Mason Jar Candles

I was shopping at the local Menards store the other day and came across a great find. It was a box of 3 Mason Jars, a larger size, with a wire handle at the top. They were only $5 for the box of 3, which was just too good of a deal to pass up! So I bought a set.

I grabbed some cinnamon sticks and a votive candle to add to one of the jars. Isn't it cool? Now granted, I could have used any one of the many Mason Jars I already have in my studio to do this. But 3 jars, with handles, for $5? Come on. I had to! And these are bigger than regular Mason Jars, so it gave me more room at the top to get my hand in there.

I can use these outside on the patio, or hang them on the porch, or anywhere inside the house too, and I can even change out the cinnamon sticks for rosehips or putka pods, or you name it! Even some simple potpourri would look cute in there. That is what I call a great Primitive Find!

Grungy Mini Rolling Pins

I thought I would share some more Grungy Goods this week, since you know how much I like to make things grungy! This time I've made mini Grungy Rolling Pins.

My motto is, 'you can grunge up almost anything,' so I love testing that out from time to time. These mini rolling pins can be quite the challenge to do since they are so small. But I just use some metal tongs to dip them into the melted wax and it seems to work pretty well for me. These are wooden rolling pins, and I think you can grunge up almost anything made of wood, and I have a lot of fun trying!

As always, these are great Primitive Bowl Fillers, alone or mixed in with your other Prim Fixins.

Muslin Bags 5 Techniques

I wrote an article once on some different ways you can use Muslin Bags in your crafting. Since I use muslin bags a LOT in my primitive crafting, I thought I'd share the techniques here as well, in hopes it may spark some ideas for you.

1. Stenciling: After making this muslin bag into a Grungy Good I used a stencil to add the word, 'Fixins' to the bag.
2. Sewing Embellishments: I created a fabric flower out of some fabric scraps, and then sewed it onto a grungy muslin bag, then added some buttons as well.
3. Painting: Muslin is easy to paint on, so you can always add some acrylic paint to create characters, letters, images, or what-not to your bags.
4. Spray Painting: I used brown textured spray paint on this bag, along with a paper doily used as a stencil. It gave a neat, aged leather look to the bag. This is on of my Shabby Prim creations.
5. Rubber Stamping: I used three different rubber stamps on this bag, one was a text stamp, one was the butterfly, and one was the word, 'believe.' I also sewed on some ribbon trim and a fabric flower. Not quite prim, but you get the idea.

The way I see it, plain muslin bags are little blank canvases, begging to be embellished in some way. Use them plain, use the grungy, use them with paint or stamps, or notions--or whatever you can think of. You're only ever limited by your imagination. And they make perfect gift bags too!