DIY Decorative Candle | Thrift Store Upcycle Challenge!

Hi friends,

It’s a New Year and a new Thrift Store Upcycle Challenge! We took a few months off for the holidays, but we are back to show you more upcycled thrift ideas! This time we have joined forces with even more bloggers and have tons of thrifty upcycle ideas to get those wheels spinning.

The Rules:

• Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
• There’s no monthly theme.
• There’s no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts!

Amanda | The Kolb Corner    Maureen | Red Cottage Chronicles    Kim | Made in a Day    Dru | Polka Dot Poplars

Erlene | My Pinterventures    Colleen | Life on Kaydeross Creek    Pili | Sweet Things    Shirley | Intelligent Domestications

Ann | Duct Tape and Denim    Debra | Shoppe No. 5    Marie | DIY Adulation    Chelsea | The Johnsons Plus Dog

Jes | My DIY Envy  Lindsay | Crazy Organized    Molly | Just a Little Creativity    Ashley | 3 Little Greenwoods

Kimm | Reinvented    Michelle | Our Crafty Mom    Ali | Home Crafts by Ali    Sue | A Purdy Little House

Chelc | Inside the Fox Den    Sara | Twelve on Main    Claire | Pillar Box Blue    Kim | Farmhouse Made

Victoria | Dazzle While Frazzled    Sherry | Savvy Apron    Jennifer and Vicki | 2 Bees in a Pod    Lora | Craftivity Designs

Megan | C’mon Get Crafty    Denise | My Thrifty House    Toni | Small Home Soul    Deborah | Salvage Sister and Mister

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Like past upcycles, I wanted to find something that would be practical / useful. I originally had an entirely different idea for this month’s upcycle challenge, but that quickly changed. Let me tell you why in a fun little story I like to call “The next time I go to Goodwill, it will only be as a last resort”.

So I headed to my local Goodwill to look for an item to upcycle. I had an idea in my head for something I wanted to make, and I found the perfect thing! The only problem was that couldn’t find a price, but it was perfect so I was ready to pay anything (within reason, lol). I took it up to the cashier, explained that I couldn’t find a price, and got my wallet out to pay. But they refused to sell it to me! I asked if they could tell me a price and they wouldn’t even do that! I guess because it didn’t have a price they were going to put it back through the donation process and it would be available a few days later. Needless to say, I wasn’t really interested after that!

Since Goodwill wouldn’t be getting my business I headed to Salvation Army, which was the best decision! They had things that were much better quality and were more unique. I had a flood of inspiration wash over me while I was in there and picked up quite a few things for the next couple of upcycles! ;)

One of those items was a small decorative brass container. It needed a little cleaned up, but I loved the story it seemed to have. And for less than $3, you can’t beat it! It looked so interesting and I knew I wanted it for my home. But how would I use it?

Supplies

• decorative bowl / container with lid (lid optional)
• wax pellets
• fragrance
• wicks
• hot glue

Instructions

1. The brass was a little dirty and scuffed up so I looked up a few ways to clean it up and make it shine. I tried a couple of methods but found the most effective to be applying a thin layer of ketchup (yes, ketchup!) to the entire thing, leave it on for 15 – 20 minutes, and then rinse. It’s weird, but it works!

{ P.S. Are you following me on Snapchat yet? }

2. I decided to turn it into a fancy DIY version of those famous 3-wick candles we all know and love from Bath and Body Works. I grabbed 3 wicks, figured out where I wanted to place them, and hot glued them into place. They were super long for the brass piece so I cut them down a bit. This helped so they didn’t fall over because of the weight and would stand straight up instead.

3. Now I needed to melt the wax to finish my candle. I measured the pellets in the brass container, doubled it, and melted them in a microwave safe container until it was a liquid. I added my fragrance (Baked Apple because apple scents are the best) and poured it into the container with the wicks.

4. To help it turn solid a little bit faster I popped it into the fridge. Once it was solid wax, I cut the wicks down to the correct size, lit them, and enjoyed my new decorative candle!

This was seriously such an easy DIY upcycle project and I love how it turned out. I want to go and try some more kinds of containers to make candles into. This would even make a great DIY birthday or Christmas gift to make for someone!

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And now for more thrifty goodness!

Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!