A July 4th Project

When a holiday comes around, I like to make some sort of themed project. The problem is that I don't usually think about it until a day or two before the holiday. Which means the project needs to be quick. I have tons of bigger projects filed away for all the major holidays. Some year I'm going to be prepared and remember weeks before the holiday. Some year.On Sunday morning, I started thinking about the 4th being this Wednesday. And I remembered that I'd always wanted to make these little candle holders that I saw years ago at a tole painting convention. I've always wanted to place them along my patio walk when we have our annual cookout. Every year, when I would remember that I wanted to make them, it was always too late. This year though, I had a whole day! (The fact that I had planned on working on the blue and white quilt was beside the point. Or, maybe that was the point -- I was putting off having to make yet more blocks.) I ran to the store and bought 8 jars of baby food and got to work.

They're really pretty simple to make. I removed the labels and washed and dried the jars. I used GooGone to help remove the sticky residue. Then I applied some white paint to the outside of the jar with a sponge. This gives the paint a little texture and doesn't show lots of brush strokes.When the paint was dry, I drew a line to mark the area that was painted blue. I could have freehanded this area without marking it -- I did one jar that way and it came out pretty even. To mark it, I placed a pencil on a short box and put the upside down jar next to the pencil. Then I rotated the jar to draw a line.After the line was on, I painted above the line with a blue paint. When the blue paint was dry, I freehanded the red stripes.When the red paint was dry, I painted some little freehand stars on with white paint. I drew them the way we used to draw them as children and then filled them in. They're very casual and rough looking. A small heart stencil or stamp would have been a good way to go, but I didn't have one, and since this was a last minute project, I had to make due with what I had -- which was nothing!When all the paint was dry, I took a fine tip black pen and drew in some detail lines. (There are lots of possibilities here -- I debated about writing some patriotic words on the jars, but in the end, I just left them as you see in the pictures.) Then I gave the jar a light coat of a spray varnish. After the varnish was dry, I made a hanger out of some wire and attached it around the neck of the jar. For a little decoration, I also tied a strip of red fabric and a little decorative yarn around the neck.

When all done, I put a little tea-light candle into each jar. I had some little garden stake thingies (highly technical term there) so I planted them along the walk and hung my little jars on them. They'll be fun on the patio when we're sitting around, after dinner, in the evening.If you'd like to make some little jars -- you still have a whole day before the 4th -- plenty of time! ;-) Even if you don't want to paint the jars, you could just leave them plain and tie some little bits around them for decoration. It's the same idea as the bigger jars you've probably seen in catalogs hanging from trees! The sky's jar's the limit!

XOXO,
Anna