Valentine Candle Jar

Made from simple materials and clothing scraps, this jar can hold a votive candle for a romantic dinner or use it for pencils, loose change, or any other thing you can think of!

You will need:

1 clean, empty jar (jelly, mayo, pickle, etc)
white or cream colored material (we used an old shirt)
cranberry colored felt
cranberry gingham material
raffia
1 large cranberry button
1 small cranberry button
various tan colored buttons
pinking shears
white craft glue
water

Instructions:

Cut out heart shapes from cranberry colored felt in various sizes, be sure to have one large one for the front of the jar. Use pinking shears to cut out the smaller hearts for a decorative look. Cut out a heart shape from the gingham material a size or two smaller than the large felt heart. Cut the gingham material to fit on top of the large felt heart so that the cranberry felt can still be seen behind it. See photo.

Cut out strips of white or cream colored material. We used a child's shirt that had been stained with chocolate rendering it useless (until now!). Cut a long strip of gingham material, long enough to fit around the rim of the jar.

Prepare a bowl of homemade decoupage mix by combining white craft glue and water in equal parts. Mixture should be the consistency of thinned glue and should not be see-through.

Using a paintbrush, and working in sections, paint some glue mixture onto the jar, then place a white material strip onto the glue. Paint more glue over the top of the strip, material should be saturated. Continue until jar is completely covered.

Using glue mixture and paintbrush, adhere heart shapes to the top of the white material strips. Do the same for the gingham heart shape, gluing it over the felt heart shape as pictured. Allow to completely dry (you can speed the process by using a hair dryer if you choose). Dry material should feel stiff, as if you had used starch on it.

Thread a small piece of raffia through the holes of the small cranberry button and tie. Using white craft glue (not the glue/water mixture), glue the button to the upper left hand corner of the gingham heart. Glue remaining small buttons to the various small heart shapes around the jar.

Using the long strip of gingham material, glue around the rim of the jar, trim to fit. Tie a couple of strands of raffia around the gingham material, tie in a knot. Thread the raffia through the holes of the large cranberry button and tie in a knot of the front so that the button is flush with the front of the jar. Trim the ends if necessary.

A small votive candle can be placed inside the jar and is easily lit with a wooden skewer.