Tuesday Tutorial: Jack OLantern Jar

With Fall arriving, I'm seeing more and more pumpkins out and about (I love pumpkins). I also saw where someone had used a jar to create a Jack O'Lantern. Brilliant! I decided to try and make one myself. After some trial and error, I came up with some super cute Jack O'Lantern Jars. The fun thing is, you can use a real candle in these, or the battery-operated flickering candles which are safer. These are pretty easy to make, and you can reuse an old jar (yay for repurposing!).

Supplies:
+ Jar (tall or short, your choice!)
+ Orange construction paper -or- Orange tissue paper (I made one with each)
+ Black construction paper
+ ModPodge
+ Foam brush (to apply the ModPodge)
+ Scissors
+ Green ribbon (enough to circle the perimeter of the lip of your jar)
+ Rolling adhesive (to attach the green ribbon)
+ Pencil (to draw a Jack O'Lantern face on the black construction paper before you cut it out ;))
+ Candle (wax or battery-operated)
Begin by painting a layer of ModPodge onto the jar with the foam brush. Adhere the orange construction paper (or tissue paper) up to the neck of the jar and coat with ModPodge (check out a past tutorial about ModPodging to a jar here). The construction paper can be a little frustrating to work with, as it keeps wanting to come un-adhered. I started smoothing the paper down with my fingers and that seemed to help a lot. If you are using tissue paper, be very careful as you coat it with ModPodge. It can and will rip easily.

*Tip: Be careful not to layer the paper a whole lot. The first one I made (the one on the left up top in the header picture) had a bunch of pieces layered and ended up looking a little funny once it had the candle in it. For the next ones I made, I was sure to try and make it with one piece of paper (at least on the front face part).

Once the ModPodge is applied and all the paper is laying down, let dry.
Next, adhere the ribbon to the rim/neck/top lip/whatever that is-part of the jar with rolling adhesive or a little bit of glue. Make sure the ribbon is flush with the top-most part of the jar.
Now, draw and cut out a face from the black construction paper that will fit proportionately on the jar.
Using the ModPodge, adhere the face pieces to the jar (like my Pumpkin Picasso Face? ;)). Smooth out any bubbles or such before you let the ModPodge dry.

(Hmm that looks a little messy... eek! Smooth out the ModPodge with the brush before letting it dry ;))

Voilà! A cute little Jack O'Lantern in a jar! What a great centerpiece for a table... or stick a bunch in a cluster out on the front porch with your pumpkins and other Fall decorations.