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Starla's Tarts, Melts and Pieces I use to make and sell these, I no longer have time for that as they do require a little space, time and extra work. If you would like to try and make these yourself, here are the instructions: I use mini muffin pans found at Wal-mart or other stores.  I pour a base wax into the bottom of the muffin pan and add toppings.  You can see from my photos sometimes I will do 2 pours for a color effect.  Like cream on the bottom and brown on top in the bag photo.  I think this gives a nice combo of colors and is pleasing to the eye. When do I add the toppings? I add the toppings, when the wax in the muffin pan, has cooled enough to form a skim on top.  This way the decorations will "stick" to the wax in the muffin pan. To make the decorations, I used cookie cutouts I found at a Amish store a few miles from my home, but I have seen these mini cookie cutters in craft malls too.  I am sure you will be able to find cutters easy enough, if you look around. I take the mini cutters, with attention paid to the color combination of the decoration and base muffin pan color, I begin.  Pour some wax out on a pizza pan, like the one in the photo.  I use a 9" by 16" pan.  I pour a thin layer of wax, wait for it to cool and start cutting with my cookie cutters.

There are three tricks here.  One is to find a muffin pan and cookie cutters that complement each other in size.  You have to have the top decorations the right size for the muffin pans.  You can see by the photo what I mean. I hope I explained this right or you can figure out what I mean.  I am really not a writer.

The second trick is to score the wax in the pizza pan.  After you have poured the wax and it has cooled some, at least enough the wax to not melt away the score marks.  You want to do this because the wax from the base muffin mold and the cookie cutouts won't "glue" or "marry" themselves together.  They won't hold.  They would just fall apart when cooled completely.  The scoring created ridges and the ridges help bind the base sections and cutter sections together. Try to visualize that.  The top of the wax in the pizza pan photo above is being scored - because this is the bottom of your cookie cut out.  After you make your cookie cutouts, you will turn the cutout over and that will be what is seen on your muffin base.  (After all the crumbles are on the bottom - READ ON)

The third trick is to cut the shapes just when the wax has cooled all the way through, but is not hard as a rock. You have time when wax is cooling to do this.  After awhile you can tell just by looking at the wax when the time is right.

Some of the tiny tart melt cookie cutters I use.

Anyway, I will cut a bunch of different shapes, because you can keep them in a plastic container forever and ever.  I don't scent the shapes.  This does not detract from the final tart smelling good, because I add more scent then is necessary for a candle in the base muffin pan mold.  I can do this because there is no wick lighting in a tart melt.  A candle would smoke BIG TIME if I added extra scent because of the burning wick, but a tart is just melting - not burning.  See what I am saying?  Actually the candle may not even burn, because to much scent may drowned the wick out.  Either way, you can get away with it in a tart melt, to the point where the tart melt feels greasy.  I liked the greasy feel  and the customers like extra scent.  Makes for a good selling point.. Customers like to think they are getting extra and giving it to them will keep customers coming back time after time.

Ok, so now you've made a ton of cookie cutter decorations for the top of your muffin pan bases.  Simply pour your bases in the mini muffin pans, wait till a good skim forms on top and add your decorations. O, yes, I see the different tones in the top decorations in the above photos.  You want to know how?  Ok, I do this by sprinkling shaved or crumbled waxes in the pizza pan before I pour the wax in.  Mind you, the wax I pour into the pizza pan is hot, but I have let it cool down some so as to warm the crumbled waxes underneath a little, but not completely melt them away.  You are warming the crumbled wax underneath the pour so they will blend to the top cut out.  You don't want to pour your wax over the crumbles to hot or there won't be any, they will just melt away.. Experiment a little, if your first pour melted the crumbles away, wait for the wax to cool more.  Remember, this wax pour doesn't have to be hot, you can even pour it out when a skim has formed on top.  These are cookie cutouts, not a candle, so you have more leeway in what you can do.  You can get a nice look by sprinkling real cinnamon from you kitchen on the pizza pan before you pour your wax.  I hope I explained this right.  It sounds way more complicated then it really is.  You will get the hang of it, after you have tried it once or twice.  Wax can be remelted, so you loose nothing but some extra scent you will be adding on the remelt.  Don't be afraid to try these, they are great fun, look adorable and sell really well.  I found window pane brown sacks here - http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/  A little expensive, but well worth the cost.

The little muffin pan I use to pour bases.

For the  in a hurry, don't have time gals, like me....and for those of you wanting a little fancier tart melt, I found this gal on eBay.  She makes one of a kind soap/candle molds.  I loved this primitive look so much I was willing to pay the cost of having someone else make the molds.  I think these molds cost me 35 or 45 dollars for the set. Well worth the cost.  I loved them.  Raggedy Ann, a primitive star, a primitive heart and an old black crow.  http://candle-maker.blogspot.com/2007/02/fantastic-primitive-molds.html is the address, just cut and paste into your browser. Be sure to look at my blog for the Mammy Melts too, I simply loved these. http://candle-maker.blogspot.com/2008/05/mammy-melts.html Both pictured below.  How adorable are both of these!  These gals are really talented. You really need to look at their stuff.

Photo above and to the left are examples of what is in the bag, we add tarts, pieces and primitive melts. We like to make these old fashion tarts in the browns and creams.