Mason Jar Pin Cushions

 This is the February edition of Tuesday Threads with Karen!  Is it just me, or are the rest of you as obsessed with Mason jars as I am??  I have a quick & fun project to share with you today using the wonderful Art Impressions Shop Hop fabrics that are available through Henry Glass Co. - Mason jar pin cushions!

I love the idea of having a pin cushion that is both decorative, and a little storage container!

Once you have all your supplies assembled, this is about a 10 minute project.  I started with a 6" square of fabric, and rounded off the edges.  You need a needle & thread, plus a large handful of batting (it takes way more than I show in the photo!), and a mason jar of any size:

 Run a loose basting stitch around the outside of the fabric circle, and place the batting in the middle.

 Pull on the thread to gather the circle around the batting, as shown below - what I don't show in the photo, is that you slip the flat metal jar seal in on top of the batting before tightening the thread completely.  This is where you determine how much batting to put in, as you want the pin cushion to be full and tight:

 Now push the cushion into the screw top - it will force the soft batting through and out the top, and the metal lid remains underneath.  To hide the gathered fabric as shown below, use a hot glue gun to attach a circle of felt for a tidy finish:

 Voila!

Remember the cute little fabric boxes I showed you in this post back in January?  Just think how cute it would be to have a Mason jar pin cushion and a few little matching fabric boxes in your craft room...

 We would love to see what you create with the Ai Shop Hop fabrics - just leave us a note/photo on the Art Impressions facebook page.

Happy sewing!

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A Faux Globe!

It's my day on the Art Impressions blog, and I think I just coined a new product name... today I am sharing a Faux Globe with you (snow globe, get it?) using the sweet Lighted Snowman Set (Sku#4349).  A few days ago, Kate our wonderful Design Team Coordinator, got me thinking of 3D items... and with the current popularity of Mason jar crafts, I decided to try making my own little snowglobe.  Here's what I came up with:

This is definitely not the norm for me!!  I wasn't even sure if it would work, right up until I screwed the lid on... but voila!  It did!  I will admit that while I was inhaling glitter up my nose, and having batting stick to my gluey fingers, I may have muttered Kate's name a few times (smile!) but I think she did me a favour in getting me to think outside my box.

I stamped my snowman and coloured him with Copic markers, then cut around him, leaving about 1 1/4" of paper at the bottom, with a score mark 3/8" up.  I also stamped a couple of trees in the same fashion to use as a background.  Both pieces were glittered up.  I also made a little brace which you'll see in the following photos, which helped hold the pieces upright.

I used Liquid Glass to glue the snowman to the lid, with the little brace behind him.

Then I glued the trees into place.

I glued pieces of quilt batting in front, between and behind all of my pieces, and liberally sprinkled it with glitter.  Before putting the jar on, I dotted a little Liquid Glass on the inside of the jar, and tossed in some glitter so that it would look like glittery snow sticking to the inside of the jar.  Now you hold your breath, hold your tongue right, and carefully put the lid on and screw it tight.  I added a piece of ribbon, and a button and bow around the bottom to finish him off.  Here's a closeup of my little guy:

All in all, it probably took the same amount of time or less than it takes to make your average card.  Hope you'll all make your own Faux Globes this season!