Gold Stencilled Jar

Welcome to Friday's Craft, people! I hope you are ready to make a lovely mess!

This week I stencilled a jar with gold paint, using the ubiquitous ivy leaves as stencils. After I had done it I was in the Senior Infant Classroom and saw them making paper snowflake stencils, and I thought that would be a lovely idea too. A lacy, paper cut-out design!

I chose a tall jar, and pulled the leaves off some of my house plants:

To stick the leaves onto the jar, I just doubled over pieces of sellotape, but double-sided tape would be useful either:
I stuck just four leaves around the jar, but I could have used more, or stuck some high and some lower:

Then, since it was bitterly cold and snowy outside, I spread newspaper on the kitchen floor and sprayed gold paint onto the leaves. By holding the nozzle directly over each leaf, the outline remained fairly crisp, but it would be easy to splash spray under the leaves:

It took about half an hour to dry, but I was afraid of smudging it, so it may have been ready sooner. Carefully peel off the leaf, and remove the loop of sellotape...oops, not as crisp an outline as I thought!

Work your way around the jar, keeping the lovely gold leaves...then drop in a candle, light it with a taper ( I used a twig!) and there you are!

I haven't decided what to use the leaves for, but they are lovely. Probably the door wreath, in another week or so.

You could put other things in the jar-

for instance a group of long thin candles sticking out the top,

or a string of fairy lights, if your jar was large enough,

or those chocolates wrapped in shiny coloured cellophane would look pretty...

If you'd like to see our snow, I'm posting the photos I took today on The Scenic West blog.

Youngest and I and the dogs went tobogganing this afternoon after I returned from School, and had a great time!