Who knew water balloon candle making could be so much fun?

I recently discovered this method for using water balloons on Pinterest. So, for my fall craft blog hop project, I decided to test this out for you.

How do I make homemade water balloon candles?

Start with regular water balloons filled with water, of course. The small balloon size makes a perfect form for a candle. I have saved up wax for a while now and dropped that into my double boiler for melting down. You might consider using pots that are specially designated for wax melting because they can be a real pain to clean (not that I know anything about that!)

Once you have your wax melted, I found that transferring it to a Pyrex dish was much safer. (I confess that I did have one balloon pop on me in the metal pan, boy that was a mess too. Oh, well…) The balloons get dipped several times. Each dip strengthens the walls of the future candles. I used regular wax paper to set them on as they cooled.

And then you take something sharp and pop the balloons over the sink, releasing all the water.

I used a Xacto knife to cut off the uneven edges of the top while the wax was still warm. Then I put candlewicks in the center to prepare for filling them with wax. The only problem was that they were still quite warm. I should have put them in the freezer or something to cool them down as I did have a few melt down on me. But, no worries. I just put that wax into my double broiler and kept going.

And this was the final result. Beautiful with some natural fall decorations surrounding the candles.

Here you can see some of the other candles I made with all that hot wax. On some of them, I layer a couple of different subtle colors which can be so much fun. Plus, I am a huge candle lover anyway, so it is very satisfying to make my own candles from scratch.

For the complete/original water balloon luminaries tutorial and more directions, you will want to check out this blog.

I recommend enjoying your candles with a warm cup of apple cider, but that’s just me.

Happy Fall!