Make Your Own Sand Candles

Sand candles are a great summer craft. Make them right on the beach, or use a bucket of sand at home to make candles in the kitchen, on the balcony or in the backyard.

You Will Need: 

• sand (and a bucket or container if you're making candles at home)
• paraffin wax
• candle wick (available at craft supply stores)
• double boiler (a soup pot and tin can works well!)
• small branch, skewer or chopstick

Instructions:

1. Gather your supplies. If you're making candles at home, you'll need a pail full of sand.

2. Make holes in the sand that are the shape and size of the candle you'll make. The holes can be any size you wish—we used a vitamin bottle to make our holes in the sand. 

3. This step should be done with adult supervision or by an adult. 

Get your double boiler ready. Put water in the soup pot and place the wax in an empty tin can.

Heat on medium-low and wait until all the wax has melted. 

4. While your wax is melting, get the wicks ready. You will need to tie them onto something, like a branch, skewer or chopstick.

Make sure wicks reach the bottom of the hole you made.

5. This step is for grown-ups or older children.

Using an oven mitt, take the container of melted wax out of the double boiler and pour wax into each hole until it's level with the top of the sand.

6. Now the waiting game begins! Wait for your candles to set. This will all depend on the size of the candles you made—ours took 2 hours to set.

7. Now the fun part! Pull your candle out of the sand, trim the wick and voila! A beautiful sand candle to light the dark summer nights. 

Happy summertime!