I don't remember when I first heard about teacup candles. This is one of those almost-too-cute crafts that has been floating around Pinterest for a while. And yet, as admittedly dumb as the idea is (nobody needs more candles. Nobody) I find myself being repeatedly drawn back to the concept, lured in by the promise of upcycling unwanted thrift store items into adorable little crafts.
Teacup candles start with thrift store teacups. If they are chipped with mismatched saucers, all the better. Every given thrift store has buckets of teacups in all sorts of shapes and patterns, just sitting there on the shelves gathering dust. I don't know why the thought of buying a bunch of teacups from a thrift store is so alluring. I'm not normally a "buy a lot of mismatched teacups" kind of person. But I would be lying if I didn't admit that this step is a big part of the draw.
Next, you make candles in them. Simple as that.
Martha Stewart has a very Martha Stewart-y tutorial (she calls them "teacup lights") in which you make the candles out of the stubs of other candles you have burnt through. This is not only clever, it's like double upcycling bonus points!
Although her tutorial has you melt down these candle stubs, which I can attest is not as easy a process as she makes it sound. It's messy, and it wants to burn, and you have to pick out all the black sooty bits if you don't want your new candle to look like crap. Still, though.
An easier method is to use the candle chips or beads that are sold by the bag at craft stores everywhere. These are more expensive and not as thrifty as using old candle stubs, but you can easily melt them in the microwave, and you can find them in soy wax or beeswax if you want to avoid using paraffin.
Image courtesy Flickr/ecram1
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