Get Adobe Flash player

Archive for November, 2009

Sensational Handmade Cards For Your Candles


Earlier this week I was contacted by Jennifer Gormly, the author of “50 Card Making Sketches”.  She thought her ebook would make an ideal companion to my “How To Make Your Own Gourmet Scented Candles” ebook.  I totally agree!

Learn how to make handmade cards for your handmade candles.  Your friends, family, customers and co-workers are probably already raving about your hand poured scented candles.  Why not really knock their socks off by pairing your candles with handmade cards?  Here are just a few ideas.

  • Instead of sticking labels on your beautiful candles, make your own note cards, punch a hole in the corner, and tie them to your candles with a pretty ribbon, string or raffia.
  • Make a small stack of 4 cards in co-ordinating colors and sell them together with your candles as a candle and card gift set.
  • Include a handmade thank you card when you give your candles aways as gifts.

Buying Guide

50cardmakingsketches50 Card Making Sketches  Finally, comprehensive instructions giving you all the steps you need for creating your own beautiful handmade cards.

Buy now and receive three free bonus gifts. 

  • Your Card Making Toolbox – A Guide To The Essentials Of Card Making  Having the correct equipment in your card making toolbox is essential for creating stunning cards but you DON’T need all the latest gadgets and gizmos.
  • Stick It Together – A Card Makers Guide To Adhesives  Too many adhesives are just not good enough as they don’t stay sticky. You put so much effort into creating your beautiful cards and you don’t want them falling apart!
  • 81 Birthday Quotes  81 different birthday quotes especially chosen with you, the card maker in mind.

How to Create Your Own Gourmet Scented Candles  A step-by-step pictorial guide teaching you how to make your own highly scented candles with eco-friendly palm wax.

Learn About the Types of Candle Wax


By Peter C. Daniels

Early candle makers utilize tallow, a form of animal fat which was eventually replaced by other types of waxes as this gives of a foul smell and gives off black soot when burning. Eventually, as time passed by, other natural waxes gave way to better alternatives to this wax archetype. The following are descriptions of modern waxes and their characteristics to help beginner candle makers achieve their desired candle outcome.

Paraffin is the most popular type of petroleum based wax used to make candles. This could be brought in bulks or powder form and are very inexpensive. One could even buy paraffin at different melting point qualities or hardness degrees. An advantage when it comes to paraffin wax is its neutrality. This means that one could add preferred fragrances and colour hues in the paraffin mixture if they aren’t already included.

Coming from the more expensive line of candles wax is the beeswax which is quite popular due to its sweet smell. This also burns without soot and lasts longer. This wax is obtained from bees’ hives and comes in the form of blocks and sheets. Its melting point is 150 degrees Fahrenheit and it tends to be very sticky.

Another luxurious type of wax is the bayberry wax which was a primary alternative made by American colonists to replace the tallow. This has a natural scent in it and is coloured a deep shade of olive green. What makes it so expensive is that it takes about fifteen pounds of the combination of the Northern and Southern bayberry to make one pound of bayberry wax.

A particular type of wax suitable for individuals with allergies is the soybean type. As compared with paraffin, they last longer and are fitting to be made as aromatherapy candles. However, one needs to put in lots of hardening additives or a candle container as this wax is very soft. The palm wax is also similar to the soy wax by virtue of its longer lasting burning effect.

Furthermore, gel waxes are one of the most difficult to melt and are not suitable for novice candle makers due to its explosive characteristic. Its raw materials stem from plastic polymer and mineral oils which explains the bubbles it has and is suitable for added decoration due to its transparent appearance.

On the other hand, jelly candle and wax crystals are simple wax types and could be used by children since it does not require heating. The former could be used in tea lights and has a gel like texture.

Decorative waxes like starburst wax and microcrystalline wax is often recommended to candle makers who have had enough practice as these helps improve candle appearance and reduce pillar mottling.

Peter Daniels Is A Candle Making Expert. To Get More Great Tips On Soy Candle Wax Visit http://www.candleinsider.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_C._Daniels
http://EzineArticles.com/?Learn-About-the-Types-of-Candle-Wax&id=3219201

Quality Candles – The Benefits of Buying Better Candles

 
By Jo F Miller

This morning, as I came downstairs, there was an overwhelming aroma of Mulberry filling my kitchen and living room. Now, I love that scent but on this occasion, it distressed me because I knew that it meant that my husband had forgotten to blow the candle out before he came to bed last night. Sure enough, I went into the kitchen and there on a shelf, I reached up and saw that my Mulberry candle was burning away.

Fortunately, I was burning one of our own quality candles. It has a handle on the jar that does not heat up otherwise that jar would have been burning hot and too hot to handle. It’s the second time this week that my husband has lit a candle and forgotten to blow it out before coming to bed. Both times I’ve been grateful that we only burn our own candles, which really should go out by themselves at the end of their long burning life. They really are relatively safe but obviously, you can never be too careful with candles.

