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

2020 Topic #20 Winterland with ESC (by Noguchi Etsuko)

2020 Topic 20: Mason Jars  

Etsuko's creation really does look like a miniature world. Creating a diorama is an absorbing activity and she has really made something special. You can just imagine the forest in real life with the pine smells and the deer running wild. Using Infusions really brings the image to life.

~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Etsuko My favorite things with you today, and I'd like to share with you my Wonderland in Jar featuring with Raquel's (Scrapcosy) beautiful Christmas stamps.

I love to create diorama worlds in jars, boxes and tin cans. Sometimes they create a mysterious world. Soon it will be a great holiday season at the end of the year, so I made a winter wonderland in a jar.

First of all, I prepared a five inches regular similar Mason Jar and applied glass beads gel to the whole, leaving an oval window on the front. It takes a whole day and night to dry, then I dry-brushed it with white gesso.

I used Raquel stamp set ESC07, fluttered with infusions The Sage, Olive Tree, Golden Sand and Sunset Beach on each Smoothy (Heavyweight) A4 white card then sprinkled with water. After papers dry I stamped with fir trees, hollies and reindeer.

Cut each material and attach it to make it look 3D using double-sided foam tape. I also added model flowers to it.

I stamped pine cones image on shrink plastic with Stazon Pigment Snowflake, and after they shrink I painted Fresco Pistachio from the back. I added beads to the pine cones and connected them with hemp twine to make a jar necklace.

Put the fir trees and reindeer elements in the jar. The cut holly was shaped and attached to the hem of the oval window with red embellishments, and the pine cones necklace was tied around the jar of the top. I painted Smoothy (Heavyweight) A4 white card with Fresco Evergreen, embossed with off white powder using ' Best Wishes for the Year Ahead' stamp, cut around words and make the banner, and attached to the lid painted with Evergreen.

Take a closer look inside through the window.

I put on the candle and approached it.

Other than the fact that it took all day and night to dry, it wasn't too difficult and finished smoothly. Why don't you make one of those jars to put lights in and place in the yard?

Thank you so much for visiting. Have a wonderful winter day.

Etsuko xxx

Blog: My favorite things
Facebook: Etsuko Noguchi
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2020 Topic #20 Drink Tea with ESC (by Ellie Knol)

  2020 Topic 20: Mason Jars

Can you imagine a vintagey kitchen complete with the gentle warm glow of a candle-lit mason jar just like this one? Ellie's stamped jar captures the vintage essence wonderfully and she has some useful pointers for what to avoid and what works well with adding texture and stamping.
~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Ellie Knol from PAPER-STAMPS-COLOR  with you today, and I'd like to share with you the fun I had decorating this jar into a treasure, a keepsake.. or should I call it a candle holder for the kitchen, or maybe a air-tight container for teabags? 

I assumed that stamping directly onto the glass would be tricky, as I wanted to stamp right around the jar, with no space between the images. I chose to stamp onto rice paper! 

I had a hard time deciding whether I should color the images or not: so I completed the project without color, photographed it, and then added color. At this point I decided to show both versions.. 

I feel that both versions really enhance the beauty of the tea-themed stamp sets from Scrapcosy ESC13 and ESC15.

The lid has been decorated too... 
 

This teapot is the most prominent element in the stamp sets, a beautiful vintage one. Here  you can see the no-color version, 

..and compare it to the colored one.

Lace: yes, that's one element that should be considered in a project with these stamp sets. The black on the bottom of the jar is black gesso mixed with a tiny bit of Slate Fresco Finish paint. 

.. and a few brads and some hearts give the project some nice finishing touches.

I added some insects, the buttons were fussy cut from one of the collage stamped images. 

How did I do the stamping? I stamped with Versafine Onyx black and heat embossed in clear embossing powder. I tore the parts of the images I wanted to use. To make the image fit around the jar I tore off about an inch of the paper of the smaller teacup on two sides. I also tore off part of the script in the background.

What if we were to light a tea-light in the jar? This way it will be an eye-catcher in any kitchen.

Why isn't the rice paper see-through in parts? I painted the backside of the images with Cloud 9 Fresco Finish paint! The entire lid has been painted with it as well, after I glued rice paper onto it. Even the lace has been painted with this paint.

Is there any part of the project I particularly like? I think it is this part, but really, I couldn't choose. 

I hope I gave you some inspiration to decorate a jar or bottle, maybe as a gift?! A confession from me: there were a few stages of trial and error in decorating this mason jar. I used Mod Podge to decoupage the images to the glass and that was quite easy. I then had this luminous (not!) idea to give the glass a frosty look all over with the Mod Podge using a brush. It was a disaster, it went all streaky and when not applied very quickly, the brush would remove a previous layer or part of it.

I had to clean the glass, bit by bit to not disturb the images. In the process one of the buttons got lost. I might try this again some time but then apply it with a sponge paint roller.

As always, I learned a lot and enjoyed the creative process.

Get creative and .. have a good day; take care!!

Ellie Knol

Blogs: http://elliecreahoekje.blogspot.nl/
and     http://ellieatcs.blogspot.nl/ 
Owner of : https://www.facebook.com/groups/DutchArtJournal/  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008479362838 
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2020 Topic #20 Floral Madness with TS (by Claire Snowdon)

2020 Topic 20: Mason Jars

Claire's blooms bursting forth from an almost gilded mason jar made her smile and makes me grin too. Flowers have a undisputed ability to cheer the soul and this bevy of beauties atop a journal page is the perfect tonic to dismal days.

~ Keren.

Hi everyone, it's Claire Snowdon with you today, and I'd like to share with you a floral madness journal page I created for the Mason Jar topic.

I've really been enjoying creating very colourful and contrasting journal pages recently - they are the perfect way to take some time out from all the news going on in the world at the moment.

For the topic of mason jars I decided to create my very own mason jar out of cardstock to use as a vase for Tracy's stunning new flowery stamp set.

I started by creating the background in my large Dylusions journal.  I used a mix of Fresco Finish paints and kept blending and adding more until I was happy with the effect.  I used Aqua Duck Egg, Blew, Azure, Crispy Blue, Cloud 9, Blueberry and a tiny touch of Irish Coffee.  I used stencils PS200 and PS210 to add to the background along with some subtle script stamping from ELB30 in Cloud 9.

To create the vase I hand drew a mason jar on some PaperArtsy Smoothy card and painted it in Buff and Gold....I added a tiny touch of Toffee and the bottom to create a shadow and the illusion of the curve of the jar.  Plus some bakers twine around the neck of the jar - I love how this adds a different texture to the page.

The flowers were stamped onto a piece of smoothy card that had been randomly painted with: Tangerine Twist, Smoked Paprika, Cerise, Red Lipstick and Electric Violet and then splattered with Cloud 9 and Azure.

All of the flowers, leaves and berries are from stamp plate TS047.

I glued everything down onto my background and added 3D foam pads to some of the upper flowers and the mason jar too.  As a finishing touch I coloured the flower's stamens in white and gold using gel pens and then added a touch of a shadow under the mason jar using a grey Pitt pen.

This page really cheered me up and I love how bright the flowers are against the blue background.  I hope you can find some time to create your own mason jar project or a colourful creation to cheer up these uncertain times.

Thanks and stay safe,

Claire xx

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