Elegant and Easy: Dollar Tree Candle Hostess Gift and Table Favors

Tall jar ( prayer) candles are a staple in my craft stash. I love altering them and they make easy and affordable gifts. I pick mine up at Dollar Tree and in all my trips there, I’ve looked at but not picked up the lidded jar candles in the same section. Until now.

While I was at DT, I also found this gorgeous tissue paper…natural colored with metallic dots! It comes in silver, gold and red dots. I bought the silver and gold. Why didn’t I buy the red???

For this project you need:

• Small jar candles ( as mentioned Dollar Tree)
• Tissue Paper
• Decoupage Medium ( I used Martha Stewart Matte)
• Ribbon and beads to embellish

Remove labels from candle. I was so happy that these came right off. Cut tissue paper into strips ( 1.5 x 8 ). Coat glass with decoupage medium and apply tissue. Go over top of tissue with more decoupage medium. Let dry. Embellish with ribbon and beads. Done!

I always like to have a table favor on my holiday tables. A little something guests can take home with them to remember the occasion. I made these for each of my Christmas dinner guests and have them at each place setting.

Easy, affordable, and I hope elegant. Tis also the season for parties and hostess gifts. I made the tall candle for a friend hosting a treat exchange.

Instead of paper, I wrapped the candle in a scrap of drop cloth. I bought this huge drop cloth at Home Depot a few years ago to use as a tablecloth and ended up cutting it up and using it for all kinds of things. And anyone wonders why the Home Depot people look at me funny?

I used the Glitter Finish Martha Stewart decoupage medium for this one. The focal is this little Kaiser Craft laser cut wood holly piece I picked up in the scrapbooking section somewhere. I added self adhesive rhinestones and glued on some additional jewels and wrapped the center of the candle with ribbon yarn.

To finish, I tied on a big glittered bell and two small bells using plain twine.

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Necessity Is The Mother of Color Combinations: Altered Cookie Tin

This will be the second year that College Boy won’t be home for Thanksgiving. It’s all good. He would have to travel late on Wednesday and Sunday, the busiest and most expensive travel days of the year and he is fortunate to have multiple invitations to Thanksgiving dinners.

Still, I wanted to send him some goodies from home which presented a reason , excuse, opportunity to alter something. Oh darn!

My  problem was, the only tin I had was not exactly a Thanksgiving color (bright blue) and I didn’t feel like painting the rim. Then it dawned on me that College Boy’s school colors are orange and blue so I thought orange = pumpkin = I have scrapbook paper in a color that will work!

For this project you will need:

• Empty tin ( forgot to take pictures…this one was from those long rolled filled wafer cookies)
• Scrapbook paper ( I used a harlequin and polka dot pattern in matching colors. Paper from Oriental Trading Company)
• Decoupage Medium ( I used Martha Stewart Matte finish)
• Coordinating Ribbon, button, beads

Measured the harlequin paper to fit the tin and applied with the decoupage medium. Using the lid as a guide, traced a circle on the same paper, cut out and applied to the lid, leaving the rim bare. When I alter tins with lids I like to leave the top of the tin itself and the rim of the lid bare so there isn’t any issue with fit.

I decided to keep the rest simple ( OK simple for me) and happened to have some coordinating glitter ribbon in my stash which I applied to the top and bottom of the tin.
Using the coordinating polka dot paper, I made a medallion for the center of the tin ( 3x12 with 1/2 inch pleats). Hot glued this to the tin and finished with a coordinating button tied with plain twine and leaf shaped beads.
Inside the tin are chocolate butter cookies that he loves. I only make these once a year during December, but this year I made an exception !

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Halloween Crafting With Martha Stewart Decoupage: Glitter Finish Stars and Pumpkin

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by Plaid, Martha Stewart Crafts, and The Blueprint Social. Project ideas and opinions are my own.

I have three words for you: Martha Stewart Decoupage.  It is no secret that I love to decoupage things. The dog runs away when she sees me with decoupage medium in my hand. Martha and Plaid have taken decoupage to a whole ‘nother level with a new line of decoupage formulas that can be used on surfaces such as glass, fabric, paper, metal and wood to create a lustrous finish and are dishwasher safe, machine washable, non-yellowing, dry hard with no tack, and can be used indoors or out.

I was so excited when the wonderful folks from Plaid sent me some of these new goodies to play with, but I was beside myself with the kind of  joy that usually only chocolate brings when I saw that included in my box was GLITTER FINISH DECOUPAGE. 

While the glitter finish caught my eye immediately there are some other mind blowing finishes including glow in the dark, matte and gloss. But back to the GLITTER! I had some wood stars in my stash I’d been wanting to play with and an idea was born.

I chose Black Nickel Metallic paint from the paints that came in my box and painted the stars. I went over some sections of the stars with Onyx glitter paint and left others with just the Black Nickel metallic.

Using some of the decoupage papers that were also included, I cut out pieces to cover some sections of the stars. The papers are a great weight and texture to absorb the decoupage mediums. Since the glitter finish has the glitter mixed in, you just coat your surface, the back of your paper , adhere, and then coat the top of your paper. It works just like other decoupage mediums. Except of course for the fabulous part where it dries all glittery and you’re not covered in glitter! Also with the glitter being part of the medium you get a consistent all over glitter finish without bare spots.

You can do one coat or more depending on what effect you want. I was happy with just one coat. I punched circles from scraps of the paper and using the glitter decoupage glued them into flattened bottlecaps and went over the top with more decoupage medium.

I was having too much fun to stop. Since the products say they are multi-surface, I decided to see what I could do with a foam pumpkin from the dollar store. Guess what? The paints cover EVERYTHING.

No prep, no primer. Just painted the pumpkin with the Black Nickel, let dry and added one more coat. Then I cut some leaf shaped pieces from more of the decoupage paper and added to the pumpkin using the glitter finish decoupage medium.

You can see that even before the decoupage is dry, the glitter starts to appear!  I didn’t use glitter paint on the pumpkin but just slathered the whole thing with the glitter decoupage.

Dries to a clear glittery finish.

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I am so in love with this. I can’t wait to play with it some more and put it on everything! The full line is available at Michaels.  In the meantime, be sure to check out these links for more inspiration:

• Plaid’s Facebook Page
• Follow Plaid for Inspiration on Pinterest