Share a Craft! Ball Canning Jar Frosted Glass Candle Holders

I saw this idea somewhere before the holidays and I thought it looked like a fun idea to try. Our family always has "Thanksmas" where the entire family gathers together between Thanksgiving and Christmas to celebrate so we can all be home on the actual holidays. My sister and I wanted to find some inexpensive and easy ideas for table centerpieces. So, I came up with this idea of using Frosted Glass spray paint, ball canning jars and adhesive vinyl letter shapes to make candle holders. Don't limit yourself to the holidays....I made a few that can be used all year long.

The best tips are to clean the jars thoroughly before affixing the vinyl letters. I ran mine through the dishwasher and allowed them to dry thoroughly. I carefully placed one 2 inch vinyl letter on each jar. Then I placed all of the Ball jars upside down on freezer/wax paper (glossy side up) on my patio table outside for good ventilation. If you used newspaper, I think the paint would stick and you'd have to spend time removing it from the jars. I followed the instructions on the can of paint and probably sprayed each one 3 times to get a good frosty look to them. This paint dried very quickly and I peeled the vinyl letters off after a few hours.

I made 3 sets of jars....Thanksmas, Family and Love. I can use the family and love all year round and reuse the Thanksmas jars every year. The Love jars would look great for Valentine's Day too! Shown below is the Family set that I made.

Family Candle Jars

I wanted to decorate the tops somehow but ended up not having time...story of my life!  I thought they would look nice with jute or hemp twine wrapped around and glued to the top ring of the jar. I had a very pretty roll of red wired ribbon that never made it onto the jars.  They could also be tied with raffia, ribbon or lace...anything that goes with your decor. This was a very economical project too. I think the Rust-oleum Specialty Frosted Glass spray was 4.99 and the canning jars were $7 for a big box full from a local thrift store at half price. The 2 inch Helvetica font vinyl letters were bought at Michaels craft store and I believe they were $5 or so and I still have a lot left for other projects. I still have paint left as well and lots of extra jars so I could do this all over again! You could also use stencils to paint a design without covering the entire jar. The design possibilities are endless!

I would suggest using tea lights or votive candles that can be placed inside the jar. If you just put a candle inside.....I'm not sure how these will hold up to washing out the spilled wax.  If you do wash them I would suggest gentle hand washing only.

If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will try to help!

I have had a busy week in my latest shop AlwaysAMemory on etsy. I have been in several more treasuries, completed several custom orders, had many inquiries about my bracelets and got offered a great consignment deal with a store in my home town! Very excited about all that is going on and that my hard work is paying off!

Have a great weekend! See you soon! Kitty

Christmas is Coming!

It's been busy around here! I just got all caught up on my shipping after having some great sales over the last week! About half my sales were to international buyers. I sold to England(a few), Japan, Singapore, Australia(several) and Lithuania! It's great knowing that my things are traveling the world and going to new homes in distant places.

I will be adding lots of new things in all my shops in the next few days. I have several Christmas/Holiday jewelry items that I haven't even listed yet. Not good! It's getting too close to Christmas.

I just opened a Soopsee account that features everything in all 3 of my etsy shops. Click on the badge in the upper right to see it. I've having fun customizing it. Lots of great shops to see there too at http://www.soopsee.com.

I haven't even started my own shopping yet! I need to get on it. I plan on buying many of the gifts for my family on etsy. So many unique things that you can't find anywhere else! I'd better hurry or we'll be opening our gifts after Christmas!

I'm still in the process of decorating for the holidays too. We got the tree up the day after Thanksgiving but it sat there bare for a few days until I put the decorations on. I love doing it! I like the juice can lid ornament my daughter Kristina made in grade  school. It has a photo of her and lots of glitter! The simplest handmade ones are the best and most meaningful.

My sister gives me a new sister ornament every year....soon that is all I will have room for on the tree. I've got so many now! She also gets me the animated Hallmark snowman every year! I love them too. I'm struggling to find enough places in my house to display them.....especially with a Beagle that likes to tear things up during the night. I get child-proofing but never thought I'd be "dog proofing" as well! Oh Penny, you are such a trouble maker!

The weather has been cold and clear the last few days----in the 30's during the day and 20's at night. I can't get used to it! I'm cold all the time...I drag my little oil heater right next to me and I'm still cold! Hopefully, the sunshine will last long enough for me to get some photos taken of jewelry I will list later on. I need to take it when I can get it! I bought a photography tent and lights but I don't like the whole set-up and the lights don't seem to be bright enough. Live and learn!

