Tutorial – Pretty Lace Winter Jar Lanterns

These pretty lace and glitter jar lanterns are perfect for winter and look amazing. They make a great gift idea for any occasion including valentines day which is just days away.

Materials…

Choose a jar (I’m using empty Yankee candle jars)

Mod Podge

Ultra Fine Blue Glitter

Baby blue strip of lace (enough to tie a drooping bow around the neck of jar)

Blue pretty Heart Sticker (from 99p store comes within a packet of room stickers and found in their crafts section)

Tools…

A couple of paint brushes
Plastic cup or pot for mixing mod podge and glitter.

These are so easy yet the finished piece is stunning, perfectly suited to the winter season. They look pretty on a dresser or on a fire place and have this pretty vintage feel to them.

First mix some Mod Podge with your ultra fine blue glitter. You do need to add quite a bit of glitter. The mixture will not sparkle, but instead look very matt. Don’t worry at this stage it won’t sparkle… That’s where the magic of Mod Podge comes in.

Now take a clean brush and apply the mixture to the entire inner area of your jar… EVERYWHERE!

Apply using different strokes both in thickness and direction.

Once done leave to dry over night. The mixture takes longer to dry because of the glitter and thickness you applied it.

You will know when its starting to dry as the blue/white mixture starts to disappear. The magic of mod podge has then began to work.

By morning or sooner (dependent on when you created your piece) the mixture should now be clear leaving behind a crystallised, icy effect . The different thicknesses and strokes are still visible only in a glittering frosty looking sense.

Now transfer your blue heart to the centre of your jar, pressing firmly avoiding air bubbles.

Lastly tie your pretty lace around the neck of your jar creating a droopy dangling bow, to give it that vintage feel.

And here it is…

You can use different colour glitter too. I’m currently making a pink one that I’m decorating with ivory lace as opposed to the blue lace. I will also use a different room sticker though this is from the same pack as before.

Easy peasy … Super cute.

Snowy Snaps From The Weekend

Almost all of us in the UK, have woken, at least once, in these past few weeks, to find a blanket of the white stuff right outside our window.

All week my instagram timeline has been filled with a string of images all showcasing beautiful snowy pictures of smiling children sledging, snowmen glistening, historic buildings transformed into snow palaces and much more besides.

So what’s a girl to do? Especially one who loves to indulge herself in a little instagram every now and then? “Daily… Me? No… Never!”.

So, yes… I have uploaded a few of my favourite snow snaps to my instagram and have therefore decided to spread the snowy joy this way by uploading some of my snaps here too!

The dog & The Snow Man

A Snowy Church Court

Beautiful Snow Covered Church

A Chilly Hand Shake

The Building Of Mrs Snow Woman

Under The Spot Light

Snow Meets Light

Giant Snow Balls

Snowy Church Top

The Snow Battle

Making Footprints

Friend Walks Dog

Applying The Finishing Touches

Communication

A Red Head Enjoys The Snow

A Snowy Tumble

So… There they are. Sadly my 12 year old who has a diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome, didn’t come along to the Heath for some Winter fun. I think the prospect of being cold was enough to put him of… That and the fact he has a cold sore meaning his been hiding away from the world since it first made an appearance a few days ago.

Hope all you reading this have all had your own winter fun in the snow! My motto is… “Don’t moan about something you can’t change! Instead make it into some fun!” Yes… Its a pretty awesome motto, I know!

A snowy white #silentsunday

Winter Flowers 12/366

My 12th picture in the 366 project is of the winter flowers that sit in the centre of our dinning table. The thing is, I brought these fresh flowers one week before Christmas 2011 and its now the 21st of January and these super flowers are still living! Maybe this is normal but in my experience, flowers never past the 2 week mark in this house (with 2 weeks being considered a long period of time in my book)! I’ve done nothing special in regards of their care, they have lived so long that I’ve had to refill the vase with water three or four times as these hungry festive flowers have drunk it all up over the past month! The only explanation I have is maybe it was the food that came with them (you know, the little sachet of plant food that you get when you buy them)! Does anybody else ever find there fresh flowers last for such long periods of time? 

Related articles

• Flowers in January (fiberythings.wordpress.com)
• Precious winter flowers (fritillaryblog.wordpress.com)
• Our Garden of Winter Flowers (whitecranes.wordpress.com)

Early Evening 9/366

Just like yesterday I’ve pretty much spent my day in bed with flu 😦 However when collecting my daughter from school we headed of to her doctors for her appointment and I snapped this on my way back home. As you can see it’s just starting to get dark and there is a touch of pink in the sky. I am really wanting longer days, this was taken at 4.45 pm.