Bring a Jar: Make an All Saints Votive Candle!

Is your neighborhood filled with spooky witches and ghosts and CANDLES?

Well…we Catholics almost invented candles…saying Mass in the Catacombs by candlelight.

OK, maybe not, but we are certainly no strangers to candles…and Votive Candles at Church!

You can even find Saint Votive Candles at the Dollar Store…but we’ve discovered that it’s way more fun to make them yourself!

With the recent release of Saint Scripts THREE, we kind of pride ourselves on all the different ways you can use each of our Cathletics Craft Kits. They come with permission to copy for your family…and even your classroom and we always include suggestions for different crafts and activities using the same templates! In fact, we just posted about using the Saints Craft Kits for All Saints Parties, and this Quiet Saints Craft and don’t forget all the ways you can transform your classic games and activities with 30 Ways to Play with the Saints.

We’ve enjoyed painting the black and white Saint templates from Saint Scripts Craft Kits with Paint by Saint, for your own stylized holy cards, but today we took it a step further!

Bring a Jar, Make a Votive!

All Saints Votive Candles

First…we looked through our recycling box…for some clear glass jars.

We also found a few almost empty jars from the fridge… and cleaned them inside and out.

We tried a few types of jars and we decided that we like this size the best.

Sometimes it takes a little scrubbing to remove the label and glue.

We then printed out our Saint Scripts Craft Kit…this time we used our new Series THREE! (see below)

We decided to try a few different methods to color the images and secure the images to the jars.

We used markers, pencil crayons and watercolor paint. We secured the images on the inside (or outside) with Mod Podge …or even clear tape.

We quickly learned that using Mod Podge on marker-colored pictures is pretty tricky. St Teresa of Avila looks pretty scuffed up.

We could use clear packing tape to secure the images on the outside…but we quickly learned that clear-drying Mod Podge did the best job.

We liked the cloudy look of the glass jar while the Mod Podge was drying…so we decided to add a little paint (mixed with Mod Podge) to the inside of the jar…for different effects.

Our favorite was the 4 Evangelists Votive Candle!

This would be a great technique to make your Dream Team of Saints Votive Candle for your family.

Choose your favorite family patron saints, paint them and cut them out and Mod Podge them all to the same jar!

We cut out the watercolored saints.

We painted some Mod Podge on the outside surface of the jar and then carefully placed the first saint on top.

We added a liberal coat of Mod Podge on top of the first saint…and then added the other three saints in the same way, letting them overlap a little…nice and cozy.

Cutting the saints out (from their backgrounds) enabled the four saints to share the same background: a thin layer of paint mixed with Mod Podge, applied to the inside of the jar.

This isn’t our first time to make DIY Votive Candles with Kelly Saints images.

Check out Stations of the Cross Votivesand DIY Baby Jar Votives

Saint Scripts ONE contains the full color recipe cards plus blank templates with coloring picture for these Saints: St Andre, St Anthony, St Catherine, St Christopher, St Clare, St Dominic, St Faustina, St Francis, St John, St Jude, St Nicholas, St Pio, St Patrick, St Paul, St Peter, St Raphael, St Rita, Bl Teresa, St Therese, St Vincent AND Jesus.

(Available as a PDF Only: $15)

Saint Scripts TWO contains the full color recipe cards plus blank templates with coloring picture for these Saints: St Agnes, St Anne, St Augustine, St Benedict, St Bernadette, St Cecilia, St Gabriel, St George, St Gerard, St Gianna, St Joan, Bl John Paul II, St Joseph, St Juan, St Kateri, St Lucy, St Maria, St Maximilian, St Michael, St Monica AND Blessed Virgin Mary.

(Available as a PDF Only: $15)

Saint Scripts THREE contains the full color recipe cards plus blank templates with coloring picture for these Saints: St Agatha, St Brendan, St Brigid, St Gemma, St Joachim, St John the Apostle, St John the Baptist (new and improved), St John Bosco, St Josemaría Escrivá, St Josephine, St Lawrence, St Luke, St Mark, St Mary Magdalene, St Matthew, St Philip Neri, St Teresa of Avila, St Thomas the Apostle, St Thomas Aquinas, PLUS St Louis and St Zélie!