Everyone loves candles; you can't deny it. Candles make great gifts and can have a myriad of uses, whether for illumination, spreading scent, setting a mood or decoration. They can make great personalized gifts, as they differ in color, size, scent, shape and more.

Not only that, but they are one of the simplest crafts you can do at home and without blowing a fortune. Children make them at camps, people make them at special events as keepsakes, and they are a great way to spend time with family by making them. You can make them no matter what the weather's like or what's in style.

There are a variety of different candles in existence, including beeswax candles, votives, even soy candles. This HubPage includes the basics on making candles, starting with supplies required and the steps to be taken, and includes links on places to buy materials to make your candle.

Have fun making your candle, and don't stop at one! Try a variety of different shapes and styles and scents; liven your home or office and create something you can enjoy as long as the flame does!

• WAX: You should use wax that is formulated for candle-making. There is “straight” paraffin wax, but that’s hard to use because it’s difficult to control. Additives are also necessary to color or scent straight paraffin wax.

Blended paraffin wax is best; it already has the necessary additives for candle-making. There are different kinds and grades of blended paraffin wax.

You can also candles with soy wax (which is natural and non-toxic, burns longer than paraffin wax and comes in flake form for easier manageability but doesn’t hold fragrance as well).

You can use gel wax, but it doesn’t work well with fragrances and produces air bubbles easily. To get rid of air bubbles, turn the temperature to 200 degrees and keep stirring.

• COLOR/DYE: It’s true that you can use crayons to color candles, but their constitution clogs the wick and keeps the candle from burning regularly. Use a dye made for candle wax. Usually the colors are very concentrated and will last a while. Also, it's not good to use food coloring because it is water-based and the color won't hold.

• WICKS: Use pre-tabbed and pre-waxed wicks. Make sure it’s the right size for the size of the candle you want to make; it’s possible to have wicks that are too big or too small. Test it first to make sure it burns right.

• FRAGRANCE: You will probably need 1-1.5 oz of fragrance oil per pound of wax or else the excess oil will seep from the candle wax. Try buying a sample size of the oil first before investing in a larger bottle that won’t work for your project.

• MOLDS: Use seamless metal molds and, if desired, wick pins (the wick with a little metal on the bottom to center the wick more easily).
• KETTLE: Try a Presto Kitchen Kettle. You can get this at a regular hardware or Wal-Mart; you don’t need to go to a specialty store and get an expensive appliance. It is highly recommended that you use only double boilers, which is the safest but also the slowest. Wax has a flash point and can burst into flames once it reaches that point! The flash point is often 290-380 degrees. Make sure whatever you use has a numerical temperature control gauge of some kind… low, medium and high settings are not specific enough for candle-making.

• THERMOMETER: Use this to check the temperatures while melting the wax; this is important to do. You should be able to get this for less than $5-10. Try using a glass one or one specifically made for candle-making.

• POUR POT: This is for pouring the melted wax from the kettle to the molds. There are specialty pour pots made specifically for candle-making, but you can also use those glass Pyrex measuring containers or even an old, clean coffee can.

• SCALE: You need to weight how much wax to put in the kettle. You shouldn’t need too much wax, so a scale that weighs up to 10 pounds should be sufficient. You’ll probably need to break up wax with a

• HAMMER or something blunt of that sort, then weight the chunks on the scale until you have as much as you’ll need.

  The Presto Kitchen Kettle holds about eight pounds of wax, but you’ll probably need no more than seven at a time or else the excess will make it difficult to stir it all without spilling.

• STOVE: You’ll need this for melting the wax, of course.

1) Melt the wax. Using a thermometer, make sure it stays at around 170-185 degrees. Don't burn yourself! Check that the molds are clean while the wax is melting. If using wick pins, drop one in each mold.

2) Add dye slowly; you can always add more but you can't retract it once it's gone in. Stir the dye with a wire wisk in the wax for at least two minutes so the wax and dye can bind.

3) Add fragrance oil and also stir for at least two minutes. Use the wisk and stir well to evenly distribute the fragrance. The wax temperature should be between 165-185 degrees when adding the oil; if it's not hot enough the fragrance won't bind to the wax and if it's too hot the fragrance will burn off.

4) Use a pour pot or glass/metal measuring cup (something with a little point around the edge to facilitate neat pouring) fill the molds to the top. (You should warm the pot or cup a little so the wax won't stick to it.) Also heat the molds to about 150 degrees so "drag lines" won't appear on the sides of the candle when you're done. along the sides of your votives once they are finished.

If you have leftover wax, use it for a second pour and turn the heat down or off while the candles cool.

5) If don't use wick pins, wait for a thin skin to appear on the top of your wax as it cools, the push and center the wick in the candle until it reaches the bottom Hold it there until it's stable.

6) If your candle is large, make relief holes about 45 minutes after your first pour so any air bubbles can be released.

7) Since wax recedes and condenses when it cools, you'll need to pour more wax over the candles. Heat up the leftover wax to about 10 degrees hotter than the first pour so the waxes bind. Stir it again and fill each mold to the top.

8) Wait and hour and a half after the second pour to take the candle out of the mold. Try putting it in a fridge first for about five minutes if you have a hard time. If you used a wick pin you can pull the candle out by the wick.

Hooray! You've made candles!

If you're going to put your candle in a jar, make sure the jar is heated when you pour the wax in. Keep the wax at 170 degrees and make the candle in the same manner as the basic candle.

Note: When the wax dries it tends to pull the wick away from the center as it shrinks. Thus, drill a hole in a popsicle stick, thread the wick through, secure the wick with a clothespin and set it on top of the jar so the wick will stay straight as the wax sets. Remember to poke relief holes!

The Beeswax Candle: Beeswax is one of the oldest materials used for making candles. They are clean-burning and have a pleasant, sweet scent.

You'll need

• Some Beeswax sheets (at DiscountCandle.com, for instance, beeswax sheets are 8" width x 16" length x 1/16" thick and cost about $3.60 each)

• Primed wick

• A sharp knife

• A cutting board

  1. Roll out the beeswax sheet on the cutting board.

  2. Cut enough wick so it is about two inches longer than the width of your beeswax sheet.

  3. Place the wick along the edge of the beeswax sheet and fold the sheet about 1/8" over the wick. Press down on the sheet so the wax completely

  surrounds the wick.

  4. Start rolling the wax up into a cylinder, but don't wreck the honeycomb pattern on the wax. Roll slowly keep it straight.

  5. Once you have reached the end of the sheet, press down on the exposed edge so the candle won't come undone.

  6. Pick which end to be the "top" and trim the wick down to approximately ½". Remove the exposed wick completely from the other end.

  All done!

A patriotic candle that's actually not too hard to make.

You'll make this the same way as the basic candle, only you'll be slanting the mold to get the various colors in the candle. Use dyes to color white or vanilla wax to get red and blue wax. Also, glue a wick pin to the bottom of the mold with hot glue so it won't move when you're pouring wax in.

Pour red wax (heated to 170 degrees) into a 3" x 3.5" round pillar mold and hold it at a slant (you might want to use a box or something to lean it on). Let it sit long enough for the wax not to pull from the side of the mold when upright. Poke a relief hole.

Next turn the mold 180, slant at an equal angle as the red was poured at and pour the blue (heated to 167 degrees) over the red. Poke another relief hole after the blue has firmed up.

Finally pour white wax over both the red and the blue.

You should be able to just slide the candle from the mold after it has set.