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Are you looking for a children's craft project that provides hours of fun and ends with a useful product? Maybe you have enough pot holders, ash trays and wall hangings. Making candles will recycle some of your old candles and crayons into fresh new decorative gifts or emergency lights! It requires careful adult supervision, so make sure you have time to see the project through with your youngsters. Here's what you'll need.

- A small inexpensive metal camp-stove coffee pot with a good pour spout
- A pan large enough to hold your little coffee pot and some boiling water
- Newspaper or paper grocery bags to cover your work area
- Fresh tabbed wicks from the craft store (tabs are the little metal things)
- Empty tomato sauce cans
- Empty votive glasses (optional)
- Aluminum muffin tins
- Old Crayons and candles

-Candle Molds-
Many kinds of candle molds are available commercially but tomato sauce cans make a nice size candle for your first candle making attempt. Any small metal can will work. If you have some old votive candle holders you will be able to pour your candles right into them. And muffin pans can make nice floating candles or votive lights. Prepare your candle molds by making sure they are clean and have no sharp edges. Metal molds will need to be oiled lightly with cooking oil. Your votive glasses need not be oiled.

-Wicks from the Craft Store-
Measure the diameter of your molds before you go to buy the wicks. Get wicks of the proper size for the diameter of your candle. It is easier if you get wicks with the tabs already attached. While you are at the craft store consider whether you need to buy additional candle wax? If you don't have a lot of old candles you may want to get some fresh wax to add to your batch.

-Melting the Wax-
Break or cut your old candles into smaller pieces and place them in your coffee pot and set it down into the pan of boiling water. The wax may take a while to melt, but stay close since most older candles are made of petroleum products. Do not allow the wax to become hot enough to smoke. If it does remove it from the heat immediately. Use the lowest temperature that will melt your candles. While you wait, cover your work area with several layers of paper and set out your candle molds with wicks nearby.

-Colors-
Once your wax has melted completely you can fish out the remnants of old wick and metal tabs, or just let them settle to the bottom. If you have decided to add color add the crayons that will produce something close to what you had

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