Frosted Luminaries

There was one decoration that I did for my Pumpkin Party that I didn't talk about in my previous blog. They're frosted glass luminaries, and they can be used for any occasion where you need a little ambient lighting:

Like so.

 All I did was save up some glass jars, wash them, put on some foil star stickers (the kind you get in the office section of your local big box store), and spray on some glass frosting spray. I've seen ideas similar to this floating around on Pinterest, but most of them call for spray paint, and I personally didn't want to use anything so opaque. For my project, I used Krylon Frosted Glass Finish, mainly because it was the only kind my craft store had at the time. Just make sure your jars are good and clean, make sure all that sticky junk that holds the labels on is gone, and follow the instructions on the spray can. These would be great for Christmas, or even a wedding. You can customize your stickers to any shape, or just leave them off entirely. It's a great little upcycling project that takes only minutes to do.

Now, in case you're wondering, the sticky stuff on the jars I used was pretty stubborn. What I did to get it off was remove the label and rub some petroleum jelly on the adhesive. I let it sit for a day or two, then I scraped as much off as I could with a razor. After that, I washed the jar with HOT water and soap. If it didn't all come off after that, I spritzed it with some Pine-Sol and re-washed the jar with hot water and soap. I've also heard you can used peanut butter, rubbing alcohol, or nail-polish remover. Basically, these things are supposed to weaken the adhesive so that it isn't quite so sticky. I tried them all, and the petroleum jelly worked best for me; I only had to use the Pine-Sol a couple of times as a last resort.

I'm proud of how these turned out. I'm going to keep them handy for my next evening porch get-together. Anyway, that's it for now. Stay tuned for more crafty stuff!