Just made my first votives ever! Now where do i store, and how to clean tools?

[Alycia]

Hi!

i just made my first votives today and they came out great for the first try! they are yellow with lemongrass fragrance. i got about 10 out of the batch since i had a little more than 1 lb of wax goin in, but the scent isnt diluted or anything since it is so strong

so my question is, where do i store my votives until i use them? if i leave them out, besides getting dusty, wont they lose their scent? any cheap ideas how to store?

and how do i clean my wooden spoon that i used to mix the wax and fragrance? should i throw it out since the scent is in it now? or is there a good way to clean it?

thanks!

[Sherie]

Hi Alycia! Congrats on your first votives. Okay, the cheapest way out is to go to Hobby Lobby. Go to the back where the party and candy supplies are located. They have 'party bags' that are 4 x 6. These are perfect to put 2-3 oz. votives in and you can use twist ties or ribbon to tie them shut. I used these before I started shrink wrapping with tubing.

As for the wooden spoon. You can try boiling some water and holding the spoon over the steam and wiping the spoon with paper towels. If that doesn't work, chunk it and go to walmart and get you a stainless steel spoon. HTH

[Scented]

Or you could get a small plastic tote. Just make sure it has a five on it as the others are known to be FO thieves.

[SatinDucky]

Congrats on your votives! The ones that are left after test burning I would store in the plastic containers. Mine are shoebox size. Just check for the triangle on the bottom and make sure it has the 5 there. You might be able to save the spoon, but it may just be too much trouble. I use wooden skewers myself. Pack of 100 for $2, they're coated already too so you can just wipe the warm wax right off. Stirring, poking relief holes, rubberbanded together to hold the wick tight in containers, etc...

[hawaiiansun]

wooden skewers are good and wooden chopsticks

[AngelaVA]

I used wooden spoons for quite a while.. I just wiped it off after I was finished and never had any problems with the wood retaining scent, etc. If you left wax on the spoon, pop it into the oven (on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels) for a few minutes at 150-200 degrees and the wax will melt off. Then just wipe it down with a paper towel.

As for storing votives, I store mine in the plastic square boxes from Wal-Mart. They are $1 each and can hold 8 votives and a few tarts. I store mine in there until I get around to shrink wrapping them. HTH

[3-boys-4-me]

For mixing the FO in the wax I use paint stir sticks I got from the Home Depot. Just go in there, tell them you want to buy some (they are cheap and they will usually just give them to you). I have one for every FO I pour, I just labeled it with Sharpie. HTH

[Sag_77]

As for storing votives, I store mine in the plastic square boxes from Wal-Mart. They are $1 each and can hold 8 votives and a few tarts. I store mine in there until I get around to shrink wrapping them. HTH

I love that idea, it is way better than them sitting on the table naked waiting for me to wrap them. Do you have one box for each scent or do you just reuse the boxes depending on what your making? I am just wondering as I don't have the room for a box for each scent. I am worried the scents will mix if I use each box for 2 or more scents (at different time of course). Also once you have them all shrink wraped how do you store them?

[AngelaVA]

I just wash my boxes out with hot soapy water and let them dry before putting in another scent. The box will retain some of the scent if you don't wash it out, but I don't know how it would affect the votives, since I have always cleaned mine before switching scents.