Easy Fire Starters

I'm more than a little obsessed with my fire place.  The problem is that i'm usually out of fat wood and I never remember to collect kindling.  As a result I end up spending 20 minutes trying to get the fire going with newspaper and patience.

Fire Starters

Yesterday we had a snow day.  Using left over craft supplies I made 18 fire starters that work GREAT!

For this project you will need:
Paper egg carton
Shortening
Candle wax
Dryer lint
Microwave - to melt candle wax  (oven on low temp)

Using a small scooper I added 1 scoop of shortening to each of the egg holders.

Add caption

I topped each scoop of shortening with a bit of dryer lint.

Dryer Lint Topping

Finally, using the microwave,  I melted an old candle enough to remove the wick.  Once the wick was removed I melted the wax completely.  Pour the melted wax over the lint and shortening.  The wax holds everything together once the starters are cut apart.

Left over candle wax

I set the wax covered starters aside so that the wax could harden.  To speed up this process you could also put them in the freezer for a few minutes.

Waiting for the wax to harden

Once the wax was hard, I cut the starters apart.

Ready to use

Store the starters in a zip top bag in a cool dry place.

Ready to Burn!

To start a fire:

Place 1 fire starter on a flat piece of fire wood.  Light the corners of the fire starter.

Starting a fire

Arrange fire wood around the starter and enjoy your fire!

Burn baby burn

Spring Time Yule Log

Don't forget to make s'mores!

Yum