Winter Wonderland Repurposed Storage Jar

We visited our favorite little antique town this weekend and while there, I picked up a clear glass storage jar. Maybe it was seeing all of the vintage Christmas displays in the stores but I immediately had an idea mind for my jar which also provided another chance for me to bleach  more bottlebrush trees. You can check out this post for more on the trees.

For this project you will need:

• Large glass storage jar with removable lid
• Bleached bottlebrush tree
• Epsom Salt
• Jingle Bells (large and small)
• Snowflake pick
• Wood Word or letters

After cleaning up your jar, glue the bleached tree to the bottom.

I put a big glob of hot glue on the bottom of the tree since I wanted it to stand firmly in the jar. Once the tree’s glued in, pour in some of the epsom salt and then drop in a few of the jingle bells, add more salt. When satisfied with the depth, place the snowflake pick and phrase inside the jar. I sprinkled some iridescent glitter on top.

Cover the rim of the jar with a coordinating washi tape, twine, and ribbon, and then tie a few jingle bells to the ends.

It’s sitting on my Winter Wonderland vintage mantle with my other bleached trees.

Sharing At: 

Please Don't Taste The Vanilla Bean Bath Salts

Since I became rather addicted to Epsom Salts this holiday season, I thought I should at least do one thing with them for which they are actually intended. Making homemade bath salts isn’t a new idea but here’s my take on it.

Vanilla Bean Bath Salt

I followed basic guidelines I found online. 3 parts Epsom Salt to 1 part Baking Soda ( I found a big box of baking soda at Target with the cleaning supplies). Then I kinda improvised!

I figured if you can infuse sugars with vanilla beans, why couldn’t you infuse bath salts? So I did.

I mixed my ingredients together, sliced open a vanilla bean, plopped it in there and mixed some more. Then I added just a few drops of vanilla extract for good measure.

Fished out my vanilla beans and dropped them in the bottom of the glass jar I bought for my bath salts. I got the jar at Cost Plus where I also got my “scoops”. More on that later.

Poured in my salts and done. Well with that part. I wanted to pretty up my jar and since it was going in a bathroom, went with vinyl instead of paper to embellish the jar. Cut some shapes from the Damask Décor Cricut cart on my Expression in brown and gold vinyl.

Tied some twine and ribbon yarn around the neck and added a little of this star garland I had in my stash

One of those things you pick up because it’s pretty and don’t know when you’ll use it?

Finished the top off with a gold vinyl cutout and a vintage button. Now for the scoop on the scoop. I was looking for individual spice or coffee scoops (you know how you get an idea in your head about what you want and how dare the store not have it?) and was about to give up and buy a pack of different sizes which I didn’t really want and then found that Cost Plus has a whole section devoted to tasting sized stuff! YAY! Spoons and Forks and Spreaders Oh My. I found these little square tasting spoons that I’m going to use as scoops!

See? I still managed to find a way to use something for other than its intended purpose!

Sharing At: 

Epsom Salt and Glitter Crushed Peppermint Ornament

I love all the things you can do with clear ornaments but my favorite ones are the flat ones. I’m sure there’s a name for them but they’re the round ones that look like you took a ball an flattened it.

I needed something I could make multiples of without breaking the bank so thank you Michaels for having these 50% off. Picked up a few packs of these (4 for $2.50) along with some of these glittered snowflake ornaments  by Darice ( $1.99 for a package of 12).

Glued a snowflake on one side and cut out white vinyl snowflakes using my Cricut Expression (Damask Décor cart) and stuck one on the other side.

Got out some tinsel glitter and Epsom salt, and spooned a little Epsom salt, silver, and red glitter into my ornament. Finished with a bow from red with silver polka dot ribbon.

I think it looks like crushed peppermint.

Sharing At:

Cleaning Out Your Refrigerator for Craft Ideas...More Snow Jars

Since cleaning out my refrigerator the other day kept me from playing in my craft room, there had to be SOME upside right? Pickle jars!!

I had so much fun with my Snowman in a jam jar ( I’ve named him Marcel ) that once I had more jars to play with, I knew what I wanted to do. I didn’t take step by step pics but the process is basically the same. This time I added trees ( I picked up a couple of packs of bottle brush trees at Dollar Tree…$1 for a pack of 2) and used some wood thread spools I had in my stash.

I’m sticking with plain white glue with my Epsom salt. I tried Diamond Glaze just to see what would happen. Not so good! So the process is:

• Coat the bottom of your jar with glue ( remember bottom will become the top) and invert to let a few drips run down wherever).
• Pour in some salt
• Swirl / shake ( cover your opening!) until coated
• Spray some spray adhesive ( I used Elmers )
• Sprinkle coarse glitter, spritz a little more sprinkle fine glitter
• While that’s drying, paint your lids

Once everything was dry, I glued the snowman to the spool and the spool and tree to the lid. For one of these, I wrapped a spool in a scrapbook border:

Spritzed the inside of the lids with some spray adhesive and sprinkled some more Epsom Salt, then lowered the jar onto the lid ( you want to make sure and keep the salt out of the rim of the lid so your jar screws on correctly) . I dribbled a little glue in the rim too.

On these, I went around the neck with plain twine. Start and end with a dab of hot glue.

Finished by adding a glittered snowflake from a pack of ornaments ( $1.49 or $1.99 for a pack of 12 @ Michaels, by Darice) to the top ( formerly the bottom!) of the jar.

Now I’m craving a pickle.

Sharing At: