Mark's Finest Papers 12 Days of Christmas blog hop . . . Day Three, Altered Jars

Speedy the Cat at Mark's Finest Papers likes to get a head start on special Christmas gifts and memories for friends and family. He gathered the design team at Mark's Finest Papers to bring you 12 days of exciting paper crafting gift ideas to get that holiday mojo flowing. The hop runs for 12 consecutive days, starting October 17th! Begin your holiday hop at Speedy's home base, the Mark's Finest Papers blog and relax with a cup of eggnog (or sprig of catnip, your choice) as Speedy leads you though a short, daily hop. You'll find your holiday paper crafting ideas and supplies at Mark's Finest Papers.

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop! We have four samples each day for our hop! Please visit each of the following blogs for holiday inspiration! Start off your journey on the MFP Blog for more inspiration!

I am on the main blog post today, not a part of the official hop, but want to give you some directions for the project I made, if you need more details. I made a 'whimsy jar.' These can contain anything, for mine, I am going to fill it with sewing items, spools of thread, some pins, some buttons, for my oldest daughter to use when she sits down to sew.

I used an empty jam jar for my base and made a pincushion that attaches to the top of the jar, so you can have your pins inside the jar and the pincushion just on top, so handy, I think, for a sewing project!


The bit of fabric I used is a scrap that has a lot of meaning for me personally. Years ago, almost nineteen now, I was making a dress for my youngest daughter, who was nine months old at the time. I had all but the collar and hemming done and then a sudden, a drastic life change made me put the project down and never return to it. As I was digging through my trunk I came across a piece of this fabric, large enough to use for my pincushion and that fabric I liked so well years ago for its soft green and peach tones is seeing new life. :)

First, you cut a circle of fabric almost twice the size of the expected, final pincushion size. So you want to measure the diameter of your jar lid and cut the fabric accordingly. I cut a piece of paper 5.5-inches around first, as a template, traced around it with a pencil on my fabric and cut that out.

Then taking some strong thread, gather between 1/8- and 1/4-inch worth of fabric with a running stitch or gathering stitch, because you're just going to pull those gather threads to 'scrunch' up your pincushion fabric.

Stuff your pincushion! When you think it is full, stuff it a bit more!

Then I cut a cardboard circle to insert into the end of the pincushion because I wanted to flatten the bottom, to attach it to the jar lid. I also cut a piece of felt with a spellbinders to sew the edges shut. You don't have to be super neat with this part, its going to be glued to your jar lid and no one will see it anyway.


I used a hot glue gun (totally out of glue sticks now, used my last one) to glue the pincushion, flattened on one side, to my jar lid. Then I took some beautiful lace from Mark's Finest Papers, a few of their prima roses, an MFP charm (there are so many to choose from!), some gold thread and a bit of ribbon to complete my jar topper.

The band I made using a spellbinder die as well, a cuttlebug vintage die and an oval punch for the sentiment. The sentiment is from the MFP set "Sew What?" because my whimsy jar is a sewing jar. I added a few MFP pearls that I colored with a copic marker to match the peachy shades in the fabric and paper (Mark's Finest Papers) and glued the parts together, then slipped them up over the bottom of the jar.

I found the directions for making a simple pincushion on this site, The Purl Bee and have shared my own twist on their instructions in my post.

Thanks for looking, hope you like it and hope you get some great holiday gift ideas from the hop!

Day Three: Decorated Jars
Markie
Faith
Geri
Pam

Stamps: MFP Sew What?

Ink: stazon black

Paper: green, cream and peach from MFP

Accessories: MFP lace, pins, dragonfly charm, gold cord, prima roses, glitter, ribbon, fabric, stuffing, jam jar, spellbinders and cuttlebug vintage die