Sanity Space - Project Jar transformation

I think I need a new sign for my craft room?

Last September my eldest son Thomas got married and not only did I gain a lovely daughter in law but I also gained his old bedroom. Over the last six months I have be transforming it  into a craft room/ office. It is a place where I can work on various projects, a place to learn new things, experiment with ideas  and be creative. I have set my sewing machine up so I can use it whenever I like. I can then just leave everything out (what a thought and what a luxury!)  If I want to, shut the door, do something different and then come back and have everything exactly where I left it and get back on track without skipping a beat!
The leaving stuff out works great... but the latter bit about coming back and finding stuff where I left is is not ALWAYS true. I guess I still having a 15 year old and a 12 year old at home means things tend to go "walk about" quite a lot. 


Anyhow, it's MY space, even though it does get invaded from time to time. 

I have found that because I only have short periods of time that I can be out of the house before Heni comes home from college (she is home by 1 pm everyday), I have been getting cabin fever. Fed up of the same 4 walls staring me back in the face. Having my "sanity space" makes me feel like I have escaped for a while to a different place and when I return to caring duties I can return less robot, more human like.

In future posts I'd like to tell you about how the craft room came to "be" and show you some of the transformations that I've done along the way (some by myself, some with the help of hubby). I like searching pinterest and finding projects to do from there. If you want to follow me you can find me here 
https://www.pinterest.com/jadebie/

Today I would like to show you a recent JAR project that I've just finished.


I love Apple sauce ....not just because the apple sauce is amazing but the jars are a really cool shape! Weird I know. Anyhow when the jars are empty I have been filling them up with various craft items like mini stamps, embroidery threads, sewing needles and odd ends of scraps of material. On Saturday I decided to decorate the jar tops. The room is painted in a Farrow and Ball paint called  Elephants breath so its pretty bland  and I wanted some colour pops around.  I decided on a scheme with some bright colours like orange, blue, raspberry and green .   

If you want to try this yourself you will need:-

•  A glue gun or equivalent, 
• A jar and lid,
• Some quilt wadding ... to cut circles to put on top of the lid
• Some material squares ( I cut mine with pinking shears to stop frays and made them about 12cm square as that seemed to fit the size of the jar best. 
• Some string or ribbon to decorate

glue quilt wadding on to jar lid with glue gun

Cut a piece of material and turn the jar lid (with the quilted circle on) up side down. the material should be facing the wrong way up/ right way down. Glue the edge of the jar lid and lift the material up working all the way round so that the material is fixed  firmly in place.

 

Fit the jar lid on to the top of the jar and glue the decoration around the edge so that it is fixed firmly in place. I used three pieces of string/garden twine that I plaited and fixed with knots at both ends. I then placed them on my painted electricians cable spool that I scrounged from the workers down the road.

 

I think that they look pretty colourful and the time spent creating them was much needed R & R time. 

Just remember, whenever we create anything, whether it be a painting, needlework or writing a story we not only create changes in our external world but we create changes inside our bodies and minds which help us cope with our daily stressors much better.

If you want to read about the benefits of being creative and reducing stress go check out the article "stess benefits of making art" at  relaxationexpert.co.uk 

Have fun doing something creative today

Jx