Repurpose or Alter an Old Candle Jar and a Soup Can

Hello crafty peeps! I was just thinking about how much I love this time of year and it's about the only time I will pay any attention to television commercials. I think one of my favorite commercials last year was the one put out by Glade with Jordin Sparks singing This is My Wish, Holiday Anthem.  She has a beautiful voice and the song is very uplifting both in its words and notes. I went to Glade's YouTube channel and couldn't find the "Jordin" version anywhere. Kind of weird, but fortunately I found it somewhere else and could listen to it.     I did my Christmas shopping earlier this year so I'm concentrating on finishing up my Christmas cards and doing some projects for small favors and gifts. My daughter's 18th birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks too. December is always a crazy, but exciting month.  
I've got two projects to share with you today. Both were done for the Sketches4ALL 5th Anniversary Challenge Party. If you're interested in an altered/repurposed challenge, I just started one over at S4All today. The challenge will run until December 31st. There are also many other fun challenges from our design team members that are going on right now and an awesome prize for the winner of the 5th Anniversary Challenge Party. So don your creative energy and come on over!   I started out with an empty candle jar for my first project. This particular jar has a nice shape, so I didn't want to cover it all up. It also has a wide and straight area around the center so it was perfect for adding paper to.  

 

 

1. Measure the surface of the jar where you want the paper to cover (find the width and height) and cut your clear cardstock. 

I chose to use the clear cardstock so the light from the candle would show through better than regular craft paper, but either will work. 

2. Emboss your paper.

My cut piece was about 10" long which posed an issue since the embossing folder I wanted to use (Darice - Snowflake) is only 5" long. Then it hit me to just do one end of my vellum and then do the other end. Since the snowflakes of the embossing folder are randomly placed, I could do it in two steps and there is no seam or cut off point. It worked perfectly.

3. Adhere your paper to your jar
I didn't add adhesive all the way around, but instead only along the seam on the back. I chose to use a little Mod Podge, because it dries clear and won't be affected by the heat of a candle-flame like tape or hot glue would be.

4. Embellish the jar.
I chose to use my pine branch die by Impression Obsessions. The pine branch gives a nice holiday touch and is intricate and pretty enough to stand on its own. I like a lot of embellishments, but for this particular project I wanted as much candle light to get through as possible and I didn't want to cover up the pretty embossed snowflakes.

My candle looks so beautiful lit up! In person, the clear cardstock looks just like frosted glass.

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I ran into a problem
After I cut my pine branches I coated them with Tim Holtz Adirondack Silver Mixative, which was a mistake. While I was giving them shape by bending the branches around a knitting needle and fluffing the needles themselves the mixative began to flake off.

I chose the mixative because it's gorgeous and very reflective. I've loved it with other projects, but since it sits on the surface you cannot bend it without losing some of it. I decided not to concern myself, because any white showing just makes my branches look snowy, but I will be careful to stay aware when deciding whether it's the right choice for my next project.

To add more reflectivity and some sparkle I ran two rows of Darice rhinestone mesh around the bottom. I had considered placing ribbon here and it looked nice, but once I had the rhinestones in place there was no question that it was the best choice for this candle.

I also added a bow and a tag that says JOY. I got the sentiment from The Cutting Cafe. 

I love the way it turned out.

  My second project is a tin can that will hold Hershey's Kisses. The colors I used are teal, aqua and brown which break away from colors normally associated with Christmas and winter.

 

Find a can
I raided my recycling bin and found a La Choy Chicken Chow Mein can. The label came off easily after I ran it under hot water for a minute or two and then rubbed it off with my fingers, but the blue tape on this particular can was another story. Fortunately it scraped off of the very top quite easily and I just left the rest because I knew it wouldn't show from under all the layers I would be placing over it.

 

1. Measure the can.
Begin by measuring the circumference of the can and cutting your piece of white craft cardstock to wrap around it. 

2. Emboss your paper.
I needed exactly 12" of cardstock so to make embossing easy I decided to use my 12" Cuttlebug, Polka Dot embossing folder. 
3. Adhere your paper to your can. 
I used tape. 
4. Embellish your can

 How I embellished mine:

This first step was more involved and honestly I'm not sure that I'm going to do it the same way again.

1. Make the trim for the top edge
I cut the edges (the thicker part) off of two colors of burlap. Then I placed them together so I would have a reasonably smooth edge at the top and bottom of the trim line. I got the look that I was after, but it was labor intensive and the hot glue was not kind to my fingers as I struggled to get all the little pieces to stick down. 

2. Wrap burlap around the center of your can.
I wrapped mine so the fibers were at an angle.

3. Color a 4" paper doily.
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass
4. Adhere your doily to the front of your can to frame your label.
5. Print out your sentiment
I got the sentiment from The Cutting Cafe
6. Die cut your label
Spellbinders Card Creator-Reflective Moment die pack.
7. Edge the label with ink
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in the color Vintage Photo. 
8. Add twine to the bottom edge of your white craft cardstock and decorate your lid.

