Homemade Soy Candles

Homemade candles make a great gift and are an easy way to keep your own house smelling fresh (and you know exactly what they are made of!).  

When we decided to make Melicipes Gift Baskets, I knew I wanted to include a homemade candle.  I have pinned many posts on making your own candles on my pinterest boards and this was a great way to try it out.  

The candles turned out to be really easy to make.  The hardest part was figuring out how much wax to melt to fill each candle jar.  I used ~2.5 cups of soy wax flakes to fill a 10 oz jar... if that helps. 

We kept one of the smallest candles for ourselves - it smells great and has burned for a long time.  I'm really proud of our homemade candles :) 

Ingredients

Soy wax

Wax coloring (if desired)

Essential oils (for the first batch, I used lavender and peppermint) 

Wicks

Candle jars

Avery labels

Directions

1. Pre-heat double broiler over medium heat
2. Add soy wax, slightly increase heat to medium/high, and stir with whisk until fully melted. (Do not leave wax unattended on stove!!!!) 
3. Whisk in wax coloring if desired (only use coloring for wax). 
4. Once the wax coloring is fully melted and mixed into the melted wax, add essential oil fragrance. 
5. Continue to whisk. 
6. Lower heat to medium and continue to heat for another ~1-2 minutes. 
7. Transfer wax to candle jars. 
8. Let wax melt for ~10 minutes and insert wicks. 
9. I used pens to set the wicks in the center of the candles and checked them periodically to make sure they did not move off-center while the candle set. 
10. Add labels and voila! Homemade candles!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I found this recipe on pinterest here: Bethany Actually and thought it was such a cute gift idea (and a great way to make your own baking ingredients!!).  Turns out, it is also really easy to make.

Ingredients

Vodka

Vanilla Beans

Clear 4 oz Glass Jars

Directions

1. Cut each vanilla bean horizontally and vertically (so you have four pieces from each bean)
2. Place six to ten vanilla bean pieces (1 3/4 to 2 1/4 vanilla beans) into each jar
3. Add ~1/2 cup of vodka to each jar
4. Add a label & a bow, and let sit for ~1 month before gifting! (Since we made our vanilla extract a bit close to the holidays, we just included a "Do not use until date" on our labels.)  

Simple right?! We made 12 jars and included in them in our Melicipes Gift Baskets.  We were also able to save 2 for ourselves :)

I used avery labels and their free template available online.  You can create your own personalized gift label yourself - very easy!! 

I read on several different websites that the quality of vodka you use does not really matter.  We used a good kind for our gifts, but I think the next time around I will test out a more cost-effective brand.  

The vanilla beans were a bit pricey, but came out to be ~$2.70 per bottle (if you are making 12-15 bottles, and are generous with the vanilla beans).  

Total cost per bottle came out to $7.98.  

Healthy & Homemade Gift Baskets

This year for Christmas, we gave our family Melicipes Gift Baskets.  

You can create your own gift basket for any occasion, birthdays, hostess gifts, the holidays...

What makes me love this gift idea so much is that most of it is homemade or includes our own personal touches!   

Included in our baskets: 

• Quinoa & Recipe
• Quinoa Pasta & Recipe
• Chia Seeds
• Homemade Vanilla Extract
• Homemade Candles
• Agave 
• Yogi Tea Relaxation Sampler

Quinoa Pasta & Quinoa Jars with Recipes

If you are interested in putting together your own healthy & homemade gift baskets, here is some information on where to find some of the supplies we used.

I found the baskets on Amazon:
Large
Small
(The baskets in the picture are all large baskets) 

We filled quart & pint sized Ball Jars with quinoa pasta and quinoa.  I printed recipes for both, glued the recipes to holiday colored scrap paper, and tied each to a jar with a bow.
You can find the jars at Walmart (Walmart.com only has the lid with band jars).

Yogi Rest & Relax Sampler Variety Pack (Amazon)

Agave Nectar (Amazon)

We made the vanilla extract and candles ourselves and will be posting more details on these two projects next.