Teacup candles

Here they are in all their glory - my first batch of teacup candles (and one in a novelty cupcake pot). Friends and family - guess what you'll be getting next birthday/Christmas.

Making these cute candle cups was pretty easy, albeit rather messy, and all I needed was:

• A variety of vintage tea cups/random resepticles of choice - sourced from charity shops and car boot sales

• Melting wax. I found this lot in a charity shop candle-making kit, but have recently bought a batch from www.artifolk.co.uk.

• Candle wicks from www.candle-wicks.co.uk - apparently 'the best wicks on the web'.

• Wooden barbeque skewers.

• An old pan and an old newspaper.

How to...

So, once you've laid out your old newspaper on your worktop, all you need to do is melt the wax by placing your old pan with the wax in it into a bigger pan of hot water over a hob. Once it has melted so it is entirely clear, position your wick with the base in the middle of the cup (I've just bought a glue gun to fix it down) and pour in the wax so that the cup or resepticle is three quarters full. Use the barbeque skewers to lay across the cups and pinch the wick in place - this will prevent it from sinking into the wax.

For ease of pouring, it's better to have a pan with a pouring lip or a Pyrex jug, as I found out after getting wax all over the kitchen floor.

Leave the wax to cool for an hour of so. When it is completely cool to the touch, you will notice that the wax has sunk in the middle, so you'll need to top it up with more melted wax to ensure a smooth finish.

And that's it, you're done!

The wax in my finished candle cups appears darker in the centre, and I'm not sure why this is. I'm hoping that the better-quality melting wax I've ordered will acheive a more even finish, but if any candle-makers out there have other suggestions, I'd be interested in hearing them.