I saw this idea using mini mason jars as a Christmas tree ornaments during an end to end crafting video watching session on You Tube with Marc way back in October last year but it’s taken me this long to have the time and patience to try it out.
The YouTube video put a deer and fir tree inside a mini mason jar, but since I have a whole box of wooden houses (from a children’s wooden town playset) I thought I would try getting one inside a 39p Home Bargains jar (usually found in the wedding section). It was a tight fit through the opening and once in I needed to use a long plier type tool to get it out again, but yes it worked!
Once the fit had been established I made the ground/base using a little air drying paper clay, which when I make these jars again ……….
……… I would sprinkle with a fine translucent glitter and allow to dry before gluing it into what would now be the bottom of the jar.
I then went round the windows and doors of the house with a white acrylic pen, but again when I make more of these ornaments I think I will draw the windows and doors on tiny scraps of paper to add just a little more detail and perhaps dimension.
I added a couple of layers of Aleene’s glitter snow to the roof, but think I may have been better off giving the roof a quick whizz with some white paint beforehand to stop the red from bleeding or showing through. The final touch was a sprinkling of ultra fine translucent glitter on the now snowy roof.
Using huge globs of glue to stick in position I could then secure the house in the jar, quickly followed by the tiny tree, cutting and leaving just enough of the tree’s metal “trunk” to stick into the snow, with again, an awful lot of thick PVA glue to keep it in position.
The snowmen, as you can imagine, were tiny, made using Fimo (and baked) with black wire arms (added before baking). The eyes, noses and buttons were added once “cooked” using a fine, black permanent pen. The scarves are made using scraps of red, cotton knitting thread.
The snowman was then stuck in the bottle with copious amounts of glue, which fortunately dries clear. I thought it then best to leave the jar open to allow the glue to dry properly for a day or two.
I experimented using a white acrylic paint pen to add snow to the front of the jar, I think it works (???).
Then decided to go the whole hog and decorate the lid as well!
A red gingham ribbon creates the hanger, threaded through the handle, but I am not too sure about that either, should it just be a simple silver thread or does handle need a charm or two to bring it altogether? Time to play again I guess.
However, on the whole I am really chuffed with these little tranklements, which look pretty good from all angles, so perfect to be hung. They also weren’t half a fiddle-farty as I had anticipated, well, except for the snowmen but there again I have fiddled with far worse!
I think I will definitely make a few more of these in the next week or so, with minor adjustments, to give as fairing gifts for Christmas 2022, just so long as Home Bargains still carry them as stock, fingers crossed!
