Happy Halloween! It’s that time of year again, “Trick or treat!” echoes through the streets as little ghosts, monsters and witches move from door to door.
In this blog article, we have explained why we dress up on Halloween and what we celebrate.
And in addition to dressing up, the decoration shouldn't be missing either. Cobwebs with huge spiders on the house wall, traces of blood on the windows, skeletons, monsters and ghosts.
Flickering shadow plays on the walls or on the table are also a real eye-catcher. In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can make Halloween tea lights as shadow decorations.
Material for your Halloween tea light shadow decoration
- Poplar plywood 6mm
- Poplar plywood 3mm
- orange acrylic
- wood glue
- black acrylic paint, for example for spraying Edding.
- Force
- Tea lights
- and the file from Mr Beam Designstore
Plywood Pack of 5
Sale price
From € 31,90 EUR
Mr Beam Acrylic, suitable for [S] and [x], 3 mm, DIN A3, various colours
Sale price
From € 14,90 EUR
Mr Beam Poplar plywood suitable for [x], 6mm, A3
Sale price
From € 47,90 EUR
Halloween tea light shadow decoration from Mr Beam
First, you need the “Halloween Candle Holder” file from the Mr Beam Design Store.
To do this, start your Mr Beam and also open the Mr Beam software in the browser.
You can quickly find the file in the Design Store using the appropriate search term.
There you will also find other Halloween files, for example a loop and a door corner. Once you have loaded the file into your design library, you can open it in the Mr Beam software workspace. The file contains a total of four Halloween tea light holders, each with a different pumpkin face, which is then cast as a shadow on the wall.
The wooden tea light holders for Halloween
You laser cut the baseplate (yellow lines) out of the 3 mm thick poplar plywood. The 6 mm thick poplar plywood is for the tea light holders (green lines).
First, place the 6 mm thick poplar plywood into the Mr Beam.
Of course, this only works with the [x] head. Alternatively, you can laser twice the number of tea light holders out of 3 mm thick poplar plywood and glue them together afterwards.
Arrange the frames on your wood using the camera preview. Leftover pieces are very suitable here.
The settings for lasering 6 mm poplar plywood are already saved. Drag the unnecessary colours yellow, orange and blue into the “Skip” field.
Since 6 mm is a performance even for the [x] head, you may need another laser pass depending on the nature of the wood.
Tip: When repeating the laser job, it often helps for me to reduce the number of passes and reduce the distance between the material and the laser head by one or two millimetres, i.e. to change the focus. You have to test this for your material, and of course the same applies here: never let the Mr Beam out of your sight!
When the frames of the Halloween tea light holders have been lasered out of the 6 mm poplar plywood, take them out of the Mr Beam and put the 3 mm thick poplar plywood inside. Now laser the four baseplates for your Halloween tea light shadow decoration. To do this, select the appropriate laser settings and this time skip the green, blue and orange cutting lines. Remember to refocus the laser head because your material is now 3mm thinner.
Acrylic shadow caster as Halloween decoration
The orange and blue cut lines are the Halloween pumpkins that create the spooky shadow. These are laser cut from 3 mm thick acrylic. You can laser them out of orange or black acrylic to match Halloween. I decided to only laser them out of orange acrylic because it simply fits in better with the rest of our decorations, and the tea lights as shadow decorations are nice Halloween decorations even when it's still light. Place your acrylic plate in the Mr Beam and start the laser job.
In order to have a nicer cut edge and less dirty acrylic after lasering, I always remove the protective film from the acrylic after the laser job.
Finish making your DIY tea light holders as a Halloween shadow decoration
You now need the black acrylic paint, the wood glue, the clamps and of course your just lasered parts for the tea light holders for Halloween.
Apply the wood glue to the entire frame and place them snugly on the baseplates. To ensure that the glue sets more quickly, fix both parts with clamps.
When the glue has dried, paint the tea light holders black for your Halloween shadow decoration.
Acrylic paint for spraying or brushing
Either you use acrylic paint to spray or work with a brush.
I prefer spray paint because it's quicker, and the paint is applied more evenly. In addition, acrylic spray paint is much thinner, which means it penetrates deeper into the wood and thus preserves the structure of the wood.
Prepare the spray paint according to the manufacturer's instructions. You should always paint in a place protected from rain and wind, but well ventilated. In addition, I always recommend wearing gloves and, if necessary, even a mask. Protect the area from the spray mist by painting the tea light holders in a large cardboard box set on its side.
Since you should completely paint the tea light holders for your Halloween shadow decoration, start the first thin application of paint a little at an angle. This way you paint both the top part and the side at the same time. After a short drying time, paint the second thin coat of paint from the opposite side.
Now let the top dry thoroughly, turn the tea light holder over and paint the bottom as well. While the whole thing is drying, remove the foil from your pumpkins to cast shadows.
Finally, put the pumpkins in the tea light holders and place a tea light in each. The flickering Halloween tea light as a shadow decoration is ready.
I hope you have fun making it and Happy Halloween!
Your Rina
