Fall Decor - Mason Jar Foliage Candles

I've never really decorated for fall before. Yes, I usually do the whole Halloween thing (and quite well thankyouverymuch), but never just for fall.

I saw some mason jar leaf candles here and I knew not only that I could do it, but that I had everything I needed already. Free craft! I gathered all of my materials to see what I had to work with. Artificial leaves. Check. Flameless tealights. Check. An abundance of jars. Checkity-check.

First I tried applying the leaves to the inside of the glass with mod podge, thinking it would dry clear. Not so much.

Fail. Big Fail.

But luckily they came off easily and the glue washed right out. For the second try I used my glue gun. I’m not going to tell you how many glue burns I suffered by shoving a hot-glue-covered leaf into a narrow-mouthed jar. Let’s just say it was more than one.

This time the result looked more like a candle and less like “your spaghetti sauce is growing mold, you might want to throw that out”.

I dug out my beloved twine and some old potpourri (from a long ago Thanksgiving centerpiece) and fancied up the rims. It was a little annoying getting the tealights in and out, but easier (and safer) than using real candles.

Ready to go. But then I thought, what about smaller candles? There is a candle that I absolutely adore – cinnamon pecan swirl by Candle-Lite. 

Oh my gosh, it smells so good. There is only one store in my town that carries them so I stock up when I can. I have a shelf in the linen closet full of them. But in my defense the closet smells really good. Like crawl-inside-and-take-a-nap good.

I always keep the jars after the candle is done. You never know when they might come in handy. (Like right now!) And they were the perfect height for this project.

Just a few leaves, some twine and "fluff", and I had a lamp that was far easier to get the candle into and out of. I'm kind of crushing on the proportions of the little guy.

I could stare at them all night.

What do you think? Suitably fall-ish? Something you’d want to try yourself? How would you tweak it?

I'm linking to these great link parties!

Tiny pictures

I bought some small frames at Goodwill for 25 cents each. 

These little sweethearts with dried peppers and seeds in them.

Cute, right?

I bought them primarily because the frames

are the same colour as our kitchen cabinets,

though I'm not sure it comes across in these pictures

- they're a dark green - 

and I figured I could find a way to display them. 

Maybe sand them down or stain them. 

Or just leave them the way they are. 

Several months have gone by. 

Tick tock, tick tock.

And I’m not as enamoured of them anymore.

Too cutesy or something.

Today I came up with the idea to try something else.

I decided I would find some pictures to put behind the glass

and use them like regular frames.  

I went through the thousands of pictures of the dogs

 and selected four of my favourites. 

Seriously difficult.

 

How to pick just four? 

My girls are so beautiful that every picture is a winner. J

I finally decided on four, but I printed them out a little too large. 

I couldn’t figure out how to get them any smaller

without some major editing so I just went with it.

 

I dabbed a bit of hot glue on each corner

and glued them right on to the frames. 

I really like how they turned out. 

I like it even better than if they were behind the glass. 

It looks like they're glued onto solid blocks of wood. 

And the twine used to hang them gives it a rustic-y feel. 

I’ll show you later in the week where I chose to hang them. 

I actually finished a couple of other projects

and I’m liking how the craft room is shaping up.


I'm linking to these awesome link parties!

Thrift Store Finds

My local Goodwill has "50% off" day every Friday. 

That's the only day I'll go there now.

Yes it's true, I'm so cheap that I won't even pay full price at Goodwill.

The last time I was there I was looking for some old books to use in a project.

It didn't matter what the book was about as long as it looked old.

And slightly intellectual wouldn't hurt. :-)

I came across these two beauties.

My aunt owns a used bookstore and I have a feeling

she’s scandalized at the thought of me cutting up old books.

Doesn't the top one look homemade?

I googled the title and it is a book that was first published in 1933.

 I'm not sure how this one ended up with this cover. 

The book is full of handwritten notes and newspaper clippings

 from Canadian papers dated 1934 and 1935. 

It leads me to believe that this is one of the original printings.

The second is a more common book. 

I was focusing on the aging though. 

I was planning on tea-staining pages for my project, but just look at these

Aren't they gorgeous?

The first is definitely not going to be changed.

I don't believe it's valuable but it's so interesting that I just have to keep it.

Buuuut, I’ve now decided to try something different

with the aforementioned project, so I’ll just have to come up with

something else for this guy.