Crafting for Christmas

For me, this has been a year of projects. Pinterest has been my playground. My inspiration. My training ground.

This week, I took on one more Pinterest-inspired project, but this one was with Christmas in mind. I made candle holders, and I made them out of the simplest products!

I took small glass canning jars, smothered them in glass glue, and sprinkled them in a mixture of white sugar and white sparkles.

When the jars dried, I embellished them. To stay true to the project as on Pinterest, I would have taken twine, or jute and wrapped it around the neck of the jar, them garnished with faux holly and berries. I didn't have access to the holly, so instead I bought some dollar store gold bells and substituted them.

I did try wrapping the twine, but I wasn't impressed with the look. Instead, I raided my stock of ribbons from previous projects, found some slim gold ribbon, attached a bell to one end, made several wraps around then neck of the jar, then attached a bell to the other end and tied the two off by doing a single tuck through the ribbon. This left me with a frosted jar with golden bells dangling prettily.

I inserted tealight candles, lit them, and was super impressed with the effect. I paid $5 CA for the jars, $2 for the glue, $2 for the bells, and $1 for the sparkles. A pretty insignificant price for 3 custom designed candle holders.

I also had three shiny gold lids left over, and I decided to utilize them. I took a piece of pallet wood I had left over from summertime projects, painted the top with white chalk paint and before the paint dried, tossed some of my sugar/sprinkle mixture over it for a snowy effect. With Gorilla Glue, I attached each lid to the painted board. Next, I found a gold ribbon of the right width, and wrapped the edges of the board in ribbon which I also affixed with Gorilla Glue.

Tiny side note -- when working with Gorilla Glue, probably best to wear gloves. If, like me, you don't, the best way to get Gorilla Glue OFF your fingers is to soak them for multiple minutes in warm water with a liberal amount of dish soap in it. It does work. Let's not talk about how I know that!

With the remnants of the ribbon, I made a bow and added it to the bottom of the board. I added tealights, and voila! Christmas in snowy golden candlelight! Thank you, Pinterest! You've done it again!