How to Make Mason Jar Lid Ring Christmas Ornaments

I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World.

If you enjoy canning, don't you have SOOOOO many Mason jar lid rings?

Those Mason jar lid rings, also called screw bands, can be re-used (unlike the lid tops, which you aren't supposed to re-use at all), but only until they start to rust or get bent or dinged, something that seems to happen with my rings, at least, after very few uses.

Sigh.

Fortunately, there are loads of ways to repurpose these rings so that you're not just adding them to the waste stream. And since it's December, my favorite way to repurpose ANYTHING this month has to be Christmas ornaments!

These Mason jar lid ring Christmas ornaments look a lot harder to make than they are. If you're artistic, you'll love using these to show off your skills, but even if you're not--hey, that's why clip art, stickers, and patterned paper were invented!

Supplies

To make these ornaments, you will need:

• Mason jar lid rings. Repurpose ones that are no longer suitable for canning. Don't can? You know someone who does, or check on Freecycle or Craigslist--there is someone out there who would LOVE to give you their dinged-up canning supplies.
• Ribbon. Stash ribbon is fine, but twine, hemp cord, or even thin chain would work.
• Mat board or thick cardboard. For these particular ornaments, I used mat board scraps (does it still count as hoarding if you really do use the stuff someday?), but thick cardboard--something thicker than card stock or food packaging--would also be fine.
• Decorative paper. Use scrapbook paper, old book pages or sheet music, or even wrapping paper.
• Image for the ornament's front. My daughter traced the inside edge of a Mason jar lid ring, then created several pieces of original artwork for our ornament fronts, all of which I photocopied onto card stock so that we could make multiples. Anything fun and creative would make a beautiful ornament, however. If you've got scrapbook supplies, dig them out!
• Spray paint (optional). It's not eco-friendly, but if you want to change the color of your Mason jar lid ring from rusted metal, this is your best option. I've made these ornaments both ways, and while I do like the painted ornaments better, it's not necessarily worth the time that it takes to paint them.
• Glue. You need an archival glue suitable for paper and a separate, sturdier glue for the rings. I used spray mount for the former and hot glue for the latter.

Directions

1. Trace the inside edge of a Mason jar lid ring. This will be your template for cutting the decorative paper back, the mat board middle, and the featured image on the front.

2. Make a beautiful ornament front. The Mason jar lid ring makes the perfect frame for your original art. Whatever medium you prefer, whether it's watercolors, acrylics, markers, or charcoal, it will look adorable in this simple round frame. But don't forget that you can also use stickers, cut-outs, clip art, or anything else you'd like in order to embellish these ornament fronts.

3. Cut all pieces to size. The ornament front, mat board or card stock, and ornament backing paper should all be cut to your template. You can pop them into the Mason jar lid ring to check the fit--sometimes I've found that I haven't cut a piece carefully and have to trim it a bit. Better to do that now than when you're racing the hot glue gun!

4. Glue the ornament front, middle, and back together. Spray mount gives the most archival result, but an ordinary glue stick is also perfectly serviceable.

5. Do you want to paint the Mason jar lid ring? If so, do it now! Spray clear sealant, with or without painting the rings, is another option.

6. Tie ribbon onto the Mason jar lid ring. A lark's head knot is just about the easiest and most attractive of knots, and that's what you're going to do here. Tie the ends of the ribbon into a bow, and there you have your ornament hanger!

7. Glue the ornament piece to the Mason jar lid ring. I've tried several types of glue with this ornament, and none are really ideal. The most full-proof glue is hot glue, but you'll have to work quickly. Lay out the ornament, face-down, and the Mason jar lid ring, flat side down and with the ribbon at the top, and then quickly dispense hot glue around the inside edge of the lid ring. Immediately set the ornament into the lid ring and press it down so that it's flush against the flat side of the lid ring.

These ornaments are a great way to show off a kid's artwork--or your own! A matching set of complementary ornaments also makes a nice handmade gift.

But of course, I like them best on my own tree, displaying all of our homemade love for the season.

