A little rainbow DIY project

You may begin to see a theme in the next few weeks; maybe or maybe not culminating in a similarly themed one year old's birthday party....

Anywhoodles, in preparation for said birthday party, I picked up these, thinking I could use them somehow. Also, mine were only $3.99 at my store. FYI- they are much more "rainbowier" in person. Yep, I said that.

Then I'm all "Um, how can I use 30 flippin candles at a party where there will be like, 12 kids? Sounds suuuuper safe." Yeah, so instead, I decided to melt them all down, and make one big rainbow striped candle. I'll be honest, it's really irritating me that it isn't perfectly striped. Apparently it is not so easy to work with piping hot wax, and get it to do exactly what you want it to do, without burning the crap out of yourself. Oh, doesn't help when there are 2 kids bouncing around your legs trying to see what it looks like.

I took each candle out of it's plastic tealight holder, popped the wick out, and melted each color individually for about 4 or 5 minutes in the microwave. I would stir it every now and again also, with a plastic fork. For the first color, I just held the wick in place for a few minutes until it "dried" enough to hold it in place. Then I would wait for the color to set until I started melting the next one. All together, minus kid interruptions, it took all of about 30 minutes to do it. Now I can put it in the middle of the table, or on the mantel at the party, and it will be one fire hazard that isn't reachable, versus thirty. Win.

So alas, here is the finished product, not perfect, but cute, and vaguely reminiscent of those colored sand things we made as kids:

Here is another little glimpse at something we will use for the party. Though I am yet undetermined as to what I am doing for cake, I think this plate will be used for Ava's smash cake. Thanks Teresa (mother in law) for lending me the Southern Living "Dress Me Up Plate." This could well find it's way to my birthday wish list. Wink, wink ;)