Stitches Thru Time: scenes in a jar

Hello folks!

Amber Schamel here. I'm taking a break from deer processing and holiday food preparation, and boy does it feel good to sit down for a minute! I hope you are all looking forward to a warm and happy Thanksgiving.

Today I'm sharing one of my favorite holiday crafts. Although, I'm starting to expand into more than just Christmas with these. :) AND I will be giving away one of these Christmasy jars, so keep reading.

For this project, I use the jars from candles that I've burned. You can use regular jars or apothecary jars as well, but the candle jars are pretty, plus you get to enjoy the candle. Win all the way around, right?

First, pick out some candles you enjoy and burn them down. I chose a small candle from the Dollar Store.

Once they've burned out, clean out the remaining wax. I do this by placing the jar on the coffee pot burner and leaving it for a few minutes. The heat of the burner will melt the remaining wax, then you can pour it out. After that, I use dish soap to wipe out the jar and clean it.

Melting out the wax

Once you have your clean, pretty jar, you need to decide on the scene that will go inside. I've made several with different designs. You can find items at Hobby Lobby or a craft store sometimes even Walmart. Depending on how big your jar is, you can put in items from a Christmas village, animals, or miniature garden items. For this design, I'm using small deer and trees I found at Hobby Lobby.

Items from craft store

You will want to lay out your scene inside the jar to determine exactly how you want it before you begin. Once you know that, use Super Glue to fix the main pieces in place.

Fix the main pieces with Super Glue

After you have the main pieces glued in, I use a little paint brush to spread School Glue along the bottom of the jar and along any edges of the pieces that would naturally collect snow. Then I poor cheap salt in over the scene.

Once your "snow" is in place, let it dry for a few hours. Then I Super Glue the lid on the jar so that it doesn't spill salt or upset the scene.

Add salt for snow.

Tada! Here's my finished Winter Wonderland scene in a jar. The one on the right is the one I'm giving away today.

Finished product!

Of course, there are lots of variations on this. You could create almost any scene you want to. You can use sand instead of salt. You can also get grass-like powder from the craft store if you wanted a Summer scene. The possibilities are endless. I love these because they are like capturing a moment and containing it in a jar.