Autumn craft #3 - Tea light holders

More PVA fun. First of all, you need to go for a long walk through the forest to collect some leaves. Any old leaves will do, but as we discovered, smaller ones are easier to fit onto jam jars. Press these for at least 24 hours between 2 sheets of kitchen roll and a lot of books. Or if you're lucky and have one, use a flower press and the special blotting paper that comes with them.

The next thing you'll need is a wide necked jar - this is to let as much air as possible get to your candle to stop it from going out. Besides, too long and thin and it's difficult to get your hand in to light it.

First of all, Daughter smeared our jar in PVA... it seriously went everywhere, which she thought was amazing. So after a quick wash of hands (so the leaves wouldn't stick to her fingers and disintegrate before we stuck them on), she positioned our leaves around the jar.

After 24 hours, this is what it looked like. Seeing how the PVA had gone clear was really interesting to her, and it gave the leaves a lovely gloss. We needed to wait until night for the real test, though.

And ta da! Pretty candle holder! 

I am honour bound to tell you, however, that you're best using LED tea lights in these babies. I don't know how flammable PVA is, and coupled with the very flammable dried leaves, sensible people might recommend that you give this craft a miss. And as always, never leave fire unattended, especially with toddlers.

Pretty though....