How to Make a New Year's Hurricane Candle Shell

Hurricane candles are a nifty candle making variation that creates a shell of wax that you insert a votive candle into. Here's a variation on the Hurricane Candle Shell that embeds a Happy New Year wish. Light a votive inside the shell at the beginning of the evening, and when the new year has come, you'll be able to blow it out. One year I printed my New Year's Resolutions on the paper so each time I lit it I was reminded of all of the things I still had to do before next New Year's Eve! You could likewise write "Goals for the New Year" or "Words to Live By" onto the paper and embed that into the candle.

This project is based on the Basic Hurricane Candle and the Photo Candle instructions. You'll be making a basic hurricane shell and then embedding your graphic/photo into the candle. Make sure you understand these instructions before trying this variation.

The only thing extra you'll need is a graphic printed on plain white paper (plain white paper works best), some tongs, and a chopstick or wooden spoon.

Once you've poured the wax into the mold, again, following the Basic Hurricane Candle and Photo Candle instructions, use your tongs to dip the paper graphic into the wax. Let it sit for a moment to soak up the wax. Press the graphic onto the side of the mold and press a wet wash cloth onto the other side of the mold.

You'll see the wax start to solidify and sort of "glue" the graphic to the side of the mold.

Lower the mold into the water bath and unmold as you would a normal hurricane shell.

Happy New Year!