Decorated Christmas Jam Jars 32/50 - 50 makes for Christmas

Three things that are going to get may attention is

1) Something for free
2) Something that can be recycled
3) Something that doesn't take too long to make

This little make ticks all three of these boxes

Free - I am using empty glass jars

Recycled - I am still using empty glass jars

Time - cut something and stick it on or tie something on

They are good for tea light holders and they look good filled with fairy lights,you can stuff them full of goodies and give the to a friend as a gift ( hoping they will share), you can even fill them up with baubles

And at the end of the festivities remove the decorations, give them a wash and either put them in your recycling or use them for something else.

Quick, simple and about as cheap as it gets.


Make 32 done and dusted, leaving 18 more makes to complete my 50 makes for Christmas challenge.


Isn't it funny how any empty jar is a jam jar even if it has previously contained anything from chutney to cheese!

Free make for April

I felt like it was time for a change from the mini bunting tea light holders I put together when I had my crafternoon at the beginning of March.  I wanted something more spring like and hit on using a left over paper napkin I had put on my Easter mood board.

up-cycled jam jars

I haven't tried sticking paper napkins to glass with a glue stick before but it seems to have worked!  The smallest of the three took the longest to do as I thought it would look sweet if I cut out some of  the flowers.

pink roses

For the largest -an old mayo  jar, I roughly traced bird shapes from the Sania Pell book ""The homemade home", I thoroughly recommend  this as an excellent source of inspiration and great detail on how the projects can be achieved.

Spring birds

I found this a little more challenging than the roses as the layers of paper separated so I decided to go with that and flipped them over to make a "facing" image.  Each of the bird shapes are a little different as I didn't want them to be too uniform.

And the last one was the most simple, I just cut a length of the napkin and wrapped it around the final jar and tied it off with a bit of paper ribbon I had salvaged from Christmas day.  I put a couple of loops of this around the necks of the other two jars to finish them off.

Wrapped jar for Spring

I have arranged them on the mantle ready to use this evening although I must remember to add batteries to my shopping list as some of the twinkle lights are not very bright.

Spring mantle

When I set up the twinkle lights I try and maximise their output by using the glass jars and the mirror, I have used one set of lights between two jars draping it over the top of the battery operated candles.  It may look  little odd in the day light but it works really well in the evening with the big light turned off.

On the whole I am very pleased with the result, I did have to remove any excess glue from around the shapes but it rubbed away very easily and left a nice clean finish.  I made the mistake of trying to do this straight away but it tore the paper so my advice would be to wait until it has dried.

Total cost was zero, the napkin had sat in the corner of the dining room since Easter and was in danger of ending up in the recycling, the paper ribbon was salvaged so just the cost of the glue which was probably less than a penny.




A quick update on the Navy skirt, I have changed patterns, when I went to cut it out I realised that because of the pockets it would be too confusing for me to work out how to taper between the waist and the hip as well as adding the pocket so I have gone for a much simpler design.  As usual with my sewing I am spend a fare amount of time thinking about it and faffing around instead of getting on with it, somethings never change.  I am hoping to get it done this week,  so long as I don't get distracted!


Have you had any free makes lately? or are your energies being directed towards your sewing ?

Easter is on the way

While I plan for Christmas all year round Easter is one of those holidays that always seems to creep up on me and catch me unawares.  I have been percolating a few ideas but not all of them came to fruition as my time seems to be just evaporating at the moment.

 You might recognise the tea cup from this winter whites post, I taped a couple of pipe cleaners on the back for ears, the eyes are  two 0's and the nose is two no1's from some glass tape I brought from Cox and Cox a few years ago.

A repurposed jam jar decorated with washi tape filled with daffs, I will be sorry when the season is over, they are one of my favorite flowers.

I put together a few bits and bobs to create a kind of Easter mood board, I will twiddle with this a bit more as I am not completely satisfied yet.

The crocus bulbs are just hanging in there for a final splash of colour and I swear the daffodils were open in front of the camera as I was taking the pictures.

I used a flyer from Lidl as well as cards, napkins and buttons in spring shades all held down with industrial quantities of washi tape,

I hope you enjoy your Easter break and remember that Easter Egg chocolate has no calories :)

What plans do you have for Easter? will you be making anything?

Friday crafternoon

After my lovely relaxing weekend in Norfolk I seem to have lost my mojo a bit and have been feeling a little bit blergh, disinterested, not with it.. So I thought I would treat myself a little Friday crafternoon and came up with another jam jar tealight holder design that used up a couple more pages from "the book"

recycled jam jars and old book pages

I didn't have a clear idea in my head of what I wanted to do so I just grabbed a couple of jars from my hoard and pulled out the washi tapes and my big tin of stamps, punches etc and started playing around with the stamps on the book pages.

Crafternoon supplies

The tapes never made it out of the storage jars, I was quite happy to convert the stampings into mini bunting

mini bunting

I played around with over printing, using bigger stamps but tearing the design into smaller flags and with the depth of print.

mini bunting T light holders

I had a few issues tying off the string tight enough and had resorted to a dab of sticky tape to hold a couple of the flags in place but this now gives the undulating line making it look more like bunting when it is hung out.

twinkle lights in jam jars

They ended up filled with the twinkle lights from Christmas rather than T lights as they reflect more light back into the room when stood in front of the mirror,


Another no spend make and my mojo is a little less faded.