My uncle is a fire officer and I remember him once telling me that a very common cause of house fires are from candles, especially cheap tea-lights that have been lit and placed on top of television sets. Because of the poor quality, they have melted through the television cover and caused a house fire. I remember sinking low in my chair, mainly with embarrassment (but also with relief) as I had done this with tea-lights many times. I did not realise how poor quality could be reflected in the price. To me, a candle was a candle, and therefore the cheaper the better. Now that I run a candle business, I am more aware of the benefits of quality candles.

I lived in the States and Canada for a total of four years. It was in North America that I first discovered scented candles (apart from vanilla, which I believe was one of the only scents you could get in England at the time). My mum came over to visit me and was in her element when she smelled the different scents. She bought quite a variety of candles but I’ll always remember her comments from the ‘cheap’ ones (the ones that we thought were SUCH a bargain). She was so disappointed that although the scent seemed great, that it didn’t remain once the candle was lit. Also, they burned so quickly and would not light any more even though a lot of wax was left.

With candles, you do get what you pay for. They may look pretty and even smell nice, but quality candles will burn evenly, using most of the wax and retaining their scent for the life of the candle. Remember that quality candles will tell you how long they burn for and this will give you a good indication of their true value for money.

All candles should be looked after to achieve the most from them. Remember on the first burn, that the candle should be left alight one hour for each inch that the candle is wide, to allow the wax to melt all the way to the sides. This will harden the wax and cause the candle to burn more evenly. Also, always trim the wick to a quarter inch before burning. If there’s a lot of smoke or if your wick mushrooms, blow the candle out and trim the wick a bit more. You can always get more from your candles by looking after them but really the benefits of buying better quality will be reflected in their safety, their long lasting scent, and their good even burning.

Jo Miller is a partner in Our Own Candle Company UK, which specialises in unique scents of soy-blended candles. With our special patented wick straightners, we guarantee long lasting candles with the fragrance lasting throughout the life of the candle. Enjoy the perfect candle! To find out more, visit our website http://www.ourowncandlecompanyuk.com or email Jo at jomiller@ourowncandlecompanyuk.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jo_F_Miller
http://EzineArticles.com/?Quality-Candles—The-Benefits-of-Buying-Better-Candles&id=3157865

Making Homemade Candle Presents


Because candles have many uses year round, they are the perfect gift for just about any holiday or special occasion. Many people appreciate handmade gifts over store bought ones because it is often more meaningful when you make a gift yourself. Making your own candles is not only a lot of fun, but it is relatively inexpensive and easy to do.

Because you’ll be working with hot wax which is time sensitive in staying melted and cooling, its important you have all your necessary materials ready before you start. The most basic things you will need include a double boiler for melting the wax, a block of wax or wax chips, fragrance oil, wick, dye, metal spoon, and a jar. If you are planning on making pillar candles, votives, or other designs and shapes, you will also want to make sure you have your candle mold supplies ready as well. After all of your materials are ready, you can then begin making the candles.

Melting the wax is the first step you will need to do. Wax comes typically in blocks or flakes, and either is fine for the initial melting. Some people will even use pieces of old candles to recycle what they already have. You may want to consider melting the wax with a double boiler. A double boiler works by filling the bottom pot with water and the top pot with your wax, which helps it to melt evenly without overcooking.

Once the wax is melted, you will then want to mix in any optional dyes or fragrances. You can find a wide variety of dyes and fragrances from many different craft stores and suppliers. Always follow the manufacturers instructions on how to add in dyes and essential oils into your wax.

After the wax is melted and the dye and fragrance is combined, the next step is to pour it into a jar. Pour the wax into your jar very carefully. Wearing protective gear on your hands is a good idea to prevent burning yourself. After the wax is poured into the container, you can then gently poke the wick into it. To keep the wick in place, you will want to wrap one end of the wick around a pencil and then set the pencil across the top of the container you are using.

After your candle has cooled and the wax has completely hardened, you are ready to give your scented candle as a unique homemade gift. You can make the gift even more personalized by attaching decorative accents such as ribbon or a special gift tag. You’ll love how easy this craft is and how much your friends and family will enjoy your special candle creations!

Giving Loved Ones Candle Gift Baskets


Candle gift baskets are a very simply and thoughtful gift to give either a close or casual friend or family member. A basket packed full of fun-shaped scented candles is something that everyone can appreciate. Everyone has a use for candles, and there are a lot of situations where they are very useful. Whether used as mood-setters or to simply change the scent of a room, candles are a good aesthetic option.

