Repurposed Jar Craft: Winter Landscape Card and Candle Gift Set

Hello everyone!   Today I'm sharing a card and candle gift set that I made using a spaghetti jar, some translucent paper, white cardstock, two of my favorite pine tree stamps, and blue and turquoise ink.   I love trees, so working with these stamps put me in my happy place. I also enjoyed the challenge of making the sky look heavy and wintery. 

When the candle is lit is gives a beautiful glow, like the sun is shining through the faded trees in the distance.    How to make the candle

 

1. Gather your translucent paper, pine tree stamps, and blue ink.

2. Measure your jar and cut your paper to wrap around it.

3. Take your small tree stamp and perform Generation Stamping with your blue ink. If you don't know what Generation Stamping is, the videos below will show you how it works. Make sure to overlap your trees a little to give them depth. To get the best look make your darkest trees closest to you and toward the bottom of your paper and the trees should become lighter as they move further away.

Generation Stamping

Doubling your Ink Pads 

 (beginning at 5:00 for the tree stamping)  

4. Adhere your finished paper to your jar. I used Mod Podge on the back of the jar right where the paper comes together to hold it in place.

5. Using (1 1/2" wide) sheer white ribbon with wire edges, measure to see how much you need to go around the neck of the jar.

6. Once you have the correct size piece of ribbon cut, use a needle and thread to do a running stitch down the center of the ribbon leaving a couple inches of thread hanging out at both sides. The running stitch does not have to be even or neatly done. You will not see it in your finished project.
The extra thread you left hanging on each end of the ribbon is what you will use to tie your ribbon tightly to your jar to keep it in place. I decided to use ribbon in this way because it covers the top edge of the translucent paper and adds to the overall look of the candle.

7. Take your blue (3/4" wide) sheer ribbon, fold it in half, and tie it around the neck of the jar. You will unfold the ribbon just at the front to make the bow.

 How to make your card

I made my card a size that is not common so if it were to be placed as a set on a mantel or table, the card would look balanced with the size of the candle. There are some odd measurements, but each measurement can easily be rounded to the nearest quarter inch.

1. Gather your white, light turquoise, and deep blue cardstock.

Measurments of Cardstock

White 

6 10/16"w x 12"h

6"w x 4 12/16"h

Light Turquoise

6 1/2"w x 5 1/4"h

Dark Blue

6 3/16"w x 5"h 

2. You will be using the same blue ink for the trees that you used on the candle as well as a light turquoise ink for the sky.

3.Start by taking a scrap piece of cardstock and ripping two pieces from it. Mine were about 6 inches wide. Don't try to be neat about it since these will be used as your mask for sponging your sky and clouds, therefore hills and valleys are good.

4. Using your 6"w x 4 12/16"h white cardstock, take your ink and sponge, and make a swirling motion along the edge of the paper. Always start on your ripped piece with your sponge and work into the actual image your making. This will keep you from getting gobs of ink that are too dark on your card. Repeat, changing the position of your paper and leaving some lighter spots that will become the clouds. Take the sky about half way down your paper.

The video shows how to make snowbanks, but it's the same technique I used to make the sky.  

Soft Christmas Landscape 

5. When your sky is done it's time to start placing your trees. Refer to the directions above for the candle on how to utilize Generation Stamping.

6. Once you're finished with your trees, place little dabs of Glossy Accents on your darkest trees in the front and then add some glitter to them to make them stand out.

7. Fold your 6 10/16"w x 12"h white card base in half (6" mark).

8. Border punch the front and back bottom edges of your card. 

9. Adhere your light turquoise mat on your white card base then your dark blue mat on top of the turquoise one.

10. Add your new image centered on your dark blue mat.

11. Add flat back pearls to your scalloped edge and blue bows

Supplies

Happy crafting and thanks for stopping by!

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.

-

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!

Burning Aleene's Tacky Glue to Make Paper Look Like Metal

     I came across this video (link below) on YouTube while looking for a new craft to try. I did a couple of things a little different from the video. The first difference is that I used white card stock since it was what I had on hand. The second difference is that I did not have gold paste to bring out the texture so I used a gold mica powder. A shiny Dollar Tree eye shadow like L.A. Colors would give the same effect.

     One problem I had was finding the right candle that was not burned down too far. If your candle is not brand new it is difficult to generate the heat to get the glue to burn. Possibly I'm just impatient, but I didn't have all day to sit and wait for the glue to heat up. I resorted to using a small lighter which worked since I could get the flame right on the glue, but I kept burning my fingers no matter how careful I was. The lighter also made it difficult to hold the butterfly glue-side down as I had to turn it on it's side to keep from burning my hand holding the lighter and to see what I was doing. Your best option would be a candle stick in a holder or possibly even a tea-light candle. Your next best option would be a long lighter if you don't have a candle (used for lighting your outdoor grill) or of course a new candle in a jar, but even my newer candles had the wick too low to get the glue to burn.

     I consider the first butterfly I did (the one on the right) as a fail. I put too much Aleene's Original Tacky Glue on the paper thinking I would be able to get more texture from it. Instead, due to the extra glue, the glue was able to settle flat. No matter how many times I pinched and pushed it into the shape it would return to flat with no texture what-so-ever. Another problem I had was using too little glue. With too little glue you can not get any texture and just end up scorching the paper. The plus side of having too little glue is that you can always add a little more to that spot and that is exactly what I did.

     I'm currently making a canister and decided to try the burned glue technique on the lid. I'm extremely happy with the result (above). I would recommend to people who love to craft to try this technique because it's an inexpensive way to get some beautiful texture.

Note: To get my butterfly shape I typed in Black and White Butterfly Templates in Google images, picked a shape I liked, copied and pasted the image into Word, made it the size I wanted and then printed it out. I then used the template to cut the shape out on card stock. Of course if you have a paper punch and it's the size you want then you're good to go.

Creating the Look of Metal using Aleene's Original Tacky Glue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGsefNXGmCw