About:
Looking for a fun craft for tween girls at a Halloween party? Look no farther than this craft! You should have some extra help to keep an eye on the tweens if you have more than six girls coming to the party. The instructions down below make 6 Halloween jar candles. This craft should cost about $49.
Materials Needed:
- 6 clean jars
- black acrylic paint
- optional: yellow and mustard acrylic paint
- enough paint brushes for everyone.
- 2 pounds of paraffin wax
- 6 pencils, chopsticks, or other like items
- a glass bowl
- scented essential oils
- candle wick
- optional: smocks
- Pumpkin or orange colored candle dye (Found this here for about $7)
- sharpie
Instructions:
Just because you can trust the kids, I mean responsible tweens, with candles doesn’t mean that you can trust them to not make a mess. Lay out garbage bags or newspaper on the table or surface that you’ll be making the candles on.
Now you have two options. You can either poor the candles for them and just have them paint or you can make sure that each child is actively involved in this craft. Because these are tweens, I would suggest letting each child be actively involved in the craft.
Route 1: Doing it in advance
If you’re going to do it all in advance and just let the kids paint the jars, then these are the instructions for you. First, tie pieces of the wick string around the pencils or whatever you’re using. Wrap it around a few times.Make sure that the wick is the height of the jar. If not, wrap it around the pencil again. Lay your pencil or like object across the top of the jar so that the string hangs down in the center. Yes, it should be centered.
Before you consider putting in essential oils into the candles, you should ask the parents if there are any specific scents that the child is sensitive or allergic to. For instance, my mom is highly sensitive to eucalyptus and she can’t be in the same room as the scent. You don’t want that to happen with this craft. You should consider getting essential oil scents that are tied to the season or orange color of the candles such as tangerine, orange, nutmeg, grapefruit, cinnamon, apple, or pumpkin spice. Now that you have it and its the day or morning before the party, add several drops of essential oil into each glass jar.
Next, you should put your attention on the 2 pounds of paraffin wax on the other side of the table. You may have noticed that these are white or opaque and we want to have orange candles. This is Halloween! You’ll need a half a block or so (depending on the candle dye that you bought) to mix in with your candle. I won’t describe that here because the dye should come with instructions.
Carefully poor the melted wax into the jars. When the wax is solid, you should trim the wicks. Place the jars around the table on the day of the party.
You might want to consider having the kids wear smocks because acrylic paint isn’t washable (believe me, I’ve been relentlessly trying to get it off my favorite coat for over a year now). I would recommend pouring the black paint into small, paper bowls and putting some paint brushes in the paint already.
The girls should draw a jack-o-lanturn face. I suggested buying yellow and mustard paint in case you know that your child and/or child’s friends are more artistic and would like do paint a lit jack-o-lanturn that has dimension. Put a piece of paper with each girl’s name on it on every candle so that you know which jar belongs to which person.
Route 2: Letting the Kids do it
First, give every girl a jar and have them write their names on the bottom of the jars. Bring out small, paper bowls filled with black, acrylic paint and give every girl a paint brush. If you know that your child and your child’s friends are a little more artistically gifted, you should bring out the yellow and mustard paint so that they can make their candles look like lit jack-o-lanturns.
You should have measured out the wick and cut them in advance. Wrap the wick around a pencil or another similarly shaped object so that the wick is the perfect measurement. It should touch the bottom of the jar when the pencil is laid across the top of the jar. Make sure that your wick is centered!
You should buy a couple different essential oil scents so that the kids can decide which one to use. If you decide that you’re only going to buy one, then you should ask the parents of your child’s friends if they’re allergic or have a strong reaction to any scent. Have the kids add several drops of essential oils to her jar.
Next, you should put your attention on the 2 pounds of paraffin wax on the other side of the table. You may have noticed that these are white or opaque and we want to have orange candles. This is Halloween! You’ll need a half a block or so (depending on the candle dye that you bought) to mix in with your candle. I won’t describe that here because the dye should come with instructions.
Carefully poor the melted wax into the jars. This would be a bad task to let the kids do by themselves. You need to help them with this. When the wax is solid, have the kids trim the wick.
Voila! Perfect Halloween Jack-o-lanturn candles!