Today there are various candle scents for any pleasant scent you can find, from baked cookies to clean laundry, candles have really come to be something special. They don’t even come in just the classic shape or size anymore. Candles can be found as small or as large as you would like within reason. Aside from the classic cylindrical shape, they can also come in triangle shapes, squares, stars, and even balls. The variations in the types of candles made and sold today is numerous. There is no wrong candle choice and there are some out there for anyone on your shopping list.

What is a good reason to give the people you care about candle gift baskets? Because they are universally loved presents. You can put as little or as much thought into them as you like and they will still look like elaborately picked and arranged gifts. Bath gift baskets are things that barely anyone truly likes to get and sometimes they don’t even open them up. But someone will always open a gift basket of candles at one point or another.

Candle gift baskets are such a good alternative to other types of gift baskets that are given as gifts because of their flexibility. Snack baskets tend to be a medley of foods, and sometimes the recipient does not like them all. What’s worse is they might even be on a diet, so the basket would not mean much to them anyway. Bath supply baskets just imply that you put no thought into their gift, and more often than not they are not appreciative to receive them. With a basket of candles, it does seem like you put some thought into it, even if you really did not.

They are also affordable alternatives to some other gifts to other ones that the recipient may want. In the end, they are simple gifts that can bring a smile to anyone’s face, no matter who they are. And with the sizeable selection available for you to choose from there is a candle or set of candles out there for anyone on your buy for list. Candle gift baskets are a great gift as either a casual present, or one that comes from your heart.

Gift baskets are almost always wonderful presents, and candle gift baskets are no exception. Find out of these types of baskets are for you.

categories: candle gift baskets,candle baskets,find candle gift baskets,gift baskets,gifts,candles,family,relationships

Candle Making Kits in favor of Hobbyists

HTML clipboard

I’m not much of an annoy person, but I execute have a thing about scented candles. I maintain them all in excess of my farmhouse, and light by the side of smallest amount a connect each single daylight hours. Whilst I’m feeling particularly stressed, I take a bunch of my favorite scents into the bathroom, run a intense bath, and after that recently bask in the sphere of the reheat irrigate and the relaxing tone of a soothing French vanilla aroma. What did you say? A wonderful way to put behind you more or less all my troubles in favor of an hour!

The lone circulation I had with scented candles is with the aim of they cost so much. It seemed a petty undue to give $10 or else other in favor of a single stick, and I was vacant through a connect apiece week. Reliable, I may well maintain bought a hardly any from the cash put in storage, but the quality was recently terrible and the fragrances were very, very weak. That’s why I categorical to look into candle making kits and create my own food.

I knew subsequently to nothing more or less the process, but had heard with the aim of I may well bad buy thorough candle making kits in favor of beginners. These starter sets are notable in favor of beginners, and approach with detailed, easy-to-follow commands with the aim of strength of character maintain even a first-timer on the real track in the sphere of recently minutes. I bought two candle making kits from a hefty slyness put in storage to hand my to your house, and couldn’t put off to try them dazed.

I’m habitually not with the aim of notable by the side of following commands, but even I couldn’t screw up at this point! The step-by-step commands in the sphere of the beginner candle making kits were total. They were without a doubt in black and white, and came with graphics to reveal me exactly how to privileged a mold, congeal up a bend in two cistern, and get ready the melted paraffin. My at the outset hardly any attempts didn’t look expert or else no matter which, but they were without a doubt candles and they served their target very well.

At present I commend with the aim of my links bad buy candle making kits as a substitute of paying in favor of over-priced products by the side of the shopping mall. By adding together beautiful ensign and fragrances, I can conclusion up with a bunch of very good candles in favor of a small percentage of what did you say? I would maintain to give by the side of a retail put in storage.

I’ve been producing my own candles in favor of a hardly any months at present, and am still enjoying this fresh Hobby How To. I’ve gotten a allotment better with practice, too. In the sphere of piece of evidence, I think I might start Crafts Making a hardly any extras to let somebody have away the same as housewarming presents, hostess gifts, or else stocking stuffers in the holidays. Think of it: I’ll be present able to let somebody have individual gifts with no expenditure a allotment of money. How terrific!

Anyway, if you have a thing about scented candles the same as much the same as I execute, but are corny of paying outrageous prices in favor of them, after that you ought to unquestionably look into purchasing a connect of candle making kits. They’re fun and comfortable to depletion, and yield amazing results. Try them in favor of by hand!

Sarah Johnstan has she own Secrets To Successful Candle Making and she is willing to share her secrets with anyone who interested to successfully making exquisite candles at home. you can learn all the ins-and-outs of working with soy, beeswax, gel, and more…! – Years Of Research Invested In This Book Will Benefit Both The Beginner And The Expert.

 

How To Make Soy Candles

Why learn how to make soy candles? Soy candles are natural and burn cleaner than paraffin candle wax. Their popularity is ever increasing. Although soy wax is a little bit more expensive than paraffin wax, people who have used and made soy candles are quickly becoming addicted to them.

