Today is the last tutorial post of Handmaking The Holidays. So sad. Tomorrow I will have a round-up of all the amazing round ups and tutorials that we’ve done. And then it will practically be Christmas!
In honor of the Winter Solstice, which is tomorrow*, here is a tutorial for some really cute firestarters made with cupcake cups and shredded paper. I love these. If you think that you don’t know anyone who could use them, think again- does someone you know have a wood or pellet stove? Does someone bar-b-que? Do they have a firepit that they use in the summer time? Do they love to go camping? These are all reasons that someone would love to get some firestarters. And bonus! These ones are pretty cute looking!
Here’s what you need:
cupcake liners and a muffin tin to hold them
wax of some kind- it doesn’t matter what kind- you can recycle old candles, canning wax, whatever you can find.
something to melt the wax in- I happen to have a melting pitcher that’s used for making candles. If you don’t have one, you could use a coffee tin.
shredded paper- the paper I used is some recycled packaging, but you could use paper from your shredder too.
dryer lint and/or wood shavings.
Here’s what you do:
Put the wax in the melting pitcher and set it in a pan with about 2 inches of water. Turn your burner on medium and let the wax melt.
While you’re waiting for the wax to melt, put a cupcake liner in each muffin tin. Fill the bottom with dryer lint or wood shavings. I used dryer lint, since we seem to have an abundance of it.
Top with the shredded paper.
Once the wax is melted, pour it over the muffin tins. You’ll want to fill the cupcake liners about half full. If you use wood shavings, make sure the wax gets in and around them so the whole thing will stick together.
While the wax is still melted, top with more shredded paper and press it into the wax (making sure that you don’t burn yourself!).
Let them sit overnight to harden fully. After they were hardened, I twisted the paper together so they weren’t all going crazy all over the place.
And there you go!
To use, just build up your logs on top of the firestarter. Then light a piece of the shredded paper and voila, fire started! They burn for a really long time, so they’ll save you from rubbing those sticks together forever.
And just so you know, no counter tops were hurt in the making of these firestarters. I put it out as soon as I was done with the pictures.
I’m packaging them in the paper sacks and putting a bunch in my parent’s stockings.
* Just a note that tomorrow is also the supposed apocalypse, so please be safe and stay out of the way of any crazies out there. Unless you are one of the crazies and then just be safe.
This post was published on Muse of the Morning.com
