Halloween Crafts for Kids~Pumpkin and Monster Jars

Halloween is getting close, so today for Discover & Explore we hope to gather tons of great ideas for celebrating Halloween with kids. Check out our Halloween jar candle crafts. Then be sure to share your favorite ideas by linking up or leaving a comment below.

Halloween Luminaries

We made our first jar candle crafts earlier this year, and the girls loved lighting them up as night lights in their room each night. For Halloween I thought it would be fun to try and make some not-so-spooky decorations.

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We started by tinting some Epsom salt. We used about 2 cups for each color, and we made both green and orange using Wilton icing colors. Both of the girls loved stirring and watching the salt slowly change color. After the coloring was evenly distributed, we let the salt dry overnight on wax paper.

The next day we gathered some glass jars from the recycling bin. I believe these are from pasta sauce. You can get creative with different sizes and shapes based on your own preferences and what you have available.

We thinned out some white glue with a little bit of water, and Lovey painted the surface of the jar. This worked well, but if I was doing this craft again I think would try using Mod Podge to get the salt bits to hold even more firmly.

After covering the jar with glue, Lovey rolled the jar in the Epsom salt. Then she sprinkled extra handfuls of salt on any spots that weren’t covered.

Then we left the jars to dry before adding decorations.  The salt does rub off if you are moving the jars around a lot, so you could also apply a coat of clear acrylic coating to the outside of the jars if desired. We did not do this extra step, but it may help. Let me know if you try it out.

Once the jars were dried we added green ribbon to finish our pumpkin luminary.

Then we added some festive ribbon, a black foam mouth, and some fun googly eyes we recently received from CraftProjectIdeas.com to create this not-so-spooky green monster.

We added battery operated tea lights to the jars, and they proudly on display in the girls’ room for bedtime. Although they would make a cute Halloween decoration for any place in the house.

Less stress, more connecting this holiday season? Yes, PLEASE!

From the arrival of fall to Halloween to Thanksgiving and Christmas, the last four months of the year can be a wonderful opportunity for making family memories and spending time together, but they can also be stressful as we try to collect ideas, recipes, and activities to try together.

Stephanie Morgan, founder of Modern Parents Messy Kids, a site that’s been voted Best Craft Blog in Parents Magazine and one of babble.com’s Top 50 Craft Mom Blogs, recently released a new eBook to help us have a little less stress and more time to connect with family this year.

Stephanie’s goal is to make it easier on all of us to enjoy the holidays with our kids. Hands-On Holidays is 100 pages full of her family’s very favorite ways to connect as a family over the holiday season. I love the convenience of having so many ideas in one place, and most of them are simple enough for even my toddler to participate in.

The book includes picture book suggestions, DIY decor, activities, and treats. Bonus sections also offer even more ideas to enjoy. Click here to view more details.