During Advent, some friends and I gathered weekly to make seasonal crafts via Zoom. Every part of it was fun, but an especially endearing part was how many people accepted the invitation saying “I stink at crafts, but I’m willing to try.” I love that spirit, and I love that friends were confident that we could do crafts together poorly and still have fun.
To be inclusive, our crafts had to: 1) require few pre-existing skills, 2) require few tools or materials since I bagged them up and delivered them to my friends, 3) be adaptive since our group included children through older adults and people with various abilities. And while most of my friends were from my church, not everyone was, so I chose mostly crafts that were wintertime-themed, not holiday themed.
Here is our first one:
Supplies
- A clean glass jar. We used some pint and half-pint jars, jam jars, a glass bottle that once had a coffee drink in it, and more. Baby food jars would also work. Just pay attention to the glass jars you use and which you like.
- newspaper
- white craft paint and/or mod podge + kosher salt or fine table salt
- paint brush or sponge
- hot glue gun with glue sticks
- decorative string, beaded garland, ribbon, strip of flannel cloth, etc.
- pine cones, bows, berries, sprigs of evergreen, or other Christmas picks
- Epsom salt or ice cream salt
- tea light
Directions
- Paint the exterior of your jar with white paint, as you like. If using a brush, small asterisks to represent stars are a good choice. If using a sponge, have fun sponging the whole thing. OR cover exterior in mod podge, then roll in some of your Epsom salt, kosher salt, or fine table salt, depending on the look you want.
- When the exterior has dried, tie (or hot glue if needed) a ribbon, decorative string, strip of flannel, etc. around the lip.
- Tuck Christmas decorations, such as a pine cone or sprig of holly, into the ribbon,
- Add some Epsom salt to the glass jar, then place the tea light inside.
If you (like me) have a hard time throwing away adorable jelly jars, this is a good project to save them for year round. You can create a matching set of 6 or 12 to give away next year, or you can create unique ones for different friends. They are a sweet way to light your sidewalk for holiday parties (or even for Halloween, if you paint black spiders instead of white snowflakes and add orange, black or purple sand instead of Epsom salt).
Family Foxhole 