Do you, or your friends, have an outdoor fireplace or fire ring? Would you like to have an inexpensive gift made from a few simple items you may already have at home?
Here’s what I’ve made for my Solstice Party & Fire Ring:
Herb Fire Starters
Ingredients:
- Paper cupcake pan liners and baking pan
- Herbs that may be losing their vitality and you don’t want to throw them out. Leaves and flowers tend to have about a year’s life span
- Wax – can be beeswax, paraffin, or even old candles you no longer need or want
- 2-3” pieces of stiff twine to use as a wick
- “accessory” herbs, dried berries, tiny pine cones, cinnamon sticks, small dried leaves, whatever will make your creation cute
Directions:
Set all of your ingredients out. Place your wax in a double boiler to melt over boiling water.
Place your pan liners in a cupcake pan. Put about ¾”-1” of herbs in the bottom of each lined pan (I had dried sage for mine.)
When the wax is melted, working one at a time, carefully pour a layer of wax over the herbs and stick the wick in into the wax/herbs. “Decorate” each starter with items you’ve collected. I used a cinnamon stick, a couple of bay leaves, a little extra sage, a few dried hawthorn berries and a star anise.
Pour any excess wax out of your pan and wipe clean with a paper towel, then wash in hot water and detergent. I keep one pan just for wax as I make a lot of others things with it.
Let them fully cool. I bought some cute little wood crates at the dollar store that 2 fit into perfectly.
Although the original “recipe” said they were fine for indoor fireplaces, I’m not completely sure about that. We are pretty fussy when it comes to what goes into ours.