It all started out with a beautiful vintage muffin tin. I don’t really know if you can label a muffin tin beautiful, but these things are in the eye of the beholder, and my first thought when I saw it was that this vintage muffin tin tray was really very pretty – in a simple, vintage, well-used kind of way.

 

But what do you do with a  well used kitchen tool like this from years gone by?

I must admit I didn’t know.

But then, when I was using some beeswax chips to refill one of my favourite candles, the thought struck me – my beautiful vintage muffin tin would make the most interesting candle holder (a festive centerpiece) for the holiday season. This, then, is my creative Christmas gift idea #10.

And I think that this muffin tin tray will be even more beautiful when all 8 candles are lit. What a Christmas centerpiece!!!

So what did I do? After cleaning the muffin tin tray and wiping dry, I used a glue gun to glue felt circles on the bottom of the tray (just in case the tray gets really hot – I thought that it should have a built-in hotplate/furniture protector). Then, I cut my wick to length for each of the 8 candles, tied a knot in the bottom and placed the wicks in their respective tins. Then, I poured beeswax chips into each muffin tin, making sure that the wick stayed centered and straight. And this it – and you can stop here with a finished candle holder – a 20 minute Christmas gift ( less time than it would take you to put on your coat, warm up the car and drive to the mall).

Although I could have stopped there, I didn’t. I thought that this project would be ever so much better with a little fragrance – especially if the candles smelled like freshly baked muffins. I put 2 drops of clove oil and 1 drop of cinnamon oil in each tin and then added a little melted beeswax over the top to hold the scent in.

They smell fabulous

This is a great basic project with lots of room for play. You could change the scents (if you use any), you could mix some colour into the melted beeswax (if you decided to use the melted wax), or you could even use an entirely different beautiful, vintage, well-used kitchen tool to hold the candle wax (lonely silver goblet anyone??? or a pretty bundt pan with 3 or more wicks…?).  How would you choose to do this project?