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Saturday, December 14

DIY Homemade Fire Starters with All Recycled Materials

Hey guys! I have something a little new today, but I know that even if a few of you are confused, a bunch of you have been asking and waiting for this little do-it-yourself, so I'm very excited to finally be posting it for you!
Ever since I was little I remember making these together with my family every year when the cold weather started coming around, and I was so excited to make them together with Martin when we first moved into our 1907 house and bought our ginormous wood-stove! I told Martin that I had a method we'd grown up with where we used seemingly garbage from around the house, and that we were guaranteed the quickest lighting and longest lasting fire starter ever. He was excited! So here I am, showing you how to do it. Very easy, very rewarding because like I'll explain more at the end, you'll have a fire started in seconds and be able to just walk away and not worry about it going out! So fun, and much needed for this time of year.

Supplies Used:

- dryer lint: self explainitory, if you have a dryer, you have tons of lint that you're either throwing away daily or saving in a shopping bag like us. If you don't hang on to any at all, you could consider asking close friends or family if you can have theirs for this project!
- candle wax: I'm a candle addict, so once they're through burning (but there's still like 1/2 inch of wax left) I'll save them to melt down for this. Last year though I wanted to make enough for two years so we bought a few fat 10 cent pillar candles from the thrift store. worked great! 
- empty egg cartons: We go through lots of eggs around these parts, but again if you aren't big egg consumers you could try asking friends or family if they can save their used cartons. it doesn't take very many!
- pot for melting and pouring wax: I can't be sure that all the wax is out of it even after vigorous washing, so I have a thrifted pot that I use and never melt wax in my cooking pots.
- wax paper: optional, you may want it though if you're doing the project inside in your kitchen for example, just to protect your surfaces from running wax.

Detailed Instructions:

Beginning notes: start your wax melting. If using a pot, keep the wax on very low heat, and if using a microwave be mindful of the metal bits on most candle wicks. We used up the last useless candle bits by putting them in the microwave for 30 secs or however long it took to melt the wax. Once it was melted we added it all together in a pot. Which brings me to the added bonus of having the fire starters make your house smell like yummy scented candles!
How we did it:
Place your egg carton on wax paper if desired. Tear away chunks of your dryer lint (about the size of a large golf ball), and stuff them individually into each egg slot. Once the whole carton is stuffed, you're going to take your hot wax and slowly pour the wax over all the slots, covering most of the lint. Watch to see when the bottom of the egg carton starts becoming absorbed with the wax, then you know you've penetrated the lint and have a solid fire-starter. Once complete, leave your cartons alone to set up and harden, and you're done!
Happy Pyromania: Time to start some fires! I don't bother taking the time to cut them apart, we just keep them in the wood box next to the kindling and when it's fire time I just tear off one of the egg slots, light a shredded edge with a match, and lodge it into my stack of wood! Each fire starter will burn for about 15 minutes after lighting it, making sure that your fire will be hot and blazing every single time! They're really great for camping and other things too, but for peeps who light daily fires they make it a total breeze! even for the most unlucky of fire builders:) 
Well again in true Freckled Fox fashion I've put much more into the explanation then I might have needed too and probably made it sound a lot harder than it really is, but at the same time I love feeling that even for someone who has no idea what they're doing at all that my tutorials and DIY's will be easy, because I go into so much detail. Ya know what I mean? Anyway's I hope I'm helpful:)

Well and that's that! Happy warmer winter:) Again I hope that those of you who've been waiting are happy, and those of you that are confused understand that I am a big 'do-it-myself' kind of gal, and that I sometimes even post about it on my blog! Fancy that:) Thanks so much for reading as always, and make sure you come back soon, especially Monday! Don't forget to come back on Monday:)

xo, Emily


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9 comments:

  1. Great DIY! I've always wanted a wood stove so this will definitely come in handy for the future!

    http://mariedarling.blogspot.com/

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  2. This is genius. During my childhood every year we went camping in the summer and I always remember saving old newspapers to take with us as a fire starter, which I continue to do to this day. This is definitely one thing I am going to remember.

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  3. This is genius. During my childhood every year we went camping in the summer and I always remember saving old newspapers to take with us as a fire starter, which I continue to do to this day. This is definitely one thing I am going to remember.

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  4. What a life save! We just moved into an apt with only a wood burning stove to heat the house. I like to keep my house toasty for the kiddos, but can't start a fire without burning up every scrap of cardboard in our house!

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  5. What a life save! I live in an apt with a wood burning stove! Now I won't have to be cold again due to lack of fire building skills

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  6. I don't have a fireplace right now, but this just makes me want one even more! Thanks for sharing such an easy way to get things going :)

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  7. "Watch to see when the bottom of the egg carton starts becoming absorbed with the wax" — do you mean when it begins to soak through or when it starts to pool? Not 100% clear on this step... the rest looks great and am dying to try this!

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