What are everyone's weekend plans? It is Mothers day on Sunday here in the UK so I expect there will be plenty of pampering and treats around.  My daughter is away this weekend so I have already been treated to a lovely bunch of bright pink Lillies and and some delicious Green and Blacks chocolate.

finding something under the stairs!

In the spirit of trying to complete some of the WIP projects I have around the house I blew the dust off a tin of blackboard paint that has been lurking under the stairs for a couple of years.  My original plan was to use it on a canvas I brought from the poundshop to create a "destination" board, it was for a Christmas gift but as usual I had too many projects and not enough time.

I was inspired to dig it out after I saw a big glass jar/vase with a big swoop of blackboard paint across it saying welcome.  I did a quick experiment on a couple of small jars to see if I needed to make any kind of preparation to the glass surface but they seemed fine.  Two coats were  needed though as one was a little too transparent.  The biggest jar we had is the one I piled the decorative tapes into last week so out they came while I got busy with the paint brush, I felt that the proportions were a little bit too wide so I have edged it with some nice washi tape I picked in Wilko

The canvas has finally got it long awaited coat of paint and I am keeping an eye out on my Charity shop hunts far a suitable frame.

Before you write on a blackboard surface it needs to be "seasoned" otherwise what ever you wrtie or draw on there stays in the background and "ghosts" through.  To season it you need to take a stick of chalk and using the side rather than the point rub across the surface until it is completely covered, you then rub down still using the side of the chalk, finally you  rub off all the chalk and you are ready to use it.  The reason for doing this is that the blackboard surface is very porous and this "fills" the surface.

I will not be seasoning the canvas as it has a textured surface, I have ordered a white chalk pen from Amazon  but it won't be delivered until sometime between the end of February and the middle of March so I have plenty of time to decide what I am going to put on there.

I am very pleased with how easy this was to do and I have plenty of paint left so I am looking round for other things to paint, anyone got any suggestions?

Free make 3 -St Valentine's tealight holders

Love is in the air, not to mention the supermarkets and high street shops! the 2016 St Valentines shopping season has been declared open. This year I have lots of love but not much cash at the moment so the tea light holding jam jars are in for a make over.

I have created a mosaic affect using this selection of  this"decorative tape" I got from e-bay.
This was definitely a case of buyer beware also known as don't get clicky on e-bay!  I thought I was buying washi tape but what I got was a decorative plastic tape.  I was quite overwhelmed by the sheer volume of reels as much as anything and strangely there doesn't seem to be very much tape on any of them. I think I will be good for St Valentine's related tapes for a good few years to come!

I am guessing that most people do not have this kind of tape lying around at home but you probably do have a glue stick or sticky tape and an old magazine or flyer and this would work just as well and of couse this would make it free.  I just snipped a piece of tape off, then cut it down into smaller pieces and stuck them on haphazardly to form a rough heart shape. This may be easier to do with paper as you can try things against each other to see how they look before sticking it down.  I tried to put something in the middle like a heart of some words to act as a focal point and I overlapped some edges but also left a few small gaps.

I will be putting either tealights or twinkle lights in mine, but they would work very well filled with sweets or chocolates.

I am planning to use the same technique to make my Valentine's card and I will pop up a piccy once I have made it.


Do you celebrate St Valentines? or do you think it is just a commercial fuss over nothing? please share your thoughts in the comments

A final Christmas post ... the one that got away

Its always a bit bare when the Christmas decs get taken away and as today is twelfth night, traditionally the day when the end of the wonderful chaos of Christmas ends and we all return to some form of normality.

I have one final Christmas post to share with you, this was my table decoration for Christmas day.

I have used a few empty jars in different heights and widths, tied on some gingham ribbons and wound round some coloured string along with a couple of the clay ornaments that I made.  I felt that as these were simple shapes I could get away with carrying them into January without it looking too Christmasy.  This would work just as well with neutral string, wool or embroidery thread.  You could replicate the clay shapes in card or paper. but they look just as nice without.

The jars are filled with mini peppermint candy canes, cookies and cream Hershey kisses and non-edible pine cones.  I was inspired by Pinterest to try bleaching some of the pine cones we collected on our trip to Norfolk, this was done by leaving them to soak in a solution of 2 parts bleach to 1 part water in a lidded jar.  I left them for about a week giving them a shake every time I thought about it and changed the solution about half way though. I used some of the smaller cones as there were more practical to get into the jar, I selected a few that were open and some that were only partially open this meant that there was variation in how the cones whitened, the more open ones losing most of their natural colouring.

We did have a minor issue with the wall lights on Christmas day so the contents of the jars were rapidly deposited onto the table and were replaced with candles and mini twinkle lights which was very romantic but not really light enough, at one point I thought I might have to string the twinkle lights around my neck in order to see!  Luckily I am married to a very practical man who found something from the back of the garage to effect a temporary fix.

I am going to continue to use the jam jars with the lights in during January helping to fill some of the space left behind now the Christmas decorations have gone.  I will post an update once I can get some light for a half decent photo.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous 2016, I hope you will drop by during the year to keep up to date with me and what is happening in my little world xx