Soybeans are the source of soy wax, which is a vegetable wax. The oil is extracted from the soybean flakes and hydrogenated. The majority of the world’s soybeans are grown in the United States in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana.

A lot of people want to know how to make soy candles due to the fact that soy candles are said to burn cleaner compared to paraffin candles. This statement holds true to a certain extent. Soot is emitted by all candles. This is the only way in which it burns. But, paraffin candles emit black soot while soy candles emit white soot. Soot is not dangerous, but white soot is still a bit cleaner than black soot.

As you learn how to make soy candles, you will discover that the only thing that is really different between making soy candles and paraffin candles is the wax. They both use the same techniques and equipment. Soy wax is melted using a double boiler. A double boiler consists of a smaller pot filled with wax which is placed inside a larger pot full of water, which is then placed above a stove top. Heat the soy wax to around 150 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Be careful not to keep the melted wax above 150 degrees Fahrenheit for too long because it could burn which will give the wax a yellowish appearance. Colors can be added to the wax, once it is fully melted. Fragrance can be added after it is removed from the heat.

It is best to use 7% fragrance by weight. That simply means that for every one pound of soy wax, you can use 1.12 ounces of fragrance oil. This should be kept in mind when learning how to make soy candles, because if the fragrance concentration is too high, it may bleed through the candle. The soy wax can be about 140 – 150 degrees Fahrenheit. You can then cool the wax by pouring it into the mold.

The candle could develop cracks if poured at a lower temperature. The wax should be between 95 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit. You should also not use water to cool the candle quickly. This could also cause the candle to crack.

Although soy wax candles and paraffin wax candles are mostly the same, there are a couple of differences. As you learn how to make soy candles you will know that soy wax is not suited for some kind of candles, because of its soft nature. For instance, soy wax does not work well when you are trying to make novelty candles. It also does not make good pillar candles. You can also not make taper candles with soy wax. Floating soy candles can be made if they are up to 3 inches in diameter.

If you can make candles with paraffin wax, you can learn how to make soy candles with soy wax. You need to experiment with candle making, to find out which suits your needs; it is similar to trying to making out new recipes. The bottom line is that soy wax and paraffin wax both hold scent and color the same in candles but, it is great to learn how to make a new kind of candle and offer a variety in your candle making whether you are making candles for pleasure or a business.

Candle Making Molds

The different types of candle making molds that are available to buy to make candles at home are almost as endless as the amount of different candles out there. Since candle making is a popular hobby and many people buy candles for their homes, a variety of candle making molds are available on the market.

The container in which wax is poured in while it cools is called the candle mold. The wax will hold the shape of the mold when it has cooled completely. There are various shapes and sizes of candle making molds available. They also offer a variety of different uses.

A very popular type of mold that candle makers use are aluminum molds. They are durable and heat resistant. Plus, they leave a smooth finish without leaving any seams in the finished candle. This provides the candles with the appearance of a professionally made product. These types of metal molds are widely used in making votive and pillar candles. There are also cheaper than rubber candle making molds.

A plus about aluminum molds is that they are easy to clean. All you need to do is to put them on a baking sheet in your oven. By placing them upside down and heating them to about 150 degrees the leftover wax will melt and run out of the mold onto the cookie sheet. Don’t forget that the cooking sheet should be lined. One disadvantage of aluminum candle making molds is that they are not very flexible, thus there are few choices when it comes to changing the shapes and textures of the candles. Another disadvantage is that they need a releasing agent to pop the candle out of the mold.

On the other hand, rubber candle making molds like polyurethane, silicone, or latex molds are very flexible. Polyurethane molds are flexible but they do not stretch well. They are usually a little bit cheaper than silicone molds. The disadvantage of a rubber mold is that, they pass a strong odor to the candle and will also require a releasing agent to separate the candle from the mold. Often times pillar and taper candles are made from these types of molds.

Silicone molds are another type of rubber mold. These candle making molds possess extraordinary qualities, hence they are very expensive. They leave no parting lines; they are flexible but also stretchable to a point so getting the candles out of the molds is easier and requires no releasing agent.

Although latex molds used to be used very often, with the advances in other types of rubber molds they are losing their luster. However, making your candle making molds molds at home is easy, by using liquid latex and painting it onto a structure. Lots of coats of latex are required but the flexibility it provides for making a variety of molds is infinite.

Plastic candle molds are the cheapest but they are not always the best. They have a shorter lifespan then the rest because they are more brittle. On the plus side, plastic candle making molds are easy to clean. A little soap and warm water is all that is required to clean a plastic mold. Just make sure that the mold is completely dry before you use it again or you will get water bubbles in your candles. In order for you to convert your candle making hobby into a business, you need to invest in different types of molds.