Mason Jar Monday #4 Sweet Treats in a Rosette Snowman Jar

It's that time again....

Today's Mason Jar Monday is simple and sweet.

I used a vintage jar and zinc lid.

I made 3 white muslin rosettes.

My muslin is from thrift store sheets. 

 I buy the ones they call "drop cloths" because of a stain or two....

There are tutorials all over the place for making the rosettes.

Essentially start with a strip of muslin.

  I like torn edges.

Tie a knot on one end.

Start to wrap around the knot and turn it every so often.

For these, I actually stitched them every couple of wraps but you could glue them.

I made them three different sizes: 1 for the head, and 2 for the body.

I stitched all three together.

I added a little strip of stained cheesecloth for the scarf.

I like the ratty bit of primitive it adds...

Then I glued mine on to  the side of the jar.

I only used a couple dots of glue so I can take it off later.

I filled mine with peppermint marshmallows but you can use anything you want.

It would make a great gift or just look great on your counter to hold goodies....

Thanks for stopping by....

Linking up with these great blogs....

Mercury Glass Pumpkin Tealights

I have been wanting to try making my own mercury glass.

I had a couple Halloween ideas in mind for them.

I got a can of  Looking Glass paint from Krylon.

I gathered my supplies:

clear glass jars from the thrift shop

painter's tape

 scissors

Krylon Looking Glass Paint

water bottle

paper towels

I cut shapes from the painter's tape for my pumpkin face and adhered them to the inside of the jar.

This little guy has feet.

Cute!

Gather your supplies...

Spray the inside of the jars with a light mist of water.

Then spray a light coat of the Krylon Looking Glass paint.

The hard part is waiting 5-10 minutes.

Then blot the water from the inside with the paper towel.

Now spray with a mist of water again and then another coat of paint.

Repeat to achieve the look you want.

Wait and blot the water each time.

If you get unwanted runs, you can rub or wipe them of with the paper towel.

You can see it is beginning to look more opaque.

I did a couple without the pumpkin face as well so I can use them year round.

I wanted a more opaque look on some of those, so I turned some of them upside down and repeated the process on the outside of the glass as well.

Once they were dry, I added tealights to them and tucked them into my fall vignette on the porch.  

You will be seeing more of that soon.

It is hard to photograph them well with the lights inside but the faces do show up nicely.

They add a fun touch to the porch.

I also painted a glass candlestick the same  to use as a base...

What fun!

 Now I am hooked on the Krylon Looking Glass paint and will be hunting for new things to try this on.

Thanks for stopping by...

Linking up with these great blogs...

A Raggy Rug from Old Sheets... A DIY Tutorial

I showed you in an earlier post how my daughter dyes some old sheets from the thrift store to use for a rug.

After she dyed all the sheets, she ripped them in strips.

Each strip was about an inch wide and the length of the fabric.

She removed all those loose strings.

And she cut the strips to about 6 inches long.

She cut a piece of non-slip rug mat to the size she wanted.

Hers is quite small.

About 18 inches by 24 inches.

Then she just started looping the fabric pieces through the non-slip rug mat. 

Some tutorials she had seen had merely slid the strip in and centered it.

She wanted hers to be strong so she tied each one.

Yup!

Each One.

She worked on it for about a week while watching TV.

About 1-4 hours a day.

I adore her colors...

And they actually match another rug we bought her before so they will go together.

She did every square in a row and then skipped a row between.  

She also left two rows around the edge to keep it from curling.

The back is pretty too.

Viola!

Finished!

She was very pleased wit it.

She should be.

It is awesome.

I already had the RIT Dye since I am on the Rit Dyesigner Team.

Check out my board here.

But if I had purchased it, I would have spent less than $15 on dye.

The sheets were $3 total.

I have seen other raggy rugs where this is where they really racked up the cost.

You could use fabric you already have or use old sheets like we did.  

Our thrift store sells stained sheets as drop cloths for 50 cents to $1 each,

Since we were dying them, a couple stains did not show.

And we had the non-slip rug mat already.

Sizes vary but buying one big enough for your rug will run $7-10.

So you could do this for about $30.

Ours cost $3.

My daughter entered it in the fair.

When I went to enter it, the little girl that was carrying things back to the judging tables, held it up to her face and rubbed her cheek against it.

A good sign...

Thanks for stopping by...

We will be linking up with these great blogs.

Wile RIT Dye did provide me with the dye for this project, all opinions are my own.

Dying in the Yard....

 I love that my daughter is a creative person.

She is very logical and bright but also creative.

So, she decided she wanted to make a rug for the fair.

She needed fabric to tear in strips.

I was hesitant to rip great fabric we just bought into strips when it could be used for something else.

I also did not want to go spend more money on fabric than 3 rugs would cost.

So I suggested we use some old sheets I got at the thrift store and dye them.

Such soft muslin and the price was very right.

She agreed and chose some dye colors that she wanted.

Then we spent the afternoon with her learning to dye fabric.

  She wanted blues, green, and purple.

I love her color choices.

We mixed all her dyes.

I love ice cream buckets for this. 

 They are big enough to accommodate most things I dye.

 They have lids so unused dye can be saved til later.

She tore her sheet into equal size pieces. 

She wanted light and dark of each color.

It is key to wash and wet the fabric first. 

 Washing removes sizing.

  Wetting makes sure they dye takes more evenly.

That purple was so deep and beautiful.

She worked all afternoon.

She waited 30 minutes before removing each piece of cloth.

She rinsed until the water ran clear.

Then she hung them on this drying rack I got this spring at the thrift store.

I also found a striped sheet and she snagged that one.

It was neat to see how the stripes turned out in each color.

Note my husband's help in the picture below.

The rack kept blowing over so he hooked a very large fishing sinker to the bottom of the rack.

See it?

VERY LARGE....

Once she was finished with the dye, I dyed some things I wanted to do.

Coffee filters.

They fit perfectly in those ice cream buckets.

I leave the coffee filters in for 5 minutes or hours depending on how intense I want the color.

These were less than 15 minutes.

I put them over a tin to drip in the grass and then I hang them in my garage on a little rack by my sink.

They can stay there until they dry.

I also did a couple bags that I want to alter.

That purple is still pretty strong.

I like the splotchy look.

Then I did lace.

I recently bought yards and yards from a thrift store.

It is fun to see how the different laces take the dye in the same dye batch.

Green.

Purple.

I did lots in the purple.

You can see the synthetic lace takes the color differently than the natural fiber lace.

I love how these turned out.

Well, when my daughter gets her rug finished I will show it to you.

Thanks for stopping by....