Are you as crazy busy at this time of year as we are?  And it just seems to get busier and busier the closer we get to Christmas.  Yet, we still always want to add some homemade elements to our holiday celebrations.  So, we look for quick and easy ideas for DIY projects.  This week, we’re taking part in Craft Lightning: Holiday Edition hosted by 30 Minute Crafts and The Country Chic Cottage.   All week long some of your favourite crafters have been sharing their ideas for holiday craft projects that you can make in under 15 minutes.

 To make this mason jar ring ornament, all you need is a mason jar ring (a great way to recycle used ones!), some Mod Podge, gel medium or white glue (I’m using Aleene’s Tacky Glue), some quilling paper (or run some paper through a paper shredder or cut some with your paper cutter), a paper quilling tool (or toothpicks – they work just fine for this project and are handy for applying the glue precisely), a little bit of batting (or cotton balls or something similar).  I used some Epsom salts – applied glue all over the outside of the canning ring and dipped it into a dish of the salts to add some sparkle to the ring but you can leave it as is or even wrap some ribbon around it.  You might want some ribbon, yarn, or fishing line to hang your ornament with as well.

Now don’t worry if you have never done any paper quilling before – this project doesn’t require any prior experience.  Cut or tear the paper strips (tearing generally helps seal the edges together better when gluing) into 2, 3, or 4 inch strips.  I used a combination of the three sizes but you might want to experiment  a bit depending on the size of your canning ring.  Simply wrap the paper strips one at a time around one of the toothpicks to curl it up most of the way.  You want to leave a small strip that’s uncurled to give you a flat surface to glue together and use as the trunk of the tree.

 

 

Once you have a few strips curled up, you can start gluing them together as shown in the middle picture.  Continuing gluing pairs of curled paper together and then take one pair and glue it to the inside of the next.  I used the smaller strips at the top of the tree and worked my way down into the larger ones to help form that tree shape.  If you find they aren’t curling just the way you want them to, you can always add a couple TINY dabs of glue (use a toothpick for best results) to tame them into the shapes you want.

 

 

 

 

 

Glue a tiny bit of fluff (batting, cotton balls, etc.) into the bottom edge of the ring.  This helps add some stability to the tree and helps it to stand up properly once you hang up the ornament.  Put a dab of glue on the bottom of your Christmas tree and stick that into the fluff.  You might need to adjust the tree and/or the fluff a bit to get the tree standing just the way you want it.  I found that a toothpick was a good way to move it around without getting my big clumsy fingers in the way.

 

 

 

These are great as tree decorations, window decor, or even hanging up almost as a garland – I love it in my kitchen since being a mason jar ring, it’s kitchen related anyway!

Earlier this week, I made this super cute snowman from canning jar rings too!  You can find the instructions over at Creative Cynchronicity.

Be sure to check out all the great holiday crafts you can make in under 15 minutes by clicking on the image below.  Thanks so much to The Country Chic Cottage and 30 Minute Crafts  for letting us take part!