I decorated the top by using another 4" doily that I colored with ink. I also added a snowflake that I got from The Cutting Cafe. It's the same snowflake that I used to make my tag (below).

9. The finishing touch

To finish the edge of the lid of the can as well as the bottom edge of the can I hot glued twine to it. I added a pine cone wrapped in some twine to make lifting the lid off easy. 

This was a very enjoyable project to do because I just went with whatever came to mind at that moment. To be creative in that way is freeing.
I can't wait to put the chocolate kisses in.

Project 1 Supplies List

Project 2 Supplies List

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day :)

  Happy Crafting!

Handmade Joy Christmas Card in Traditional Colors

Hello Everyone!  

Did you ever have one of those days when things that you normally ignore, suddenly strike you as funny? I was taking photos of cards I made and my camera kept telling me it detected a blink. This has happened other times too, but for whatever reason it cracked me up and I could barely hold my camera still. I could have used my tripod, but I had to be at uncomfortable angles to catch the little bit of light from outside. It's a gloomy overcast day today. I couldn't even hold my breath to stay still. It would just make me laugh. Thank goodness I'm alone because my family would have thought I was going crazy. Maybe I am? Maybe they do? LOL!

Anyway, I'm sharing a simple Christmas card today. There's some glitter on this one and I like that only the center is decorated with all the snowflakes in the background. I decided to make just the front of the card so that later I can decide if  I want it to be a normal side-fold card or something different. Without a card base holding it up, I had to lean it against the background.  I cut two white panels for my card and embossed one with the Darice Snowflakes folder and the other I used the Cuttlebug Polka Dot Page folder. Then I cut a strip (about 2 inches) of Christmas paper from the DCWV Holiday Cheer stack and used the Martha Stewart Double Arches, border punch on both sides.

I then embellished the middle of the strip with wide shiny ribbon and a smaller Christmas ribbon. To make the sentiment stand out I backed JOY with a white die cut from the Spellbinders Card Creator, Reflective Moment set. Then I just added a bow and a polar bear.

A very simple card to make.

Happy Crafting! 

Altered Paint Can with Altered Paint Brush for Gift Giving

Hello Everyone! Hope you're all having a good day.   For a while now I've wanted to alter a paint brush. There are so many beautiful brushes on the web, but I kind of hit a wall as I like the things I make to have a purpose other than collecting dust. So I decided to add a paint can. I was constantly seeing them separate and thought it would be cute to do them together.

Once the idea hit me, I thought this would be an adorable gift for a beginner, paper crafter filled with little stamps, inks, paper punches and so forth.

As I decorated the can I decided to keep it somewhat plain with a lot of blank, white space (especially on the sides and back) for the new crafter to add her own touches. I left the lid untouched as well, although I may add a white circle with a personalized note should I decide to give it as a gift or sell it. 

A gift package to be filled with items that inspire creativity.  

 

 

 

 

  The Brush

 

I dragged the ink pads (VersaMagic in Spring Pansy, Aloe Vera, Sea Breeze and Pixie Dust) across the surface making sure the edges of each color blended into the next. I love this particular ink for the soft colors and chalky finish.

For the flowers, butterfly, and dragonfly I used clear stamps and Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black. 

 

Then all that was left was to embellish my brush. I chose gems, pearls, lace, ribbon and a paper butterfly punch to top it off. For the hanging pearl strands I just hot glued the top bead to the brush bristles. To make the butterfly firm and shiny I used a light turquoise embossing powder over the entire butterfly.

Once my paint brush was finished I had an afterthought and decided to dip the bristles in pink paint. This step should be done before you decorate your brush and left to dry. Fortunately it worked out okay for me.

The Paint Can I bought my empty paint can at my local hardware store for about $3.50.

Honestly I had difficulty getting started with this. Trying to measure the paper correctly that wraps around the can was a real pain. Well at least until I said, "Heck with it", grabbed a couple of pieces of eight and a half inch by eleven inch cardstock and made a front panel and a back panel.

I'm not a measuring kind of gal, but I did measure from the bottom ridge of the can to the top ridge so I could use my paper cutter to get a precise cut. If you will be putting a border on your can as I did you don't have to worry about this cut being perfect either since it will be covered.

Then I held my cut paper up to the can and made a mark where the handles were located. In the end, my holes for the handle were a little too big and not round, but it didn't matter since I was going to be covering that area up with lace flowers.
  Using small sections of coordinating paper may be easier than trying to cover the whole can at once like I did.   To make the lace flowers I did a running stitch in lace ribbon with jewelry wire. Then I hot glued them to the can.

The rest was easy as you can add anything you want to decorate it.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask :)
Happy Crafting!