Frighteningly fun recycling
Invite a ghost, a monster and a smiling pumpkin into your home this month with this super-easy and, yes, just a little messy rainy-day craft project that kids and adults of all ages will enjoy.
You’ll be repurposing old vases and tossed jars from your recycle bin, cutting up colorful tissue paper and messing around with lots of sticky glue to create spooky “stained-glass look” votive candleholders that will brighten and bring living color to your Halloween decor.
When the glue has dried, line ’em up and light ’em up to welcome a spooktacular Halloween holiday spirit at your house.
Here’s the stuff you’ll need:
•Tissue paper in black and in bright, traditional Halloween colors such as orange, lime green and purple
•Empty, medium-size clear glass pasta or pickle jars with labels removed, old wide-mouth vases and even fish bowls that are collecting dust and ready to be repurposed
•Household white glue such as Elmer’s all-purpose glue
•Small bowl
•Paintbrush and scissors
Here’s the fun:
Cut the plain-color tissue paper into 1-inch squares, triangles and rectangles.
Older kids and adults may use the black tissue for cutting specific shapes for the features of a Halloween character, such as circles for the eyes and mouth of a white tissue-paper ghost. Or the zigzag mouth and triangle eyes and nose of an orange pumpkin.
Squeeze white household glue into the small bowl and dilute with a few drops of water. Brush a light coat of the glue mixture on the outside of the glass container. In an overlapping pattern, apply the tissue shapes over the glue, applying the background colored shapes first. Smooth out each piece with your fingers as you go along.
When working with young children, you might want to apply glue to the glass a section at a time, so fingers don’t get too gooey to handle the paper.
When the outside of the glass is covered, apply another coating or two of the glue mixture over all of the tissue paper. Let dry for several hours. When dry, the tissue paper will look bright and colorful once again.
Set a battery-operated votive candle inside and display on a windowsill or use as a table centerpiece at a Halloween party.