A 'wax-tastic' way to turn a wine bottle into a candle

Up the romance of your table exponentially with this stunning homemade wine bottle candle. A wine bottle offers the perfect dimensions for creating a stout, long-burning pillar-sized candle.

This project calls for standard candle making supplies, and the design payoff is big. What's especially fun about this DIY is that you can tweak it to fit your preferences. You can use patterned or solid ribbon, or any color wax to customize your bottle candle. You can even apply stickers, stick-on gems or fabric to spruce up the outside of the bottle and make it ultra-one-of-a-kind. When you're done, you can use it to brighten your own table, or put it into service as a sure-to-be-appreciated host or hostess gift.

Materials
- Wine bottle, emptied and washed out, with labels removed
- Pair of heavy-duty work gloves
- Bottle cutting tool
- Sheet of 800 grit sandpaper
- Sanding sponge
- Aluminum candle making pitcher
- Two cups of candle wax flakes
- Electric wax melter
- Bottle of vanilla essential oil
- Ice pop stick
- Stainless steel candle wick centering device
- 6-inch candle wick
- Scissors
- Spool of satin ribbon

1. Place the wine bottle on your work surface.

2. Use the bottle cutting tool to cut the glass, width-wise, at the halfway mark around the body of the bottle. Be sure to wear work gloves as you perform this step, as well as step 3.

3. Wrap the sandpaper around the sanding sponge and smooth the edge where the bottle was cut.

4. Fill the candle making pitcher about halfway with the wax shavings.

5. Turn the melter on at a mid-range heat and slowly melt the wax.

6. Add about three or four drops of vanilla essential oil to the hot wax.

7. Mix it in by stirring it with an ice pop stick.

8. Turn off the wax melter.

9. Place the candle wick into the wine bottle and thread it through the central opening in the wick centering device. Rest the wick holder on top of the pitcher.

10. Fill the wine bottle with the liquid wax, but leave about 1/2 inch at the top of the bottle for the wick.

11. Allow the wax to solidify.

12. Remove the wick holder.

13. Trim the end of the wick, but make sure it extends about 1/4 inch above the top edge of the bottle.

14. Unroll ribbon from the spool and wrap it around the middle of the bottle, making sure there is enough to tie a small bow. Cut the piece of ribbon from the spool.

15. Tie the ends of the ribbon into a small bow.

16. The wine bottle candle is now ready to be burned and displayed.