A Happy New Year 2016 everyone! The end of 2015 passed by too quickly for me as it was so busy. 2015 has been one great and amazing year, especially for DIYKL (Do-It-Yourself Kuala Lumpur), and I am truly thankful and grateful. 2016 is another year and I hope I will be able to do more amazing things! To you guys who have actually stuck with me on this blog, despite my M.I.As, thank YOU! To you guys who have also supported DIYKL from the start, thank YOU so much!
Alright, let's talk about candles. Do you like candles? Probably when you were young, you were given candles as presents. Cheap ones from the thrift store that smelt really bad. No? Well, if you're like me and had these experiences...you wouldn't have been able to appreciate candles much. However, as I grow older my taste buds changed and so has my perception on candles. Some smell so wonderfully delicious, and so comforting. In the UK when it was cold and wintry at night, I used to light tea-light candles in my university dorm room while I snuggled under my warm duvet. There is something quite comforting about candles. The flickering light providing some warmth, and a waft of good smell in your room. Mmmm.
I've always wanted to try making some of my own candles, and even though I had the ingredients since last year I never got down to making them. So I decided to use up some of my dried rose tea flowers and make a Rose Petal Scented Candle! To make my candle look prettier, I decided to add some gold leaf to it as well. So here you go, 2 DIYs in one tutorial!
What you need:
- Soy Wax. Soy waxes is a vegetable wax from soybeans. It is eco-friendly and sustainable. Furthermore, it also burns slowly and cleanly! I bought mine from Spotlight. It comes in a rectangle block which you can then
- Candle Wicks
- Small glass jar or tins to pour the melted soy wax in. I bought mine from Daiso a while ago (it comes in a pair!)
- 100% Essential Oils. Only a few drops are needed! I used Rose Essential Oils. If you live in Singapore, you can pick up some essential oils from Mmerci Encore.
- Dried Rose Flowers from your teashop. These are roses that has been dried to be used in teas.
- A double boiler or 2 pots over a fire
- 3 wooden skewer sticks (2 will be used to keep the wick in place in the jar)
- A sheet of thin gold leaf / foil
- Mod Podge
1. Place the candle wick in the middle of the glass jar or tin. To keep its position in place, place 2 wooden skewers beside it to rest on top of the glass jar.
2. Now you will need to melt the wax! Apparently you need a double boiler to do this, however I got a little creative and just placed a smaller pot into a bigger pot. The bigger pot should contain a little bit of water - this helps to reduce the heat that directly hits the wax so that it does not burn. The illustration above is another method of the double boiler in which the top bowl/pot does not even touch the bottom pot. The method I used was fine, as long as you keep an eye on the wax when it starts melting!
3. Let the water boil in the bigger pot, before breaking the soy wax and placing it into the smaller pot. It will slowly melt in a few minutes into a clear liquid.
4. Add a few drops of essential oil. I added 7-8 drops of rose essential oil. The more drops, the more intense the scent.
5. In the glass jar with the wick, I sprinkled some dried rose petals into the bottom.
6. Slowly pour the melted soy wax into the waiting glass jar. You can add more petals if you want to!
7. Let it dry for a few hours to harden, and you will slowly have a candle appearing before your eyes!
8. Now to beautify your candle jar! I used a skewer stick, dipped it into some Mod Podge (used as a glue and a sealer), and made some random sticky marks around the candle jar. Now, with the other end of the skewer, I break apart the gold leaf so that it looks scattered.
9. Slowly pick up the gold leaf with your skewer (this works!) with its pointy tip and stick it onto the mod podged areas. Don't worry if you get mod podge over the gold leaf. The glue dries clear.
10. Let it dry! If you like a rough texture, leave it be. However, if you wish to seal the gold leaf onto the glass jar - you can add one coat of Mod Podge over the gold leaf. Let it dry completely.
