Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Clear vases with love letters or song lyrics

Review by Rachael
Directions from Pinterest:  http://ilovethisandthat.blogspot.com/2012/01/candle-in-bottle.html

What you need:
2 sheets of reading book paper 
scissors
an old clean glass bottle
glue
rope or ribbon

Take the page and measure on the bottle what the size of the paper should be. The circumference of the bottle will be wider on the outside than the inside, but measure it to get an idea.

You will have to stick the sheets together, but to start off first stick the one side together and make sure that it is cut straight. Then and cut off the wrinkled edges.

Now measure approximately where you want to cut the hearts or shapes. Lightly fold the paper and cut out your shape.

Before you put the paper in the bottle, glue the one end of the paper, put it in the bottle and spread the paper inside the bottle. Then stick the other end of the paper to the botle. Almost done.

To finish off the project tie a ribbon or piece of rope around the neck of the bottle, and place a tea-light candle in the bottle.

They are beautiful for the middle of your table or to put a few of them on your windowsill and light them for a pretty picture in the evenings.

The Pinterest jar

My assessment:
I couldn’t find reading book paper that worked for this. I wanted to use these for my centerpieces at my rehearsal dinner and felt I needed to find something that really captured that moment. So instead I found lyrics to songs I love and printed them off. The tricky part about this is that you have to keep experimenting to find the correct size to fit the jars you have. But atlas I did it and was able to get started. Not knowing what size jars to use I found several different jars & started the project. I was so excited because these are so cute! Also, they could be done cheaply with old jars, pages I printed at home and Jute or ribbon from a craft store.  

Unfortunately, these are not as easy as they look. They aren’t difficult but I found it impossible to get them exactly how I wanted. First, you can’t get the exact size of the paper because the inside of the jar is smaller – so you have to keep putting the paper in and taking it out to trim it. A few times I cut it a little too short and had to start over again. Second, when you “lightly fold the paper and cut out your shape” I found that the paper creased too much when I started cutting. Which leaves a line in the paper that I noticed and wasn’t a fan of. Third, when you have a jar with a smaller opening then the bottom of the jar it is very hard to get the paper in and spread out to fit the whole jar. To try and beat this I put the paper in the jar, tried to spread it out and then had to try & glue it while it was inside the jar; tricky, but not impossible. My biggest complaint about doing it this way is that I couldn’t get the paper to line up correctly once I had it in the jar. In the picture you can see how the line where it was cut is crooked. Therefore, I would recommend using vases or tall jars that do not have a lip on them and are the same size all the way up.  After the paper was in the jar I just added a LED tea light and tied some Jute (you can use ribbon as well) on the top of the jar. They look pretty close to the original pictures but I can see the flaws. They did the trick for what I needed but wouldn’t make more of these as I got frustrated with them not being perfect. 

My jars






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