Buy a tea kettle? For fifteen minutes’ use? I think not!   I went to our local Goodwill, but even the used ones were over $9. That’s just too much for a one-time prop, in my opinion. So sonny-boy and i made our own.  Here’s what we did:

1. I drew a tea kettle on a piece of paper (actually, I taped a few pieces of paper together, and drew the kettle on there). I made it the approximate size of a real tea kettle.
2. My son cut out the template.
3. Hubby placed the template on some wood he had left over from a previous project (thin, lightweight plywood), and cut it out with his scroll saw.
4. My son painted the handle black.
5. When the black paint was dry, I used some spray-on glue and aluminum foil to make the bottom part of the tea kettle silver (I suppose you could use silver paint, but we don’t have any, and I wasn’t going to buy any….
6. We used Gorilla glue to glue a wooden block to the back (along the bottom) so that the kettle stands up.

That’s it.  And it’s sooooooo cute! My son took it to class yesterday, and his teacher LOVES it!

You’ll need:
Cardboard egg cartons (NOT the Styrofoam kind!)
If you don’t have cardboard egg cartons, use small PAPER bathroom sized Dixie cups (not the plastic ones)
Dryer lint
All of the little unusable nubs of candles that are too small to burn
If you don’t have any candle remnants, you can use Gulf wax (parafin wax).
Clean wide-mouth glass jar or large metal can
Sauce pan
Water

1. Gather up enough dryer lint to fill up your cups.
2. Fill cups with lint.
3. Put a few cups of water into a sauce pan that is large enough to accomodate your clean glass jar or metal can.
4. Place the jar or can in the pan of water.
5. Put all the chunks of wax (candle bits or chunks of parafin) into the jar or can (fill it up about half way).
6. Put the sauce pan on the stove at a medium-high heat. Stir frequently until it’s liquified.
7. Turn off the stove.
8. Carefully remove the jar or can from the hot water (use oven mitts!), and pour the liquid wax into each of the cups. Pack it down tight, making sure that the lint and wax are compacted, filling the cup entirely.
9. Allow to cool.
10. Cut the cups apart, separating them from one another.  Keep your new starters in a nice basket or box near your fireplace, to use next time you start a fire.
11. To use, simply stack your wood as you normally do, placing one or two of the fire starters at the base of the stack. Use a fireplace match or lighter to ignite the starters (light the cardboard part, and the rest will catch fire).

Enjoy your fire!