Tutorial Monday: Snowflake Luminaries

Last year I did luminaries with flocking… And tell you what… That was a flocking mess. It got everywhere… It shed everywhere… If you even looked at it, you ended up with it all over you… So I decided to try something a little different.

Look thru the tutorial and see if it’s something you’d like to do yourself. If you do, make sure to let me know! I’d love to see your creations.

Supplies you’ll need: Jars. JARS JARS JARS. You can have as many as you’d like. Serisly. You can buy new jars or you can reuse ones in your fridge. That’s what I did. There’s a banana pepper jar, some old jelly jars, etc. You’ll also need some Mod Podge. You can use the regular kind, or like me, the outdoor kind. You’ll also need silver paint, a paint brush and a sponge brush, a snowflake stencil of your choice and salt. You can use Sea Salt, like I have or Kosher, rock, etc.

Step One: Apply your snowflake template/stencil to your clean jars.

Give each one a relatively light coat of silver paint. Remove stencil, let dry.

Step Two: With a light hand and your sponge brush, brush on the Mod Podge.

Step Three: Section by section, while the Mod Podge is still wet, add your salt. Shake off any excess and continue until entire jar is covered.

And you’re done! Let dry overnight then add a tealight or two and put them where you want them!

I added them around my little shabby tree for a cute look. Later on tonight I’ll light them and make sure to get a pic or two!

DIY Corner: Shabby Chic Luminaries

So I got a wild hair and decided to do some DIY Christmas decorations for outdoors. I had some leftover mason jars from a previous post, so I decided to get a second life out of them.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Flocking, Santa snow, that powdery crap you put in your windows to make them look icy- either way you put it, you’ll need a can of it.

2. Paper, could be copy paper could be scrap paper. Either way, you’ll need it.

3. A pair of scissors. All I could find were my daughters scissors from last year.

4. Lash glue or any other kind of adhesive.

5. Mason jars of any size or shape.

6. Battery operated tealights. (not shown)

Step One: Cut your best snowflakes and unfold them. Using a light amount of lash glue, glue on the edges and in the middle. Don’t use a ton, because then it will smear out and look gross.

Step Two: Lay your snowflakes on the mason jars the way you want them to lay.

Step Three: Using a LOT of newspaper to cover your work surface and background, and holding the can of flocking at least 10 inches away from the jar. If not you’ll have a big globby mess of flocking like I do in the middle of the snowflake.

Step Four: Then CAREFULLY remove the snowflakes from the jars while the flocking is still wet.

You’ll want to let your luminaries sit out for at least a day or so to become completely dry and when you do decide to pick them up and move them be VERY careful as they will flake off.

When you have them where you want them, insert the battery operated tea lights and voila! Cheap and cute DIY luminaries!

Here they are paired with my “shabby chic” Christmas tree on my front porch. I put a couple of my prop suitcases in the corner, put the tree on it and covered the base with a gorgeous, but falling apart lace table cloth. Next to the suitcases are some old, faded, vintage Christmas ornaments in glass vases. I bought a couple of old Christmas ties at a flea market and cut them up to make bows for the Christmas tree and used lace as the “garland”. The most expensive part of the setup is the Merry Christmas banner, but I reused it from my Christmas minis from last year. Pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself.

And I used the flocking to put a little “frosting” on our front door (notice the streak marks left by my dear, sweet daughter. *grumbles*).

Such a cute and inexpensive way to decorate. And when you’re done with them, you can simply wipe off the flocking and store for next year!