Making a Recycled Tealight Holder

As today's entry for my craft advent calendar is still waiting for a contribution, and there are still another 5 entries available to bring us up to Christmas, I thought I'd share a very simple idea, suitable for crafting with young children (that means roughly 2 1/2 years plus). It also enables you to recycle food jars. It's about time I came up with something really, admittedly I hadn't yet made a proper contribution to it myself. You may consider it a late contribution to the fabulous Recycled Christmas Carnival over at The Rubbish Diet.

You will need:
-A wide jar, big enough to place a tea light in
-transparent craft paper in different colours. I think decopatch paper (which is semi transparent) should also look nice
-pvc glue
-a paintbrush to apply glue with
-a tealight
-scissors (not essential)

Cut or rip the transparent or semi transparent paper into small pieces.
Using a paint brush, cover part or the full outside of the jar with glue (it may help to thin the glue down a bit). Stick the paper pieces on the jar, brush them smooth. You can add layers by simply applying glue to the paper already attached and sticking more paper on. Finish off covering all the paper with a thin layer of glue. Feel free to add some glitter for sparkle.

You may create shapes with this, like a night time sky, a flower, Santa - or keep it simple (as we did) for just some colour and a project which a 33 month old can complete from start to finish. Let dry overnight. Light your tealight and enjoy.

(Well, you may need to also unglue your toddler from the table, and gather the sprinkling of paper bits that will have made their way into every single room of your home. But other than that...)