Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Fire Starters

We recently bought a wonderful farm house out in the country.  We live next to my aunts and uncles.  They taught me that to save money on their trash bill, they have two separate trash cans: one for bagged trash and one for burnable trash.  However, as much as I like to play with fire like the next guy or gal, I often struggle with starting them....which often results in me using up a lighter trying to ignite the same piece of paper or cardboard box multiple times....or I get desperate and use an accelerant like starter fluid or fuel.  :(  Which...BTW...never ends really well.

Also, my husband and family enjoy going camping from time to time...or building a fire in the back yard.  So when I came across the pin, I thought it would be neat to try.

The original pin looked like this:
http://pinterest.com/pin/186547609535442518/
Instructions are found here: http://jjmatheshikes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/i-like-fire-and-im-always-interested-in.html

To do mine, however, I chose to use wax that was already melted in my house.  I love candle warmers or tart warmers.  But, eventually they loose their aromatic strength.  I try to doctor them up, at times, with drops or whole bottles of scented oils; but after a while, I have to realize it's time to get a new candle or tart.  UNTIL this pin came along.


I went to the local dollar store and purchased facial cotton pads like the ones below:

I then took, fresh from the warmer, my used up tart tin or the candle from the candle warmer.  I laid out foil on my island, and using tongs, I dipped each pad into the melted wax and immediately laid them out on the island.  WARNING:  be careful that you are NOT hungry while doing this and that you do NOT use candles with scents like "apple cinnamon" or "sugar cookie" or "Pumpkin pie".  They do end up looking like cookies to some (who might be on a diet at the time...and any hint of yumminess would be gladly welcomed). =)



Their effectiveness?  So far...100%.  I only have to use one to start a great fire.  As the original site suggests, you want to tear the disk down to about half way...exposing the cotton fibers inside.  That's the part you want to light.  The wax slows down the burning process allowing for a good length of time for the flame to be exposed to what you want to ignite!

REMEMBER:  As I've told my kids...if you play with fire...you'll pee the bed.  So when you make these...please make sure you wear pullups or something at night. ;o)

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