DIY Eggshell Tea Lights

All right! It’s finally Easter crafts time on Hands Occupied! I’m starting things off with an easy (and a little adorable) tea light candle DIY. These sweet little dudes are made with eggshells and a combo of scrap wax from old candles and soy wax flakes. They’re a great way to recycle household items, and they are the perfect Easter table accent. Bonus: they don’t take long to make.

Supplies

eggshells
hot glue gun & glue
soy wax and/or scrap wax – I like using soy wax flakes in particular.
double boiler
tabbed candle wicks
scissors
egg carton

Directions

Begin by saving several egg shells when cooking. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, and boil all shells for a few minutes to sterilize them. Let dry.

Place your eggshells open end up in an old egg carton. Then glue your tabbed wicks to the bottom of each dry egg shell. Trim excess wick length with a scissors.

Melt your soy wax flakes in a double boiler. I transformed some leftover red wax from my ombre heart Valentine’s candles mixed with fresh wax flakes to make light pink candles for Easter! When your wax is melted and has cooled to the right temperature, carefully pour your liquid wax into your wicked eggshells.

For tips on how to heat up soy wax and what temperatures are best for melting and pouring your candles, check out my candle making 101 tutorial. 

How to make a faux egg cup so your candles stand on their own!

If you aren’t fancy (or British), and don’t own an egg cup, you can hack one together using some of your candle wax and your egg carton. You just need to over pour your candles just a little bit so that some wax spills down to the bottom of the egg carton, pooling around the base of the eggshell.

Whether or not you use the over-pouring technique to build a quasi-egg cup, the last step in making these tea lights is to let them sit for a couple hours until they’re fully solidified, and you’re done!

Here are some of my tea lights, without the faux egg cups: 

And here’s the ones with them: 

As you can see, you don’t even need to cover the egg’s whole bottom to get them to sit up – it’s all about getting just enough wax across the bottom to balance the weight of the candle.

Anyway, this is just a quickie little candle DIY to help make your Easter table a little brighter. :) How would you use these tea lights in your house?