Let’s light up the night! For this fun activity, we will be making our own night lights, out of Mason Jars! This activity is great for school age children. They will be given the creativity to make it their own and decorate it however they want. Children will also be able to practice fine motor skills in this activity with cutting and gluing.
Supplies:
- Mason Jar (prefer plastic)
- Brown Construction Paper
- Plastic Tea light candle
- Glue
- Red, yellow and green, tissue paper
- Pencil
- Newspaper/ towel
- Scissors
- Glitter
- Red construction paper.
- Paint brush
- Mod podge
Step 1: First, let’s gather the supplies that we will need for our project. Next, let’s set up a place to work. Put down either a newspaper or a towel on the table that way it catches any of the spills we may make.
Step 2: Next, Let’s grab the brown construction paper. We want to imagine that there is a line going across the paper. Fold the top part of the paper all the way down to the bottom, that way the short ends are touching.
When you open the paper back up there should be a line going down the middle. With an adult’s permission we are going to use scissors and cut the paper on the line we. just created
Step 3: Let’s draw our tree trunk. On the piece of brown construction paper that we just cut, I am going to draw one line about a finger length long going up and down. Next, I am going to draw a second line about half a finger length away from the first line we just drew. The two lines should be the same length. Next, draw a line at the top and the bottom to connect the two lines just made.
Step 4: Now let’s make the branches of the tree. I want my tree branches to be long but skinny. You can choose the size and length of your branches. I am going to draw two lines on both sides of my pinky finger.
At the bottom and top of the lines draw a sideways line that connects the lines we just drew. My tree is going to have three branches on them because three is my favorite number. How many branches are you going to put on your tree?
Step 5: With an adult’s permission, we are going to cut the out the tree bark, and the branches that I just made. I like the size and shape of my tree so I am going to cut directly on the lines that we drew, and place them off to the side so I don’t lose it.
Step 6: Place a pea sized amount of glue on the end of your branches, and place them onto the trunk of the tree. I am going to put one of my branches on the right side, one on the left side and one right in the middle of my tree branch.
Step 7: Gently press the branches to the tree bark, and set it off to the side, it’s important that we don’t touch the tree bark while it’s drying because we don’t want to mess it up. It should be done drying in about 10 minutes.
Step 8: Next, we are going to grab the red construction paper. For this part of the activity, we are going to make apples. I prefer red apples, but if you have yellow or green construction paper, you can make the apples whatever color you’d like. Can you imagine what a quarter looks like? That’s the size that we want to make the apple. If you are having trouble, you can trace a quarter directly on the red construction paper, and you can use that as your apple.
Step 9: We are going to cut out the apples that we just drew. Once we have cut them out, we are going to place them off to the side next to our tree branch.
Step 10 How are our apples going to hang from the tree? We have to create our own stem! Using the brown construction paper again, we are going to draw two upside- down U shapes that are about the size of our finger nails.
Because the stems are so tiny, we want to put them right next to each other. Once they are drawn, we want to connect them. At the ends of one of the upside-down U, draw a line and connect them.
Step 11: Again, we are going to cut out the stem of the apple, and place them next to our apples and trees.
Step 12: Next, we are going to take the stems and the red apples. Place a pea size amount of glue on the top part of the apple. Place the stem on the glue. Hold the stem to the apple for about 5 seconds so it sticks. Then we are going to set them off to the side again and let them dry. It’s important that we don’t touch the apples because we don’t want them to fall apart.
Step 13: While our apples are drying, let’s rip up some tissue paper. Rip the paper so that it’s the size of two fingers going across and one finger long going up and down, it doesn’t have to be perfect . Rip up about 10 pieces of each color, that way we can make our lanterns super colorful.
Step 14: Next let’s grab our paintbrush and the Mod Podge. We want to paint the Mod Podge in pieces. Let’s start by painting the jar the exact same size as our tissue paper. We want to work in small sections, because the Mod Podge dries quickly and once it dries it won’t stick.
Step 15: Next lay the tissue paper onto the wet Mod Podge.
It’s important that we press the tissue paper down. It’s okay if the tissue paper is a little bumpy. We just want to make sure that it's completely on the jar. We want to make sure that the ends of the tissue paper lay on top of each other. That way our entire jar is covered in tissue paper and there are no bare spots peeking through.
Step 16: Now that our entire jar is covered with different colored tissue paper, we are going to paint Mod Podge over the tissue paper. This is going to also help the tissue paper stick to the jar. But we don’t want to add too much Mod Podge otherwise our project will take a long time to dry. When using Mod Podge, it will go onto the tissue paper looking white, but don’t worry once the Mod Podge dries, it will be clear!
Step 17: Next, we are going to set the jar aside and wait a couple of hours. That way the jar will dry completely.
Step 18: After the jar is done drying, we are going to grab the tree bark and place it in the middle of the mason jar. That way the tree branches reach the top of the jar. We want to hold the tree bark so it stays in. While holding the bark of the tree, we are going to use our other hand and a thicker layer of Mod Podge over the tree bark. We want to paint the Mod Podge on it until it lays flat on the Mason Jar.
Step 19: Once the tree bark is glued down, we are going to put the apples on the tree branch. I placed my apples at the end of the tree, that way it looks like the apples are hanging from the tree branches.
Step 20: Next, we are then going to cover the apples in Mod Podge, using a thick layer to make sure the apples stick to the jar.
Step 21: While the Mod Podge is still wet, we want to cover the jar in glitter. I chose gold, but you can choose whatever color you would like. We want to place the glitter in our hands and then use two fingers to sprinkle it over the mason jar. That way we don’t pour too much glitter in one spot on the mason jar.
Step 22: Now that our jar is done being decorated, we are going to put the jar off to the side so that way it can dry for a few hours, or overnight.
Step 23: Once the Jar is completely dry, turn the plastic tea light on and put it at the bottom of the jar. Finally turn off the lights in your room, and watch your lantern light up.
~Made by Becky B.