dpowell

I've been using a glue gun as well. The problem I've been having is with heating the containers (glue comes loose???). I've tried wicking and then heating as well as heating and then wicking - still some of them come loose this way.

I was considering using something I found at hobby lobby (small double sided stick mounting squares) that come on a roll of 500 for $3. Not sure if that would work better or not though.

We do open houses at this time (at our house) although we may have one at a friend's house soon. No "party" style stuff for us.

I used a business card template and split the cells (so you get 2 halfs) then I'll print on both sides of the sheet so I'll get a front, back, and middle for text.

Yes fluid ounces and solid ounces are different. fluid ounce measurements are used for volume, not weight.

You want to use the weight of the wax and fragrance oil (not the fluid ounces).

I do 1 for $2.00 and 3 for $5.00 as well. It's been working good, but I'm using a very basic recipe... I know that if I used a few higher end ingredients that people would gladly pay $3.00 a tube.

I've also switched to using a tied on hang tag (business card template on some nice kinda cloud pattern tan heavy card stock printed on both sides, folded in half and edge cut with a craft scissors) on containers since switching jars.

Warning label on the bottom of course, but the frosted jars we're using now just seem like they would be ruined by putting a label on. We're working on stepping up the image of the product a bit to make it a bit fancier and sophisticated... people around here seem to like it.

Now, we just need to find a good price for some fancier bags and large quantities of a good matching tissue paper.

I have some of the plastic thank you bags from Sams as well. And also, several sizes of the brown kraft bags (look like oversized paper sandwich bags) from Sams.

They are cheap and work well.

We are doing ours this weekend Saturday and Sunday. Usually we will have a tart warmer going in our bathroom with one scent and sometimes 1 scent candle burning in the living room.

I've found that some people don't like / can't stand some scents so I try to avoid anything heavy (no strong flower or spicy scents) and usually it'll be something light and fruity we'll burn. Thinking about keeping the tart warmer in the bathroom and going unscented for candles to have burning in the house this time.

Good luck with your open house. I like those so much better than doing a structured party. It's a lot easier for us and the customers since they can just stop by, look, buy, and leave.

My first batch was fugly as well, and actually your first one looks much better than our first. Second batch we made was a bit better. I'm waiting until I have a few hours next week to make molds before we give it a real try.

The first 2 batches got cut up into small bars to give to some friends and family to sample.

Keep trying and I'm sure they'll be how you want them in no time.

Like soy said, rapid temperature change will cause glass to break. Also, if the same jar has been heated and then cooled enough times it could eventually crack because the expansion and shrinkage caused by heating and cooling can weaken the glass to the point of cracking.

I've seen this happen to a few coffee pots and a pyrex measuring cup (the measuring cup was an extreme example - big mess)

Yeah, I noticed the same thing with those jars. Still not a bad deal, but they changed it right before I was going to make an order so my total was bumped to a few dollars over the $25. I'll have to redo the order a bit to bring it down because the shipping jumped from $6.95 to $36.80 for going $2 over the $25 limit for the flat shipping.

Got our order from WSP today.

Going to try out our first batch of lip balm tonight. Poured some containers earlier. Tomorrow I'm going to work on finishing up labels while Erin makes some votives and dips a few bears for our open house next weekend.

I use IGI 4630. Once the wax is cooled completely I test the jar. There is no reason that I can see to have to "cure" with that. Usually that is done with vegetable waxes like soy.

Very nice. Just placed an order from them instead of from 2 different places and saved around $25.

Just out of curiosity, if "tart" can't be used then why does Wal-Mart use it on their brand of wax melts? I know I've seen that wording on a few other brands available in stores as well, I just can't remember where.

Not that it's a big deal to me or anything, I was just interested because it seems that every time someone mentions using "tart" on a site they get tore up over it.

The first container wax I used was a slab of J223, after that I started getting 4630 because it was a bit cheaper. It turned out that I actually liked it better too and I've stuck with it for my container wax ever since.

I'd agree with an average sale price for a votive being around $1.50. Ours are $1.25 for regular votives or $1.50 for our "specialty" ones.

It's 2 oz. of wax, a bit of f.o., a wick, and some packaging. I can't see that costing $2.60.

chris has the costs figured about right.

I'm using GoDaddy for hosting and ZenCart.

The cost of shipping should be figured into the cost of the supplies. For example if you pay $10 for a slab of wax and it costs you $7 for shipping then the cost of the wax is $17 not $10.

Hope that helps.

Those are very nice.

Glad to see it's working for you.

Probably, but you should be able to use website payments standard instead of pro with mals according to paypal.

That will let you have the credit card through paypal from customers without a paypal account option you are looking for.

Website payments standard through Paypal will give you what you want for free. It is compatible with Mals. This is very similar to what I'm doing with Zencart. You need to setup IPN with paypal and use the Website Payments Standard through Mals. The link below should help you with that.

http://www.mals-e.com/paypal.php

This link will help you with the Paypal end of the setup:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-integration

In order to use Paypal Website Payments Pro you would need to sign up for with Paypal and it costs $20 / month.

http://https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overview

Hope that helps.

So, when the payment method is chosen as paypal does the screen say " Pay Fast With PayPal It’s free and private. Merchants never see your financial info."

and then below that "Don't have an account?" "Use your credit card or bank account (where available)."

I don't remember having to set anything special up for that. I do have paypal IPN on for both my zencart and my paypal account.

If you have that then it's set right.

I have my site set up like that. Are you using a shopping cart program or the paypal one? I may be able to help you out.