How to Make Icy Votive Holders for Summertime

Summertime is a great time for outdoor entertaining. You can dress up your picnic table with a centerpiece made of icy votive holders.

Choose to make an icy votive holder with slices of fresh fruit and enjoy the scent of citrus as the votive burns. Freeze fresh yellow plumeria flowers to prolong the delicate fragrance. Make a votive holder in an easy patriotic red, white and blue for 4th of July celebrations. Enjoy the party!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• plastic containers
• disposable cups
• rocks
• food coloring
• sliced fruits
• wax paper
• "blue" ice or cold packs
• votive candles

1. 
    

   Decide the size and type of icy votive holder you wish to make. Insert a smaller disposable cup into a large plastic container. Fill cup with rocks to weigh it down.
   
   Fill outer container 1/3 full of distilled or filtered tap water. Place in freezer until bottom portion is frozen well.

2. 
    

   When bottom layer of water is set, layer orange and lemon slices around the inside of the container. Use whole lemon rounds and half orange slices so all the pieces appear to be the same height.
   
   Add filtered or distilled water to cover the fresh fruit slices. Place in freezer until this section is frozen. To finish the icy votive holder mold, add more water on top of the frozen fruit section and freeze until entire votive is frozen solid.

3. 
    

   Remove frozen votive holder from the freezer. Take out as many of the rocks as you can, though some may be temporarily frozen inside the disposable cup. Fill cup with lukewarm tap water and let sit for a few minutes.
   
   Remove any remaining rocks. At the kitchen sink, run lukewarm tap water over the sides of the outer container, turning the container at the same time so all sides are evenly coated.

4. 
    
   Plumeria encased in ice.

   Gently remove the plastic disposable cup before removing the icy votive from the outer container. Place icy votive holder back in freezer on top of a piece of wax paper until ready to use.

5. 
    

   To make an icy votive holder with color, treat each layer separately by dropping food coloring into the individual layers of water, freeze, then do the next layer. Repeat this process until you've finished your layers. Use the same procedure for removal as for the fruit votive.

6. 
    
   Icy Votive Holders

   To set votive in place, put a bag of "blue" ice or cold packs under an inverted ceramic bowl. Light votive candle and place on the center top of bowl. Set icy votive holder on top and enjoy the compliments!

Tips & Warnings

• You can make an icy votive holder for any occasion. Try a colorful black and orange for Halloween, a green and white for St Patrick's Day.
• Freeze colorful cranberries in an icy votive for Christmas.
• After you've filled the first layer of water in the outer container, fill an extra container with water and leave in refrigerator for the next layers. It's best the water used is cold when it's poured on top of a frozen layer. Also always use either distilled or filtered tap water as this water will be more clear than straight tap water.
• When using food coloring to tint the water, set the icy votive into a container to hold the melted water as the food coloring may stain a tablecloth.

Resources

• eHow Home and Garden Topic Guide
• 101 Easy Craft Project Ideas

[AprilThomas]

on 6/8/2009 Love this idea, I have a jello ring mold I could use that would likely work well as an ice base to put this in and keep the votive holder from melting.

[FrazzledNanny]

on 6/3/2009 I love icy votive holders. I put this in my favorites. Thanks for sharing. 5*

[langleycornwell]

on 6/3/2009 Thanks for the thorough steps for making icy votive holders. They sound lovely.

[pondripples]

on 5/30/2009 Neat. Ever tried to float these?

[Alrady]

on 5/26/2009 Clever idea and I like the idea of citrus scent... aweso me