DIY Low-Budget Christmas Jar

I don’t remember anymore why and when I came to the idea to make my own Christmas jar. But since I had the idea, I knew I want to try to make it only with the items I have in home. The only exception was the super clue I needed to bought to glue items together.

I remember how I liked crafting in my childhood, but lately I haven’t done it much. Thus, in the beginning it was very difficult, as items were so small and my hands were trembling. But I still really enjoyed it and was surprised how relaxing it was.

 

My (not very original) idea was to make the jar filled with snow and put there little house and the Christmas tree. I also added the snowman and some stars.

 

The first challenge was how to make the snow. There are many options to do it: sugar, salt, baking soda, cotton etc. Because I don’t like to waste food and the only salt I had in home was pink, I used shredded cotton pads.

Next task was how to make the house. I didn’t want to make it from paper, because I wanted something that looked more real. As I searched through my drawers, I discovered matches which were perfect for it. My boyfriend have this little quirk to put used matches back to the matchbox, so I even didn’t need to use new ones. I am happy when I don’t need to waste. 🙂

I cut the matches half with the scissors. And I must admit, glueing these little pieces together was really difficult at first. I got help from my tweezers, but still glued my fingers together many times.

“”I shall build a stronger house than yours,” said the second little pig.”

Somehow I managed to build a quite decent house. While the glue was drying, I made roof from the cardboard and painted it with dark brown watercolour. When the watercolour was still wet, I sprinkled little baking soda over the roof to imitate the snow. At first I had planned to use some cotton here too, but luckily I discovered this webpage, where I got the idea of using baking soda. It seems more authentic. When the clue was dry, I painted the house also with the watercolour and made door, windows and chimney from the coloured paper.

 

No, blue windows doesn’t work.

Much better. 🙂

Making the chimney was quite difficult. And as I drew the pattern (using the felt-tip pen) before the glue was completely dry, it turned out little sloppy. 😀

Ready to move in?

 

While the glue was drying, I also made the Christmas tree. I don’t remember why I had two pine cones in home, but the smaller one was exactly the right size. I thought I must buy green paint, but luckily I tried watercolour. At first I was little skeptical that it’ll work. But it did. I applied three layers and when it was still wet, I also sprinkled little baking soda.

I have small packet of plastic stars at home (got them for free few years ago) and used one to decorate the tree.

 

Then I had idea to make the snowman. I made it also of cotton. And I’m quite proud of how I made the carrot. As you can see in the picture below, I used the toothpick. 😀

Later I made hands also to the snowman, but I didn’t make the picture before it was already in the jar. Isn’t it a lovely little snowman? 😀

Smallest snowman in the world?

Carefully I placed items in the jar.

Almost finished.

 

But I felt that the jar was still too empty. So, I decided to hang some stars to fill the upper part of the jar. To do this, I glued white threads to the stars and sewed them to the little piece of cloth which I later glued to bottom of the lid of the jar.

 

And this is it! My first DIY Christmas jar. I am quite positive that it’ll not remain the last one, as I enjoyed the process too much. 🙂

 

As Christmas is already too much about consumption, I encourage all of you, who have little extra time and who enjoy making things with their hands, to use more what you already have in home to make unique Christmas decorations. 🙂

 

Hope you enjoyed my post. And I wish all of you beautiful and peaceful Advent. 🙂