2020 Topic #20 It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas with JOFY (by Miriam Grazier)

  2020 Topic 20: Mason Jars

Miriam's wintery scene won't leave you cold, but is sure to warm your heart with the cutest of snowmen gathered around her decorated Mason Jar. She's right that they'd make wonderful gifts if they're as lovely as hers.

~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Miriam with you today, and I'd like to share with you a mason jar that I have altered to create a Christmas decoration for the upcoming festivities. 

Every year I love to create a new decoration to add to my Christmas displays at home.  It feels more personal to me.  I also love decorations that light up.  So this was a win-win for me.

With a second lock down announced for the UK I wanted something positive to look forward to.  Now that it is officially November I have turned my attention to Christmas in the hope that we will be able to safely meet with our families and celebrate what is my favourite occasion.

I loved altering the mason jar.  Straight away I knew that I wanted to use some of the amazing Christmas stamps that JOFY has designed.  They are always so fun to use.  The hardest decision was deciding which ones to use.

I stamped the snowflakes directly onto the mason jar using Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint - the paint is so wonderful and is great to use on so many different materials, glass included.  In order to stamp onto the slippery surface I inked the stamp up with the paint and held it in my hand and pressed the jar into it.  This seemed to work really well for me.

If you didn't want to stamp onto the jar you could use some snowflake acetate and slip it inside the jar.

I stamped the images onto Smoothy card stock and then coloured them using Polychromo pencils.

The bottom of the jar was filled with cotton wool and some small glittered polystyrene balls.  I've had these in my stash forever and they were perfect for this.

It was at this stage I decided to add some lights to the jar.  I adhered the light switch to one of the snowmen using a glue dot.

I wanted to decorate the top of the jar and not leave it blank.  I added a small wood slice which I splattered with texture paste.  I then adorned it with small polystyrene balls and snowflakes from JM07.  I was so pleased with how this looked.  It really finished the ornament off.

I was excited for it to start getting dark outside so that I could turn the lights on in my mason jar.  I think I actually squealed as I was so happy with the end result.

The characters of the snowmen really made the difference to this project - they are so playful.

There are so many possibilities with mason jars and the festive season is the perfect excuse to create something unique.

I really hope that I have inspired you to create your own piece of festive decor.  It really did lift my spirits and give me something positive to look forward to.  I am planning on creating more to send to loved ones to remind them that they are in my thoughts.

Thank you for joining me this evening. 

Happy crafting!

Miriam

Blog: Miriam's Creative Dreams