Fingerprint Flower Candle Holder Crafts and Gift Ideas

This tutorial explains how to paint fingerprint flower candle holders with fingertips, paint brushes, or a flower stamp.

Hand-painted flower votives are an easy gift idea that even toddlers can make. Encourage kids to use their fingertips to make fingerprint flowers on each candle holder gift, or use a paintbrush to paint them onto a square glass votive. My three-year-old daughter painted the candle holders pictured below “all by herself!” And she made a few more hand-painted votives that I think turned out even better. Click the link to take a look, or check out the hand-painted candle holder kid-made gift ideas–> HERE!

faux stained glass fingerprint flower candle holders kid-made gift ideas (flower candle holder crafts and photos by Nell Regan K. and C. Kartychok co-founders of Rhythms of Play)

Flower Painted Votives Kid-Made Gift Idea: Materials List

Rubbing alcohol
3-inch clear square votive candle holders
Glass paint
Flower stamps (I could not find the foam flower stamps we used the first time we made these; so today we make them with fingerprint flowers instead–or try THESE)
Paintbrush set
Painting smocks for kids
Votive candles [to complete the gift]

fingerprint flower candle holder crafts and gifts kids can make (flower candle holder crafts and photos by Nell Regan K. and C. Kartychok co-founders of Rhythms of Play)

How to Hand-Paint Flowers on Votives

Glass paint needs to be painted on really thick or it’s hard to see. This is usually not a problem because kids tend to load their brushes with lots of paint to layer them on thickly. Darker colors don’t need as much paint while lighter colors need a lot to be seen well once they dry. You might also enjoy this list of unique handmade gifts Kids Can Make

1. Wipe and clean the glass candle holders with rubbing alcohol.

Prepare the glass to paint by cleaning it with rubbing alcohol.
Pour a bit of rubbing alcohol onto a rag or cotton ball, and gently wipe the glass with it to remove surface dirt and smudges.

3. Help your child carefully stamp or paint a flower onto the votive using one of the options below:

I could not find the stamps that we originally used for this project on Amazon so today, we use a few other techniques to make hand-painted flower candle holders including our new favorite–fingerprint flower stamps!
Hand-painted flower options you can use to paint flowers on glass candle holders:
- Find a flower stamp you like and first dip it into glass paint before stamping it onto the square glass votive candle holder. (We recommend using a paintbrush to paint more glass paint onto the stamp before pressing it onto the glass so the paint is nice and thick, and adding more paint to the stamped flower with a paintbrush so the color of the flower is visible.)
- Help your child free-form paint a flower or flowers using a paintbrush, or dip children’s fingertips into the glass paint to make fingerprint flower votives!
- First, place a dot of paint to make a center. Next, use your fingertips or a paintbrush to create flower petals around the dot of paint in the center to complete each flower.

Related: Keepsake Gifts Kids Can Make

4. Use a paintbrush to fill in the stamped, painted, or fingerprinted flower outline on the votive with more paint.

Glass paint looks best when it is laid or painted on nice and thick, so, you will more than likely need to add more paint to the flower stamp outline you have created on the glass candle holder.
Darker colors don’t need as much paint while lighter colors need a lot of paint layered on top of the glass to be seen well once they dry.
The photo tutorial below shows how my daughter painted a foam flower stamp with paint and added more paint after it was stamped onto the glass. The same thing can be done with your hand-painted or fingerprint flower stamps.