Helpful Hint Fridays: A Mason Jar Tutorial

Hey, everybody!  With Labor Day quickly approaching, this will be the last Helpful Hint Friday of the summer.  We will see what next summer brings :-)!

 I would share a quick and easy tutorial with you today.  It is one that I shared several years ago but one that people seem to enjoy.

I feel a bit funny sharing this tutorial.  It is pretty elementary but, perhaps, some of you haven't thought of doing something this simple with supplies you have at home before.  So, for that reason-here goes-->

I found these polka-dot mason jars at Jo-Ann Fabrics in the clearance aisle and fell in love with them.  They were perfect for a wedding I was doing at the time.  I added the twine to the jar because the wedding was a rustic wedding and twine just screams, "Rustic!"

Here is the end result of the "polka-dot arrangement."   When this photo was taken it was just about ready to be loaded into the SUV for delivery. 

 I thought the arrangement turned out quite lovely and it has become one of my all-time favorites.

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Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do a step-by-step tutorial at the time of the wedding.  I was focusing deeply on preparing the flowers and getting them to the venue on time :).

However, later I was able to recreate this step-by-step tutorial for you.

Of course, you will need twine.   The one I used was at least a 4 ply twine.  I've thrown away the packaging since the wedding but, that is my best guess.

So, as you can see you simply wrap the twine around the jar several times to achieve the desired look and then tie it into a knot or a bow at the desired spot on the jar.  A bow or a knot is your choice, depending on the look you want to achieve.  You could tie beads or metal buttons at the ends of the twine for a different look if you'd like also.  Any kind of embellishments that go along with the theme of your event could be added, as well.  Hot gluing an embellishment that cannot be tied could be done also.

For the wedding I wrapped the twine around the jar many more times than the above jar.  For this application I wanted to see part of the "Ball" sign on the jar.  There you have it...the mason jar tutorial!  I told you it was very simple :)!

However, you can get creative and enhance this idea.  As you can see here, I decided to do just that. I found this "cork" ribbon at the craft store and thought it might look nice wrapped around the mason jar and tied with twine, as well.  This method gave a more textured look I thought.  The choices are endless when it comes to ribbon.  Any variety of ribbon, i.e., lace, satin or burlap or any color would work for this.  I even thought of trying some fancy metal ribbon I own but the uneven nature of the mason jar made it difficult to use in this situation.  I will save the metal ribbon for another time :).

The embellished mason jar looked so cute I decided to go to the grocery store and grab some flowers to make a quick and colorful arrangement for my kitchen counter.  Other uses for embellished jars such as these would be to hold utensils on a buffet table or to hold colorful straws for the beverage stand of your next event.  Let your imagination go wild!  It's such an easy application why not give it a try?

The final arrangement was not as fancy or as special as the wedding arrangement, of course.  These flowers came from the grocery store and were very economical compared to the arrangement I made for the wedding.  However, for a small amount of money I brightened up a corner of my kitchen which made me happy.

All of this brings me back to why I wanted to share this "Little Mason Jar Tutorial" in the first place. I wanted to show you how you can use everyday items, spend a little money and take a little bit of your day and create something that will give you and your family days of enjoyment.  For me, that is what it is all about ;). 

 Happy Weekend!!!