Homemade Fire Starters!

 

I have to thank my friends & coworkers Em & Babsy for this idea, in that they inspired this project by both having wood-burning stoves in their homes.  I was contemplating gifts to give to my coworkers earlier this year, while sipping coffee in the break room with these two lovely ladies as they chatted about their stoves, and it hit me.

Well…it was also spawned by the fact that a few days prior to this conversation, I’d been out with friends trying to build a fire so we could roast hot dogs & marshmallows, and our fire would never take off. Someone mentioned how great it would be if we had some fire starters…

You know what’s super easy to make? Fire Starters.  You know what takes almost NO financial commitment to make because they’re made from cr@p you already have at your house?  Yup, fire starters.  And when you have a lot of coworkers to make gifts for, cheap is handy.

What You Need:

Cardboard Tubes:  TP Rolls, Paper Towel Rolls, Wrapping Paper Tubes… it all works.

Lint/Used Dryer Sheets

Shredded Paper (if you have it.  If you don’t, you can just use the lint.)

Wax Paper

Tape

 

Directions:

If you’re using larger tubes, go ahead & cut them down to about the same length as the TP Rolls.

Use the dryer sheets to make yourself a sort of “recycled crap burrito”:

Stuff inside of the tube.  (if you run out of dryer sheets, no biggee, just start stuffing it directly into the tubes)

Wrap in the wax paper, twist like a Toostie Roll, and tape the ends.  You can then bundle them up with some raffia or rustic cord & add a cute label!

Note: If you happen to have any old candles that you’ve been trying to use up, you can also pour some of that wax into the tubes as well.  It’ll give a nice scent to the fire for a while!

(“Warm Wishes for 2014” seemed appropriately cheesy.)

Merry Christmas Y’all!!!