Use Old Beer Bottle Caps To DIY The Easiest Mini Candles

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What do you do with bottle caps? That's kind of a trick question. Obviously, glass beer bottles can be recycled, and bottle caps can too, but there's a catch. Unfortunately, because bottle caps are so small, they can sometimes pass through the screening process at recycling centers and end up in the landfill. So, it may just be easier to find a way to upcycle bottle caps instead. After drinking a beer or soda, instead of tossing or recycling the bottle caps, consider saving them for this simple DIY: using old beer bottle caps to create mini candles.

To pull off this DIY, you'll need the bottle caps, along with wax, wicks, and a hot glue gun. It could be a good idea to buy a candle-making kit that comes with most of these items instead of buying them all separately. A kit like this Hearth & Harbor Organic Wax offers many of the supplies you'll need to make mini candles, including wick stickers, which would eliminate the need for a hot glue gun.

Believe it or not, there are actually a number of amazing ways to reuse bottle caps around your house, from ornaments to hot pads to art. You can even use bottle caps as a creative decor solution on top of your bird feeder to attract more guests. Transforming your bottle caps into candles is just another way to reuse this common household item and turn it into something useful in your home.

The first step of this DIY is to remove that film on the inside of your bottle caps, which should be fairly easy with a pair of tweezers. Next, you'll want to attach a wick to the bottle cap using either a wick sticker or a hot glue gun. Trim the wick so it sticks out a bit over the top of the cap, then burn it slightly with a lighter. 

Then comes the fun part: adding your wax! Now you'll obviously need to melt the wax, which can be done by using a wax-melting heating pad or the double boiler method. This is the point where you'll also add your scent if you'd like one. You can find a variety of essential oil packs online, like this MAYJAM Essential Oil Gift Set. Consider using fall scents like cinnamon or floral oils like rose or jasmine. You'll then pour the wax into the bottle cap and leave it to sit until it's hardened. Each mini candle will have a burn time of about one hour.

Beyond changing up the scents of your candles, you could also add candle wax dye to make your candles different colors. This pack of ALEXES Candle Wax Dye is an excellent option, especially if you want to do a variety of colored candles. Whenever you're done, place the bottle caps around your home and enjoy beautifully decorating your home with candles!