fudge

Thursday 1 December 2016

More Christmas Crafting

It's ironic that just a couple of posts ago I said that I often find taking photos for blog posts much easier than finding the words to go with them because in this case taking the photos was the REALLY hard part!

After my disastrous snowman pom pom I did tell you there would be another (hopefully more successful) Christmas crafting post and I owe this one to Anne from Domesblissity for posting this link on her FB page - it a whole lot of clever Christmas things people have made with Mason jars.

If you've read much of my blog you will know that I like to make stuff for people as well as buying them presents for Christmas and Birthdays.

I can't do it with the finesse of some people but I am a trier (as Di said on my last post :-) ) and anyway, who cares?  It's may not be perfect but it will be made with love.

Well, anything you can do with a Mason jar I can do with an empty Douwe Egberts coffee jar right?

Fortunately I love the coffee as much as I love the jars.


They are a great shape and once you have soaked the labels off (a little white spirit takes any left over sticky off) you can use them for loads of things.

They have this great plastic seal on the lids which you can carefully prise off or leave on for a snug fit (they come off and on fairly easily which was great for this project).

The first thing I did was go shopping - already a win win for me!

I bought a pack of fake snow, various gift ribbons, some double sided sticky dots and a few Christmas decorations.

I also had a hunt around at home for things that looked like they might work with what I had in mind.


Then I started to put the whole thing together.


The little snowman was stuck to the bottom of the jar with a few glue dots.

The snowballs were made from threading tiny glass and pearl beads (sorry Miss Mac, that's what happened to your bracelet!) on to cotton (you could use fishing line if being able to see the cotton bothers you) and then sticking them with more glue dots to the underside of the plastic seal I'd removed from the jar lid because it was easier to handle like that. Then just pop the seal back onto the lid.

I also stuck some of them around the inside rim of the jar so they weren't all in the middle.  You could see the dots from the outside so I covered them later with the ribbon around the top.

After sprinkling in some fake snow to cover the bottom I added a little bit of fir and a fir cone with some berrys that I'd pulled off another Christmas decoration.

Initially I'd bought little polystyrene snowballs to hang in the jar but the proportions were all wrong and it looked like the poor snowman was being bombarded with meteorites so I just put a few in the bottom.

After tying the ribbon around the jar I added a Christmas decoration to the side:

And it was done!

So I decided to make a couple more with other jars ...



Like I said, very hard to photograph because of light and shadows on the glass.  I ended up taking these outside and photographing them against the shed door but it was minus 2 this morning and the middle one steamed up a bit!


So here's a slightly better photo:


I made the bunting by cutting tiny triangles from some red ribbon and sewing them onto a length of cotton.


This one is for SD - obviously he doesn't want a snow globe so I pinched one of his die cast VW's and made him one anyway!



I'll be perfectly honest - although this wasn't exactly difficult it WAS very time consuming and there was a lot of trial and error finding out what worked and what didn't.  I finally realised (going completely against the grain) that less was more and to keep them simple.

Hopefully the recipients will like them as much as I do.

17 comments:

Sarn said...

Oh WELL DONE Sarah . . . these look very festive indeed and are sure to go down well with the recipients.

If you used any snippets/left overs you can enter Di's Snippets Playground (as per her previous invite!).

Hugs, Sarn xxx

Terry said...

Great idea Sarah! It looks good too. It just shows what you can achieve. Brilliant gift.

Val said...

This is better than your pom pom snowman! You are so crafty.

My mom used to take small mason jars and cross-stitch a saying or scene to put on top, screwing it on with the lid. She filled those jars with peppermints, or Chex Mix, or Hershey Kisses and Mini Reese's Cups in Christmas colors. When she was teaching, she gave them out to her secretaries and custodians and cooks. After she retired, she sent them to school with me for MY secretaries and custodians and cooks.

Sarah said...

Thank you Sarn, I plan to link up with Di next week - I think I missed the boat this week after taking about a 1000 photos before realising that the foggy garden in the freezing cold was the best pace! I used several snippets of ribbon as well as the bracelet (and of course the jars!) so I'm looking forward to linking up with her. xxx

Thanks Treey. I was pleased with them. They aren't hard to make, just fiddly but I think they are rather sweet,

SO much better than the pom pom Val! I love that idea. I was thinking of doing something similar nearer the time and making some peppermint cremes and coconut ice. It's lovely to give something homemade.

Di said...

Love these Sarah! So cute and loads of work involved. Please do link up - next week is fine as I'm happy just to see folk come and share their snippets makes :)

Hugs

Di xx

Sarah said...

Thanks Di and I'll definitely be popping along to the playground next week :-) xx

Polly said...

Oh Sarah, these look lovely, the snowman looks so cute, I think I will make one when I get home. I chuckled to Miss Mac’s reaction to your pompom. What’s with the boiled robin? boiled robin!! think of all those poor children reading that while shopping with their mums. I had some pine louvred cupboard doors in a bedroom many years ago and did the same thing as you, painted them without knowing about putting a sealer on first, it took ages. Your cabinet looks gorgeous, I think it looks better with the top trim off. I like your Autumn photos, Miss Mac’s make-up is amazing. Your "Voice in the Dark" post is very moving, written with a lot of thought and empathy.

Di said...

So glad you managed to link in Sarah! Welcome - and you get two goes on the Playground swings :)

Hugs

Di xx

Sarah said...

Thank Polly, I love that you take the time to catch up on my posts :-)

Thanks Di, after a few very late nights I could do with some wind in my hair! Really not sure how I managed to link up, it kept telling me I hadn't but I'm very glad it worked. xx

Liz said...

Just spotted one of these over in The Playground. What a brilliant idea, so creative! xx

Paper Lily Leaf said...

Hi Sarah, I've come over from the Playground. These are just gorgeous! Love them! April x

Sarah said...

Thank you Liz and April for popping over - so glad you like them :-) x

Just Lou said...

Well hello stranger...I have been out of the blog circle for what seems like the longest time, but now I am back in with a new blog and trying to catch up on some of the ones i used to follow.

Hope life is treating you well. I look forward to reading more, and I love your snowmen jars....really inventive Sarah.

Merry Christmas

Lou

Sarah said...

LOU!!! How lovely to hear from you!!! You just disappeared one day and I didn't know where you had gone!! Please pop back and give me the link to your new blog, I'd love to read it :-) xx

Just Lou said...

Here you go Sarah.... http://honestlylou.blogspot.com/
I'm not sure why everything blog-wise just stopped with me, but I am hoping to get myself back on track with the new blog... :-)

Domesblissity said...

Oh, aren't you a clever thing Sarah! (I'm only just going through my Christmas posts from the Thriving on Thursdays linky parties and I saw your name pop up. I was delighted!) Such a cute craft. It's being featured in my Christmas round up. Hope you're all organised for Christmas and it's not too cold over there for you.

Much love,
Anne xx

Sarah said...

Thank you so much Anne! I'm getting there with Christmas and no, it's surprisingly mild here for December :-) xx