{round one: one crafty contest}

If you follow me on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve noticed all of my pleas for votes in the One Crafty Contest that Amy, the mama of One Artsy Mama, is hosting.  Last week I made the Top 20 with this beaut…

For a full tutorial on how to make your own Mad Planter click here.

Yesterday voting came to an end for Round 1 of the Contest.  All participants were asked to create a project that incorporated beads (and any other materials we needed).  There were some amazing entries, and luckily all of you thought mine was worthy of the Top 15!  I’m honored to be continuing on in the contest after having created these…

To make your own {twine & bead wrapped patriotic jars} you’ll need:

• jute twine
• glass jars (recycled spaghetti jars)
• beading wire
• seed beads (in your desired colors)
• other decorative beads (I had stars and larger circular beads)
• glue gun
• items to put in the jars

I already owned most of the items, but did have to go out and buy the beads, buttons, and felt stars.  The seed beads, buttons, and patriotic bracelets were all purchased at JoAnn’s and were part of their Memorial Day Sale (50% off).  I found the felt stars in the $1.00 bins by the registers.

{red, white, and blue beads used in the project}

{some other materials used}

To get started, I cleaned all the “stickiness” left behind by the food labels on the jars using first warm water and Dawn, then Goo Gone.  Looking back, I really didn’t have to do this since they were all getting covered in jute twine.  I wrapped the bottles in jute twine using the same method I did here.  Make sure you have some extra sticks of hot glue on hand for this!  I covered three jars, putting a dot every few inches to secure the twine as I wrapped them and probably used almost 10 sticks of glue.  Keep in mind that I have a mini glue gun!

I like them just wrapped in the jute, but this was not a jute round, it was a bead round.  So to the wire and beads I went.  I’m not going to lie.  This part was tedious (and probably why I usually don’t work with beads).  I wove the wire through the jute and wrapped it a few times so it stayed securely in place.  Then I slid on between 20-30 beads at a time, randomly, before weaving the wire through the twine once again.  This way, the beads and wire were connected to the jars and not just wrapped around the surface.

After a couple of naps (sadly, not for me), I had three wrapped jars.  I’m planning to use them as decor during my son’s 1st birthday on July 3rd (now you understand the red, white, and blue).  I’ll either keep the stars in them or use them to hold utensils…I don’t quite know yet!  I do know that I love how they turned out!  Here’s a closeup…

Thanks to Amy for hosting this awesome (and super fun) contest and thanks again to all of you for voting (even though you didn’t know which entry was mine)!  I’m so excited to start working on my entry for Round 2, The Mod Podge Round!

Enjoy!

Please leave a comment, I love to hear from my readers!

I’m linking up at these great parties!