How-to: Make Beeswax Cut-outs to Decorate Candles (or Your House)

beeswax heart cut-outBeeswax cut-outs take seconds to make, and can be used to decorate candles (even boring store-bought ones!), make candles of their own, or just hang out in your house and look pretty. Here’s how to craft them:

beeswax candles on a beeswax cut-out
My six-year-old added her name in beeswax cut-outs to the rolled beeswax candle that she made.

Start with a sheet of honeycomb beeswax. Lay it flat over a covered work surface, and press a shape into it with an ordinary cookie or clay cutter–I like to use cookie cutters for larger shapes, like hearts or stars, and the smaller clay cutters for letters and numbers.

beeswax cut-outs using a plastic cookie cutter
I could press this plastic cookie cutter through the beeswax sheet with just the pressure of my hands.

If you’re using a plastic cookie cutter, you should be able to press all the way through the beeswax by hand, but if you’re using a metal cookie cutter (especially a homemade one) that would hurt your hands if you pressed that firmly against it, you can also gently thump the cookie cutter with a mallet to push it through the beeswax.

There are a bunch of ways to use beeswax cut-outs in your crafting:

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Written by Julie Finn

I'm a writer, crafter, Zombie Preparedness Planner, and homeschooling momma of two kids who will hopefully someday transition into using their genius for good, not the evil machinations and mess-making in which they currently indulge. I'm interested in recycling and nature crafts, food security, STEM education, and the DIY lifestyle, however it's manifested--making myself some underwear out of T-shirts? Done it. Teaching myself guitar? Doing it right now.

Visit my blog Craft Knife for a peek at our very weird handmade homeschool life, and my etsy shop Pumpkin+Bear for a truly odd number of rainbow-themed beeswax pretties.

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