DIY Scary Halloween Candle Jars

The past week or so I have been getting majorly into the Halloween spirit (see what I did there? I know, I'm just too much!) I have put up all the decorations and pimped out my ears with spooky spider earrings. I just love this time of year! And one thing I love more is a bit of DIY with glue and glitter to keep the mind firmly in the toddler era - as being a fully grown woman its harder to make excuses when your washing glitter out of your hair for the next week...

But lets get onto how to make these really quick and simple spooky jars. They are really great to do with kids but don't let that put you off making them. Its nice to get a bit of down time do something just for you. So put on the kettle, spread on a face mask and lets get to work!

All you need for this quick and easy project is:

A clean jar
Glue
A paint brush
Black card
Coloured crepe paper
Ribbon (optional)
A tea light or small candle 

Day time look

1. First your going to cut or rip up pieces of your crepe paper - enough to cover your whole jar. Orange, black and white were the colours I used to make pumpkins, a ghost and a bat. 

2. Once you have that done, pour some of your glue onto a plate and start to paint it onto the pieces then sticking them to the jar. Do this all around the jar making sure theres no gaps left.

3. Now the 'hard' part - leave it to dry. Go pour out that cup of tea! I left my jars for a full day to make sure they were super dry. But if your in a rush you can do the next step straight after.

4. Use your black paper to cut shapes for eyes, noses and mouths in whatever expression you want them. For my ghost I did very easy 'U' shapes for the eyes and a circle for the mouth. Once your happy with it, go ahead and glue them on.

5. To finish off my jars I added little ribbons that I thought matched each jar. I especially love the green ribbons on my pumpkin jars as they remind me of the stalks. Then pop in a tea light and your all done. 

Lit up at night

I hope some of you will make these as they are so fun and easy to do. Not only that but its a great way to recycle some of your old jars. I have a feeling the house will soon be coming down with all the ones I want to make! 

Keeping on the Halloween topic, have you entered my Halloween giveaway yet? Theres things like a Benefit lipstick and Lush bath bomb to be won!

Recycling And Reusing Christmas Cards

Hello everyone! Today is the 6th of January, which means for a lot of people in Ireland its finally the day to take down all your decorations and the tree until next year. There are so many people (myself included) who are superstitious and wont take anything down until today for fear of bad luck. Over Christmas there is so much waste. Food, wrapping paper, boxes, batteries. You name it, its fecked into the bin. Who spends more time then their willing to admit fishing things out of the wrong bin to put in the right one? Right, just me then it seems!

 I love cards of all kinds and tend to keep them. But the cards that are from your neighbour or your far away, only-ever-saw-her-once-when-I-was-little aunt might not be as special to you. So cut them up. The pictures are all beautiful.

Heres a really simple idea I found on YouTube for making a 'card wreath' that means saving money, recycling and well, showing off to anyone who asks where you bought it!

Another fancy idea is to make ornaments for your tree or maybe to hang from the ceiling.

• You can make a big one using 20 circles or a smaller one using 10. Just make sure the one you pick is all the same size.
• Use the top of a glass or the bottom of a body spray bottle depending on what size you like. 
• After you cut them out cut out another circle the same size but from cardboard (a cereal box would be handy!) and draw equilateral triangle. Cut this out and draw it onto the insides of your 10 or 20 cards. Then fold along the lines.
• Now, you can use glue for the next bit, but I always like to use a stapler because there is no fear of pieces coming apart. Join one flap each from two circles, points should be touching the edge of the circle. Doing the same thing, join the flaps of three more to these two. And thats the top done. 
• Glue or staple the left over circles together in an up and down way, alternating the tringlae points. 
• Lastly, after all that is glued or stapled together make a small hole in the top and hang thread from it.

Young or old I hope you have fun doing these!