how to make wax by myself, I could have easily had a very different experience with these tea cups. Overall, it was a pretty simple project. But the result is definitely something you wouldn’t find at most stores.