Scrap Plywood Candle Holders

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you would have seen this sneak peek. I asked y’all if you had any guesses as to what I was making and your answers were so clever – from toy wheels to giant checkers, I loved hearing all of your great ideas.

Wood cookies? Sometimes I get a hair-brained idea on how to use up scrap wood – let’s see if this pans out. Any guesses? #sneakpeek

A photo posted by Jen Woodhouse | House of Wood (@jenwoodhouse) on Mar 9, 2016 at 5:34am PST

I ended up making these DIY scrap plywood tea light candle holders:

*This post contains affiliate links. To read my full disclosure policy, click here.

Since I’ve been making a lot of my custom wood name signs, I have a ton of scrap plywood laying around so I thought this was a clever way to use up some of that wasted material.

First, I used a hole saw to cut out the little wood circles. I *think this is a 2-1/2″ size. I clamped a scrap board underneath to minimize tear-out.

Then I squeezed some wood glue on each cookie, then clamped them up and let them set. Don’t worry too much about the glue squeeze-out, we’ll be sanding all that mess off in a minute. I really like this Glu-bot glue bottle – you just have to give the bottle a quick squeeze to get to the glue, instead of shaking it down to the spout.

Once the glue was dry, I sanded all the rough edges on my bench sander.

Next, I clamped the candle holder into my bench vise and used a 1-1/2″ forstner bit to drill the hole for the tea light to sit in.

Finally, I did a quick hand-sanding with 400-grit sandpaper – these flexible sanding sheets are my favorite – then I sprayed a couple coats of clear poly on it and dropped a couple of tea lights in (flameless ones since I have little ones).

Aren’t they cute? So easy and quick to make – these DIY candle holders are a great way to use up your scrap plywood!

Be sure to PIN IT so you don’t forget it!