Making Mason Jar Luminaries

 It's the day before Thanksgiving and I don't have one single decoration up in our house.  Now I'm not one to go all out on the holidays but I do like to have a wreath, maybe a centerpiece and a few odds and ends on the mantle; just enough to make the house feel a tiny bit festive but without seeming like a lot of work.  So I convinced Alec to help me make a new centerpiece.

We made leaf luminaries and they are just darling!  Want to know how to make them??

To make the luminaries you will need:

• Mason jars- we used pint size jars
• Printed napkins or tissue paper in festive colors
• Scissors
• Glue
• Water
• Brush

  Step 1:  Cut up the napkin or tissue paper into small pieces.  Our napkins were 2-ply so I pulled the plain white backing off the backside to make them thinner and more c-thru.  We then cut the leaf shapes out of the napkins. 

pulling the napkins apart

The images we cut out 

Step 2:  Mix up some glue and water.  I don't have an exact amount but you just want to water down the glue enough that you can brush it on with a paintbrush but not so watery that it runs everywhere.  I would guess we used two parts glue to one part water. 

   Step 3:  Pick up and jar, select a leaf (or piece of tissue paper) and starting from the bottom of the jar lay the paper down, brush over it gently with the glue/ paintbrush until the paper is securely in place.  Add more paper; making sure to overlap each time until the entire jar is covered.  We had some blank spaces toward the rim of the jar but we knew we'd be adding bows once the paper dried.  

Gluing down the leaves 

Evan participated too!

 Step 4: set jar aside to dry making sure to rest the jar on the lid/ mouth of jar to prevent the bottom of the jar from sticking to the table.  Once dry you can add a bow out of ribbon or raffia and then  add a tealight inside and light it.  Like these:

Our completed luminaries 

With tealights in them (in a dark corner)

Linking Up With: Centerpiece Wednesday,