12 crafty activities to celebrate World Thinking Day

Placing a candle or light in your window on World Thinking Day has been a traditional way to celebrate.

World Thinking Day’s a global celebration that takes place every year on 22 February. It reminds us that we're all part of a worldwide organisation called WAGGGS (the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) and helps us feel connected with others around the world.

Lots of people light candles and they can be known as a 'guiding light'. Using battery-operated tea lights is a safe and easy way for everyone to join in.

Here are 12 simple ways you could make a light to display in your home on World Thinking Day:

1. Window jars: put a sticker (like a heart or a star) on the side of a jar. Paint the rest of the jar in a solid colour. Once the paint is dry, peel off the sticker. You will have a clear ‘window’ in your jar that lets a bright beam of light shine through!
2. Painted pattern jars: take clear jar and use cotton buds to make tiny dots of paint. You can create the shape of a trefoil, a star, or even a map of the world. Because the paint is in dots, the light can still peek through the gaps.
3. Starry tin cans: carefully wash out an empty tin can. Ask an adult to help you poke small holes through the metal using a nail and hammer. The light will shine through like stars in the night sky.
4. Tissue paper lanterns: clean out old clear jars. Decorate them with colourful tissue paper and PVA glue.
5. Mini village cartons: Upcycle empty juice or milk cartons by painting them white or black. Cut out little square windows and a door. You can add details, such as flowers or roof tiles, with paint pens or felt tips. It looks like a cosy little house with the lights on inside.
6. Salt dough holders: Mix flour, salt, and water to make salt dough. Mold it into a thick star shape with a hole in the middle just the right size for an LED tea light. Bake it until hard, and then paint it in bright, bold colours.
7. Mosaic magic: Use small glass mosaic tiles (or even coloured gemstones or buttons) to cover a clean jar. Use clear PVA glue to stick them down in patterns.
8. Paper bag creations: Take a small white or brown paper bag. Use a hole punch to make lots of holes all over it, or just snip small triangles out of the edges like you're making a paper snowflake. Put a tea light inside, and the light will sparkle through the holes.
9. Pressed flower lanterns: Brush some PVA glue onto a clean glass jar and carefully press on dried, flattened flowers or leaves. Cover them with another thin layer of glue to seal them in place.
10. Glass paint or pens: Use special glass pens or paints to draw directly onto a clean jar. You could draw a map of the world, write the words of the promise in a spiral, or create a colourful stained glass pattern.
11. Silhouette jars: Cut a simple silhouette of a fairy, a woodland creature, or even a Girlguiding trefoil out of black card. Stick it to the inside of a jar. Lightly paint the jar with white paint. Or, you can also cover it in a single layer of pale tissue paper using PVA glue.
12. Miniature tealight campfires: Bring the magic of a campfire into your home! Start with an LED tealight. Start by gluing small pebbles in a circle on a cardboard base to create a fire pit. Layer several 12cm  squares of red, orange, and yellow tissue paper. Adding a dab of glue between each layer to keep them together. Place an LED tealight in the centre and gather the tissue paper up around it, pinching it to look like flickering flames. Finally, glue the base of the tissue paper onto the centre of the cardboard base.