Valentine’s Day Votive Candles

How fun are these?

A friend asked me to watch her kids the other day so she and her husband could spend the day together to celebrate their anniversary.  How could I ever say no to that!  And I just love her kids!  I always like to plan a fun craft to do (to help break up the day) when I have a house full of kid and I figured since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner (gasp!) this was the perfect activity.

It’s always difficult finding the right craft when you have a big age range of kids you’re trying to entertain.  The kids ranged from age 6 to 10 so it ha to be easy enough for the youngest one to do but not boring for the 10 year old.  This was perfect.

The girls (both 8) loved it.

Even the boys liked making these.  It was easy for the 6 year old to do and the 10 year old was a great helper.

What you’ll need:
– glass votives (you can find these at the dollar store)
– Mod Podge
– paint brush
– tissue paper (white, red and pink)

Cut different sized hearts out of the tissue paper.  You can use any color tissue paper you want.  We used a sparkly white as our base.

Cover the glass with Mod Podge.  Cover the glass with a strip of the white tissue paper.  If younger kids are doing this, you can cut the tissue into small strips or squares.  It doesn’t have to be perfect and can overlap!  Just make sure all of the sides are covered.

Add a thin layer of Mod Podge over the white tissue and then stick on your hearts.  If they are not sticking to the glass, add more Mod Podge.

After all of your hearts are on, cover with another thin layer of Mod Podge.  Again, this doesn’t have to be perfect.  If there are glopps of Mod Podge in places it will only add character.

Allow them to dry completely and then add a candle or an electric tea light.

You can also fill them up with Valentine’s Day candies and give them to teachers as a Valentine’s Day gift (which is what we did.) Put one in a cello bag, tie it with a ribbon and you’re done.

Perfect, simple and inexpensive.  And something that the kids can do without a lot of assistance which is great for building self esteem and confidence.

We’re linking to the parties found HERE.