Thanks for reading this rambling post! I hope everyone is more ready for Christmas then I am! See you soon, Kitty

Just added to my vintagelife etsy shop and more......

I've been busy making jewelry and some handmade supplies. I listed quite a few pendants in my vintagelife shop and some jewelry charms to my sweetvintageemma shop too. I hope to get a bunch of vintage jewelry listed in my emmasgems shop later this week.

It's been busier this week for me in a few of my shops. It was pretty quiet for awhile but it's picked up finally. I hope it stays that way!

Creative Christmas Gift Tags

My daughter Kristina is the most creative girl! Every year she finds the perfect Christmas gift for each member of our family(on a budget too). Each gift is thoughtful and perfectly suited to the recipient. But it is her choice in creative name tags that we enjoy just as much as the gift! Last year we each had a Moo card attached to our box as a name tag. Every card was a photo from years past. I had a photo of all 3 of my kids when they were young. There was a photo of my Grandpa on one. There were photos of my grand kids for me and their Mom too. There were older family group photos. All meaningful and appropriate to each person receiving a gift from her. We all oohed and aahed her creative choice! We all wondered what she would do this year?
This Christmas she found vintage black and white photos on what must have been an exhaustive search of vintage and antique shops for the perfect photo to fit each member of the family! These were sweet and quaint photos from another era. She wrote "To Mommy" and attached the vintage photo of what were clearly 2 sisters from the 1930's or so. Her sister Chantel's gift had a cute photo of 2 young sisters holding hands. I had another one with the silhouette of a young girl. Yet another was a proud little girl, with her head held high, arms clasped behind her back with her lovely pinafore dress on. All of these photos spoke to me of family, times past, tradition and love.....perfect for our family Christmas.

I look forward to seeing what Kristina comes up with next year. We expect this sort of creative genius from her now! Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
From Emma, Evan and Ezra
(and me too!)

Here are a few new photos of the grandkids that I took today. Some of these are going to be used for my daughter Chantel's Family Christmas card. I thought they all looked so cute but they weren't very cooperative! Oh well.....I did manage to get a few good ones in spite of them!

I'm looking forward to spending lots of time with the entire family on Christmas Eve. We have the most fun watching them open their gifts. It's Ezra's first Christmas and that is always a special time! Evan is very excited to open his gifts too and is looking forward to toys most of all, of course! Emma is looking forward to a few special gifts this year and spending time with family.

I'm hoping we can do something a little bit different this year and have a yummy Beef Pot Roast dinner with lots of sweet carrots, onions and potatoes! Just like Grandma used to make for me on special occasions. I guess I'm tired of turkey and ham. I must confess that Pot Roast is my favorite and I like it over cooked until the meat shreds! I think I would be banned from the family if we didn't have mashed potatoes and gravy too!

For dessert, I will be making chocolate fudge, pecan nut toffee and chocolate chip cookies for my son Daniel (who was very disappointed when I didn't have time to make them on Thanksgiving!). I'm sure the traditional Pumpkin pie will be there and so will the homemade cheesecake that Chantel always makes. Yum!

We will spend our day eating, opening all our gifts and visiting with my sister and her 3 kids who are going to celebrate Christmas Eve with our family. I have a lot to be thankful for this year and I look forward to 2009 with much hope! I wish you and your family well too! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

New Pendants and More....

Here are a few of the things I've been working on for one of my other etsy shops: vintagelife
I really enjoy making this jewelry. I try to be unique and offer something a little different than the norm. I have about 60 more pendants in varying stages of completion. I love making the rings too. I usually try to make my rings with vintage bits and pieces of broken jewelry but I bought a lot of czech glass buttons so I am incorporating them too! Trying to get them all listed before Christmas will be the true challenge. I am trying to stock up on all my shipping supplies so I don't run out! I think most of my profits from all 3 shops have gone right back in to buy more supplies so I can be fully stocked for the holidays! If you get a chance please visit my handmade shop!

New Pendant Projects

I'm gearing up for the holiday selling season and started working on some new pendants today. Still have to do the resin process but will wait till I have more ready to go. A little goes a long way and I always seem to waste too much . I'm trying to do better on that! These are little 1 x 1 inch brass squares. My silver squares are on backorder. I'm also trying to use up lots of watch backs that I have acquired. I try to be unique and add elements that I haven't seen before. Photos soon! Have lots of ideas and not so much time....