All Things Provident: Kid's Craft: Ice Candles

Friday, December 13, 2013

Kid's Craft: Ice Candles

We took on a fun project with the 3rd graders and the boy scouts. My son's 3rd grade teacher found the idea for these ice candles and asked if I would be willing to help their class make them for gifts this holiday. They turned out to be quite simple and look so fun that my husband decided to tackle them with his boy scouts to make as gifts as well.

Wednesday, I spent the day melting wax and pouring candles. We made 50 in all! We have solid red and solid green and some that are striped. I purchased 20 pounds of candle wax from our local Hobby Lobby using a coupon and I picked up short taper candles from the dollar store -7 for a dollar. We used cardboard frozen juice concentrate containers for the round candles and 8 oz milk cartons for the square containers. The kids all helped us save these and rinse them out. To color the wax, we used old crayons. It took approximately two crayons per pound of wax.

We then decorated the candles with a little raffia, a cinnamon applesauce gingerbread boy, and a small strip of fabric. They ended up costing just under $1 each to make. The kids are all pretty proud of what they were able to do and I think they turned out quite festive myself.

I searched the internet for instructions and suggestions. The following pictures and links provide the information I needed to be successful. I decided to not worry about posting my own tutorial since there were already a few good ones available - I would just direct you to the info you needed. Ice candles turned out to be a great project for preschoolers on up to high-schoolers. All the kids enjoyed making them and seeing their patterns emerge.