An Artwork Candle DIY Christmas Gift From Toddler

When I was little, my mom had my brother and I make popsicle stick picture frames for my grandparents. The only reason I remember this is because they are still on my grandma’s fridge to this day. My brother’s is a pattern of scribble lines and mine is a set of perfect hearts and dots (I am three years younger and my mom did mine). Seeing how this simple craft has stood the test of time, I have wanted to also make my family gifts from my kids. Last year, when my daughter was 1 1/2, our DIY Christmas gift from toddler were these fun artwork candles.

If I had started this blog at that point, I would have adapted this craft more than I did (and taken pictures along the way). But as that didn’t matter at the time, I pretty closely followed this tutorial. I love how these artwork candles can be made with kids of any age. Here was my experience making them with a very young toddler.

How to Make a Artwork Candle as a DIY Christmas Gift From Toddler:

Materials:

• Pillar candles (individual or pack)
• Tissue paper
• Markers
• Heat gun or hairdryer 
• Wax paper or parchment paper

Prep:

I really struggled to find reasonably priced candles for this craft. Since I planned on making about 15, I didn’t want to spend $5 bucks on each one like I kept seeing. I finally found some at the Dollar Tree (it looks like Amazon now has reasonably priced ones too). There are several people with scent allergies in my family, so I went with unscented. I also cut the tissue paper into strips that were the circumference and height of the candle.

Creating:

When we made these last year, my daughter was 1 1/2 and had never used markers before. She was so excited to get to use them for this craft. Unfortunately, even with this excitement, she still had the attention span of a just barely toddler. So, we colored a few pieces of tissue paper every day. This meant we had about a week of multi-colored fingers. To keep her under control and focused, I had her sit in my lap to color. She grabbed the color she wanted and I took off the lid. She then made several scribbles before asking for another color.  

Next, we melted the tissue paper onto the candles  We used my husband’s heat gun which overheats if it stays on too long, so we did this in batches too. To add the drawing to the candle, we wrapped the tissue paper around the candle. Then, we wrapped a longer piece of parchment paper (you can also use wax paper) around the tissue paper to create a handle. We blew a heat gun (you could also use a hairdryer) on it until the tissue paper melted to the candle. If you aren’t familiar with heat guns, check out all these different things you can use them for.

Outcome of Toddler DIY Christmas Artwork Candles:

I was so impressed with how these turned out. Our family absolutely loved them. We made one for ourselves with the year on it to remember when we made them. I’m not sure how many people actually lit theirs, but a few did and they still worked as candles. What do you think? Will your family be making these super fun artwork candles this holiday season? Check out my other fun Christmas crafts like these wood slab ornaments.