Sarah Ahiers' Jars

If you're expecting company and need decorations fast, you must try this one.

I was so excited when Sarah Ahiers agreed to be a guest on my blog. I love her crafty posts and her baking posts look so good you wished you had smellavision on the internet.

Take a look at how EASY and fast you can make decorations with what you have around the house. Sarah is a genius!



Sarah's Jars

I'm not even going to lie. I love jars.

For reals.

Jars are awesome. You can put so much stuff in them, both for storage and for decorations, and they look so cool. Kind of an old-school country feel.

Seriously, mason jars are some of the easiest things to craft with. And one of the best things about mason jars are, they're pretty affordable. You can get them at any grocery store usually for about $10 for a dozen or more, depending on size.

Right now, I've been using some smaller ones.

just so cute!

I like to fill them with fun things, depending on the season, and then throw a candle on top. We hosted a baby shower a few weeks ago and I got more than a few compliments on this arrangement. And it was super easy and cheap (see the bottom of the post for a few other ideas of what to put in your jars).

For winter time, I like things that smell nice. Now, I don't drink coffee, but I love the smell of coffee beans. I really, really wished coffee tasted liked the beans smelled. But alas.

Anyway, an easy solution to my "no reason to have coffee beans in the house since no one drinks it" conundrum is to make coffee bean accent jars.

So, take an empty jar. Or two, or three. I use four at a time, since I have a ledge between my kitchen and living room that is really suited to four mason jars and my terrarium.

Pick out a flavor of coffee bean you like. I chose almond vanilla, since the candles I'll be using are vanilla scented.

smells sooooo good

Then fill your jar to the max.

Next, add your tea light. You don't have to use scented tea lights, if you don't want. I'm just using them because they're what I had lying around

The best thing about this arrangement is, once you light the candle, it will heat the coffee beans and fill the room with the scent of the beans. MMMMMM.

When you're done using the mason jar for the season, just ditch the candle (or save for use in another craft or project) and close up with the lid that came with the mason jar.

This makes for super easy storage and you don't have to worry about the jar spilling accidentally.

You can pretty much put anything you want in mason jars. For autumn, I used pine cones and potpourri pumpkins.

these were the ones that garnered me the compliments at the party

And for Christmas decorations, I'm using cranberries, floating tea lights, water and a few sprigs of a silver leaf I picked up at Michael's.

I also reproduced this on a larger scale, for a center piece, and added dogwood branches sticking out of the middle

You could use acorns or berries or the fuzzy parts of pussy willows. Anything really. And if you buy the jars in bulk, you can just store them as is and take them out with the change in season or holiday (assuming you're not using fresh fruits or something else that would rot)

If you're feeling extra adventurous, you could check out Specialty Bottles, for tons of different jars or bottles available for purchase.

What are you waiting for? Go have fun with your jars!

Sarah Ahiers blogs about writing (mostly) MWF over at Falen Formulates Fiction. She often procrastinates from writing or cleaning by crafting, crocheting or hanging out with her dogs.

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Winners will be posted tomorrow! Good luck!