Creating Your Cookie-Cutter Candles
- First, place your cookie cutters on a tray covered with wax paper. You’ll be filling them with wax to form your holiday candles, so make sure that their edges are flush with the tray to prevent any wax from leaking out.
- Place a wick in the center of each cookie-cutter. Skip this step if you want your wax to serve as a taper candle base*.
- Melt the candle wax you want to use for your cookie-cutter candles. Once it’s melted, you can change the color of your wax by using liquid candle dyes or chips of dyed wax. You can also add essential oils at this point if you want to give your candle a seasonal scent.
- Carefully pour your melted candle wax into each cookie cutter until it’s close to reaching the top. If you’re using wicks, readjust them so that they sit in the center of each candle.
- Allow your candles to dry until fully hardened; then, gently pull the cookie cutter away from the candle.
*If you’re planning on using your wax as a taper candle base, wait until the wax has started to harden; it should be soft, but not pure liquid. Press your taper candle into the center of the wax and allow the base to harden around the taper candle completely. If your taper candle is unstable after the wax has dried, you can melt more candle wax and pour it on top for an extra layer of stability.
Perfecting Your Cookie Cutter Candles
Creator @herzenstimme on Instagram came up with a few tips to ensure that your wax doesn’t leak out of your cookie cutter when you make these candles. She recommends freezing the tray you’re using first to ensure the base of the candle hardens quickly. She also says that it’s a good idea to wait until your candle wax has cooled slightly before pouring it into your cookie cutters.
Besides dying your candles different colors, another cute way you can spruce them up is by using wax embeds. These are small, molded wax shapes in various colors that you can add to your candle before it hardens, helping you create a cute little pattern or winter scene on top of the wax. This is an especially cute way to dress up the base of your taper candle with winter snowflakes or green pine trees.
When you light your cookie-cutter candles, be sure to place them on a tray or fire-safe jar, since the wax will drip as it melts.