Sweet Life

Miss Willow, inspired by all the Bunnicula books that a little girl could ever dream on, is dressed as...

a VAMPIRE!!!

I sewed her voluminous black cape, complete with epic hood, out of a big piece of stash stretchy velvet that I bought at Goodwill sometime or other.

And her fangs, can you tell?

Yep, plastic fork.

Sydney wanted to be a "leaf mermaid," whatever that is. I sewed her a pillowcase skirt, she decorated the skirt with Tee Juice fabric marker leaves (and a sun and sky and raindrops and clouds, etc.), and then I safety-pinned one of her no-sew tutus to the bottom to flutter out like a mermaid's tail. The rest of her outfit (what little there is, yes, I am aware) is made from our hand-dyed play silks tied around her:

We have a FABULOUS neighborhood for trick-or-treating--lots of families, LOTS of houses with porch lights lit, lots of undergrad rentals in which, if they're girls, they give out enormous amounts of really good candy, and if they're dudes, they come to the door half-dressed, look surprised to see you, then shuffle around in their cabinets before handing over sweet stuff like powerbars and cans of soda and money.

LOVE our neighborhood:

We always head out at sunset, and I always force everyone to arm themselves amply with glowsticks, and Matt always looks about like this about his glowstick necklace--

--but I swear, that article that they run in the newspaper on Halloween every year, advising drivers to be especially cautious because kids will be running around like idiots? They write that article on account of my kids, who ran around and dashed back and forth across the street and fell down porch stairs and walked right into people's houses while I ran after them and shouted a lot:

Yep, I'm the unwary mom who lets my girls accept cups of apple cider from total strangers, the lax mom who does not pay my kids to take their candy or hand it off to the candy fairy or stuff it in the freezer to dish out a piece a day or whatever the cool parents are doing this year, the neglectful mom who, when a kid looked up from her haul later that night, her mouth full of candy, and asked, "Hey, did we have dinner?", replied, "Candy. That's your dinner."

And yet somehow I HAVE managed to get the children to keep their candy wrappers picked up (so far) this year, and they keep coming up to me, unbidden, and offering me pieces of chocolate, which they know is my favorite, and this year my shy girl went up to every single house with her little sister, and said, "Trick-or-treat!" and "Thank you!" AND "Happy Halloween!" at every. Single. House!

See? Sweet life, with Reese's cups and all.

Tied Tutus for My Two, Too

The plan was to tie some tutus for my tent at Strange Folk, but somehow, amongst the GeoSafari and the gumdrops and bamboo skewers and Magic Tree House and the Mythbusters, only these two tutus for my two got tied:

Gotta have your priorities, you know.

Curtains to Tutu

Willow has started attending a dance class with the Windfall Dancers, a modern dance collective in our town. For her first class, she wore sweatpants and a comfy shirt, but all the other girls wore leotards and pink tutus and pink onesie-things. I was embarrased and told the instructor I didn't realize there was a dress code or I'd have dressed Willow appropriately (or rather, not have signed her up), but the instructor replied that there actually wasn't a dress code but that all the little girls (except for Willow) always seemed to just show up like that. Now, I've tried very hard all of Willow's life to avoid gendering her in a stereotypically feminine fashion, and I'm quite proud that she remains unconscious of things like princesses and tiaras and Barbie dolls, and there's no way in hell that I'm going to dress her like a pink ballerina for her creative movements for 3-5-year-olds dance class, but I also don't want her to feel deprived if she notices all the floaty little fairies in their frilly little tutus in her midst and wants a girly dance outfit herself. My solution? As follows:

Take the curtains that used to hang in the girls' room but do not anymore:

Add to them some hot pink and black tulle bought on sale at Joann's:

Visit this forum on Craftster for inspiration, spend some time with scissors on the rug with the girls, some more time tying knots in front of DVDs of season 7 of Little Tragedy on the Prairie Seasons 1 - 9 (9 Pack), and end up with...

...two awesomely happy little punk rock tutu girls.