Light these up and enjoy! x
A Happy New Year 2016 everyone! The end of 2015 passed by too quickly for me as it was so busy. 2015 has been one great and amazing year, especially for DIYKL (Do-It-Yourself Kuala Lumpur), and I am truly thankful and grateful. 2016 is another year and I hope I will be able to do more amazing things! To you guys who have actually stuck with me on this blog, despite my M.I.As, thank YOU! To you guys who have also supported DIYKL from the start, thank YOU so much!
Alright, let's talk about candles. Do you like candles? Probably when you were young, you were given candles as presents. Cheap ones from the thrift store that smelt really bad. No? Well, if you're like me and had these experiences...you wouldn't have been able to appreciate candles much. However, as I grow older my taste buds changed and so has my perception on candles. Some smell so wonderfully delicious, and so comforting. In the UK when it was cold and wintry at night, I used to light tea-light candles in my university dorm room while I snuggled under my warm duvet. There is something quite comforting about candles. The flickering light providing some warmth, and a waft of good smell in your room. Mmmm.
I've always wanted to try making some of my own candles, and even though I had the ingredients since last year I never got down to making them. So I decided to use up some of my dried rose tea flowers and make a Rose Petal Scented Candle! To make my candle look prettier, I decided to add some gold leaf to it as well. So here you go, 2 DIYs in one tutorial!
What you need:
- Soy Wax. Soy waxes is a vegetable wax from soybeans. It is eco-friendly and sustainable. Furthermore, it also burns slowly and cleanly! I bought mine from Spotlight. It comes in a rectangle block which you can then
- Candle Wicks
- Small glass jar or tins to pour the melted soy wax in. I bought mine from Daiso a while ago (it comes in a pair!)
- 100% Essential Oils. Only a few drops are needed! I used Rose Essential Oils. If you live in Singapore, you can pick up some essential oils from Mmerci Encore.
- Dried Rose Flowers from your teashop. These are roses that has been dried to be used in teas.
- A double boiler or 2 pots over a fire
- 3 wooden skewer sticks (2 will be used to keep the wick in place in the jar)
- A sheet of thin gold leaf / foil
- Mod Podge
1. Place the candle wick in the middle of the glass jar or tin. To keep its position in place, place 2 wooden skewers beside it to rest on top of the glass jar.
2. Now you will need to melt the wax! Apparently you need a double boiler to do this, however I got a little creative and just placed a smaller pot into a bigger pot. The bigger pot should contain a little bit of water - this helps to reduce the heat that directly hits the wax so that it does not burn. The illustration above is another method of the double boiler in which the top bowl/pot does not even touch the bottom pot. The method I used was fine, as long as you keep an eye on the wax when it starts melting!
3. Let the water boil in the bigger pot, before breaking the soy wax and placing it into the smaller pot. It will slowly melt in a few minutes into a clear liquid.
4. Add a few drops of essential oil. I added 7-8 drops of rose essential oil. The more drops, the more intense the scent.
5. In the glass jar with the wick, I sprinkled some dried rose petals into the bottom.
6. Slowly pour the melted soy wax into the waiting glass jar. You can add more petals if you want to!
7. Let it dry for a few hours to harden, and you will slowly have a candle appearing before your eyes!
8. Now to beautify your candle jar! I used a skewer stick, dipped it into some Mod Podge (used as a glue and a sealer), and made some random sticky marks around the candle jar. Now, with the other end of the skewer, I break apart the gold leaf so that it looks scattered.
9. Slowly pick up the gold leaf with your skewer (this works!) with its pointy tip and stick it onto the mod podged areas. Don't worry if you get mod podge over the gold leaf. The glue dries clear.
10. Let it dry! If you like a rough texture, leave it be. However, if you wish to seal the gold leaf onto the glass jar - you can add one coat of Mod Podge over the gold leaf. Let it dry completely.
Light these up and enjoy! x
The Author
This blog is my creative outlet to create tutorials of my DIY projects. Creating something to call my own is always satisfying and is so much fun! Enjoy your stay here, leave a comment and thank you for dropping by!
I am also the Co-Founder of DIYKL (www.diykl.com) where I design DIY fashion kits!
Have a desire to ask me something? Do write to me at: [email protected]
