decoupage – A Smith of All Trades

Mason Jar Candle Holders

September 25, 2012October 4, 2012 Jessica Smith

My friend Amanda made the hubby and me homemade jam for our housewarming party last month. We’ve devoured two of the three jams, so two mini mason jars have been floating around our kitchen for a while. Brian thinks the same jar keeps ending up in our dishwasher (which is hopefully getting fixed today after being broken for a week and a half *groans*), but then he realized we have two of them. So then he wanted to throw both away *gasp*. Crazy husband, we can craft those!

So, that’s what I set out to do. I still have a ton of pages left from the dictionary I tore apart, so I decided to Mod Podge paper onto each jar and make them into candle holders. I combined several ideas I’d seen on Pinterest (cutting our a heart in the paper, covering vases with twine, Mod Podging ribbon) to make a cute set of tea light holders.

First, I cut out a strip of paper to wrap around my jars. Once it was cut to size, I folded it in half and cut a big heart out of the center.

Then, I slathered some Mod Podge on the jar and carefully placed the strip of paper on top of it. It was a little tricky to get it to lay flat, but after smoothing it out and moving it around a bit, it worked out.

I covered the whole jar again with Mod Podge, even the cutout portion of the heart. I chose to do this so the glass would have an etched effect. Plus, I bought battery operated tea lights from the dollar story so I didn’t want them to be so obviously fake.

I let this dry for a while, but not completely, before moving on to my next step. For the next part of my project, I cut out teal ribbon to strip the candle holder. To secure it to the jar, I simply painted a thicker layer of Mod Podge onto the spot I wanted the ribbon to stick. I smoothed the ribbon stripes out and let that dry, too.

To finish this project (and cover a few imperfections) I wrapped the bottom of the jars in twine and tied an accent piece of twine around the top of the jar. To secure the twine to the jar, I powered up my hot glue gun and placed little dabs of glue here and there. I wrapped the top with one single strand of twine, and the bottom with several layers of twine.

To top it off, I made a twine bow for each jar.

With one last dab of hot glue for the bow, my candle holders were left to dry overnight. The next day I placed a tea light in each one to see how they looked.

I think they turned out pretty darn cute. I’m not sure what the hubby will think when he finally notices them (he’s not a big fan of twine), but I think this was a fun way to reuse Amanda’s jam jars!

Did I mention Remmy stole a candle during my photo shoot? Darn dog…

Happy Tuesday!

Craft Projects

Mod Podge Jewelry Box

September 23, 2012March 8, 2013 Jessica Smith

I picked up this mini chest of drawers months ago when I went to the local art store closing. Originally $9, I paid $2.25 because the whole store was 75 percent off.

It’s been sitting in my craft room for months. MONTHS. And I’ve been so good at getting rid of things and tidying up my space down there — I’m so close — that each time I looked at it I wondered why I bought it in the first place and if I should just donate it to Good Will.

Well, I’m glad I kept it around because I was finally inspired to tackle this project and I love how it turned out.

1. Buy a little wooden chest of drawers at any craft store.

2. Remove the drawers and paint the outer structure of your box. I painted mine with chalk board paint.

3. Remove the little wooden knobs to prep the surface for Mod Podge.

4. Mod Podge paper or fabric onto each drawer face. I used sheets from a dictionary, making sure to choose pages with illustrations on each one. Place a layer of Mod Podge (I used glossy) on each drawer, then the dictionary page (already cut to size), and then one last layer of Mod Podge. Smooth out the bubbles (I used my fingers) and let dry. Then do one last coat of Mod Podge to give each drawer face a nice seal.

5. If you’d like to, paint the rest of your box. This probably should have gone with step 2, but whatever. For my box, I lightly brushed on my black paint so you could still see the wood grain through it. I also painted the edges of each drawer face so the black carried through and it looked a bit distressed. Paint your knobs as well, then re-attach with wood glue and a small hammer. They should fit right back into place.

6. Let everything dry overnight, then put your chest of drawers back together!

Craft Projects

Revamped silver trays

June 28, 2012June 27, 2012 Jessica Smith

As another fun project from Craft Day this past weekend, Amy, Carrie and I spiffed up some old, silver trays we found at the thrift store.

This project was quick and easy, and the finished product was super cute. First, we cleaned up our trays with silver polish.

Once they were all shiny and new, we cut out paper for the insides of the tray. Once the paper was cut out, we put thin layers of Mod Podge on our trays where we wanted the paper to stick.

Then, we placed the paper on top, smoothing out all of the bubbles. with the bubbles all M.I.A., we coated the paper with another layer of Mod Podge.

I did two coats on mine, trying to wipe the excess off the edges so it wouldn’t leave Mod Podgey residue on my trays.

Tip: Be really careful when smoothing our your Mod Podge. Carrie had a casualty on her tray, removing part of her map. Australia is now “Autralia” and what we yell when craft projects go awry.

Once the trays were dry, we added chalkboard contact paper embellishments to a few of our trays. Who knew chalkboard contact paper even existed (Answer: Carrie)?

How cute is Amy’s tray!? I love it and have total tray envy. She’s planning on hanging it up and using it as a Vacation Countdown for her and her hubby’s upcoming trips!