Glowing Halloween Luminaries: Easy Paper Plate and Coffee Filter Craft for Kids

Happy October, one of my favorite months! Today I am sharing our first Halloween Craft for this year–glowing luminaries! This craft is simple enough for…

by 

Happy October, one of my favorite months! Today I am sharing our first Halloween Craft for this year–glowing luminaries! This craft is simple enough for little kids and cool enough for big kids (including adults)! We used coffee filters, paint, and cooking oil (such a cool trick!) to make pumpkin faces, haunted houses, and Halloween scenes to light up the night.

Thank you for visiting. This post may contain affiliate links to recommended products at no extra cost to you. Read our Disclosures and Terms of Use. Don't miss out again, become a  Reader here <--it's FREE. 

Check out our (not so) perfect organization behind my two little artists. Apparently my camera thought that was more important to focus on and I didn’t notice until now. Even though this photo is a bit blurry I don’t want to leave the kids out because they love being included in our posts to “teach other kids to do what I do.” 

Glowing Halloween Luminaries

Pin me please! 🙂



Supplies:
Paper plate
Coffee filter
Acrylic paint
Paint brush
Paper towel
Cooking oil (small amount)
Glue
No flame tea lights
Tape (optional)

**Since this craft is paper and for kids, please don’t use real candles-we don’t want any fires.** 

Directions:
1.  Have child paint a Halloween picture on the coffee filter, making sure to leave some blank space for the light to shine through. Set it aside to dry. The orange, black, and brown coffee filter in the middle of the picture below did not have enough empty space to use as a luminary.

2.  Have child paint the outside of a paper plate and set it aside to dry.

3.  Once everything is dry assemble the luminary by cutting out the center of the paper plate. Make sure the hole is smaller than the coffee filter.

4.  Dip the paper towel in the cooking oil (not much is needed-a little goes a long way) and have child rub it across their coffee filter to moisten the white parts around their painting. You should be able to see light through the coffee filter better when they are done. If the coffee filter has too much oil on it, take a clean paper towel and soak up the extra oil.

5.  Glue the coffee filter to the inside of the paper plate.

6.  To make a stand for the paper plate I used the leftover part of the paper plate, cut off one of the edges so it could sit flat, and duck taped it to the top of the plate (you could probably glue it if you are more patient than me). If the inside of the paper plate is not large enough or it is too flimsy, use a cereal box or heavy construction paper to make a stand.

Set the paper plate on a table like a teepee, and place a tea light inside and watch the kids eyes light up as they see their Halloween craft glow! My kids were so inspired by their craft that they ran and got their ipads to play spooky noises as they danced around their luminaries.

Pin me please! 🙂
More Crafty Ideas:
Thanks for crafting with us today! Please click here to sign up for our weekly newsletter and follow us on FacebookPinterestTwitter.
Have a great day! Love, Katie & the Kiddos

7 comments

  1. These are adorable!I think my kids would enjoy making them. Thanks for sharing at A Little Bird Told Me Linkup.

  2. I almost never do crafts with my kids, because I'm terrible at them! But this one actually looks like fun. I might actually do this with my kids! Pinned it from Medium Sized Fam.

    1. Hi Jamie, I'm excited you are considering trying a craft with your kiddos. This one is easy and fun! Thanks for visiting and the pin 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *