Pool Noodle Halloween Candle Stand

I was having a halloween Birthday party for my daughters and needed to get to work making some things. I always go ALL out for their birthdays and usually spend about 6 weeks creating things before their big special day. I wanted something that would go on the “food table” that would be big and fun and spooky but NOT break the bank. This is what I came up with for that!

*Materials with a Star (*) were purchased from my local dollar store*

Something round to trace the size circle you’d like for your base

Black spray paint

Exacto knife

Scissors (To cut foam board)

Hot glue gun

E6000 glue

*Black pipe cleaners 

*Black foam board

*Drawing tool for tracing (I used white pencil crayon on the black foam board and a sharpie marker for the pool noodles)

*Black halloween floral

*Ghost Skeleton

*Any extra add ons that you’d like examples: more florals, spiders, webs, skulls etc

*Glue sticks

*2 Pool noodles (Varying diameters optional)

1. Gather all materials. I’m really big on adding items to my creations as the inspiration comes to me. So you will see in photo #2 some spiders that are not in the original materials photo. Grab whatever add on’s you’d like added to your candle arrangement and have fun with it.

I started by grabbing something round in the size of how large I wanted my candle arrangement. I used a 12” diameter wooden round to trace my circle on the black foam board. Then I cut my circle out using scissors.

Next, I decided the height that I wanted my tallest candle. (My tallest candle is 12” high). Using my marker, I drew a straight line on my pool noodles where I wanted to cut and used my exacto knife to cut straight across the lines in my desired heights. I decreased the cuts by 1-2” and kept decreasing inches until I had enough candles that I was happy with. *With two pool noodles, (One large one and one standard size) I was able to cut 12 candles in varying heights.*

I used a sharpie marker to draw a diagonal line on the tops of my candles so that I could cut along those lines to give my noodles a more realistic candle look. Higher in the back of the candle’s top and lower in the front.

Arrange the pool noodles on your foam board circle to make sure you like the placement and amount of candles.

I traced the tea lights in the middles of my noodles and used my exacto knife to cut out a small section to place the tea lights inside so that the flame was flush with the tops of the noodles.

After the tea light candle inserts were cut, I used my glue gun to add drips all along the tops of the candles in different thicknesses and lengths. I added more to the fronts of the candles and even some shorter ones on the backs of the candles to give them a realistic look.

Use black spray paint to paint the noodles with the glue drips on them. It took two coats of paint; but I was able to get the 12 candles done with only one can of spray paint.

Once the paint was dry, I glued my candles down to the foam board round using hot glue and 36000 glue. *The e6000 will ensure my candles stay on long term and the hot glue ensures that they’d stay in place immediately.*

I then gathered up all of my “add on” items like black florals, black spiders and a few more skulls. Again, I used E6000 and hot glue to add my pieces on in different areas over my candle stand. Have fun with this part. It doesn’t have to be all the same materials as I used. You can use different colours, different halloween themed items. The sky’s the limit for what can be added!

At this point you can place your skeleton ghost on top of the tallest candle and use his pointy fingers to poke into the pool noodles at the sides in order to keep him in place and VOILA! Put your tea lights in and turn them on and It’d be finished!

**I decided that I wasn’t a huge fan of the skeleton ghost just sitting up top and wanted him looking like he was floating above the candle arrangement instead. So follow along for those steps if you desire the same look.**

Cut a small hole inside the plastic under the skeleton’s head.

Use the wiring from one of the floral pieces and wrap all pieces together to make it one continuous line. I lined it in black pipe cleaners by using hot glue and twisting the pipe cleaners around the twisted wiring to ensure that the wires wouldn’t come unwrapped over time and also so no wiring was seen, only more black to blend in.

Then insert the pipe cleaner wrapped wiring into the hole of the skeleton’s head.

I glued the pipe cleaner/ floral wire into the small hole that was cut in the skeleton’s head’s base and bent the bottom of the wire to fit inside the tallest candle until I was happy with the skeleton’s height when floating above. I did not have to use glue to attach this in.

That’s it.

Place your tea lights in and turn them on and you’ll have a fun spooky and very cheap to make halloween decoration that’ll get A LOT of hype from your friends and family when they see it!