Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project

If you have spent any time searching for fall crafts online, you have probably encountered several variations of this Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project. Covering a canning jar with decoupage leaves creates a warm, rustic center piece for your autumn decor. Although there are other tutorials out there, many of the comments from readers online have expressed difficulty with getting the leaves to stay down. We have discovered a few crafting secrets that make the Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project easier to complete.

Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project Materials

• Mason jar or similar jar/candle holder with smooth sides
• Spray Adhesive (Elmer’s Craft Bond)
• ModPodge
• Twine, raffia, or chunky yarn
• Silk leaves or freshly pressed leaves
• Wide brush

Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project Directions

You can use silk leaves or real leaves for your Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project. If you would like to use real leaves, collect leaves from outside and press them in a flower press or large book. Once they are flat you can use them. Be sure they are still fresh though. Do not use old, dried leaves, as they will crumble when you try to bend them around the jar. Highly textured leaves may not work well either. Remove stems.

For the Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project you will need a jar or candle holder with smooth sides. This is important. The leaves will not stick well to bumpy jars that have names embossed across the sides. Jars from store bough items, such as pickles and spaghetti sauce, often have smooth sides so the labels will stay on. Cheap jars from a dollar store will also work well.

Remove all labels from the jar and clean thoroughly. Just as you always want to pre-wash fabric, even brand new jars should be washed and dried to remove any factory reside, oil from hands, and label goo.

 

Seemingly, the hardest part of the Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project is getting the leaves to stick to the jar. It is very difficult to get the leaves to stay in place with just using ModPodge. So we choose to add another step. Add a coat of spray adhesive (we used Elmer’s Craft Bond) to the outside of the jar. Spray adhesive is very messy and should not be inhaled, so we recommend completing this step outdoors!

 

Once you have applied the spray adhesive, the sides of the jar will be very tacky. Hold the jar from the inside.

 

Carefully press your leaves to the side of the jar.

 

Overlap the leaves slightly as you add more. It is okay if the edges do not lay down fully. If you want to overlap the leaves a lot, you may want to add another coat of spray adhesive after you have placed the base layer of leaves.

 

If you haven’t already, cover your work surface. Once all of your leaves are in place, add a light coat of ModPodge with your brush to the entire jar. Be sure to get some ModPodge under the edges of overlapping leaves. Do not add too much ModPodge at this point. If you get the jar too wet, the leaves may stop sticking to the spray adhesive. As the ModPodge dries, push down the overlapping leaf edges. Once the ModPodge is slightly dried, it gets tackier and at that point it will be easier to get those edges to stay down. They do not have to lay down fully though. We used a hairdryer at a low setting to speed up the drying time. (Note: In the materials photo at the top of the post we have a jar of glossy ModPodge, but we decided to use a Matte ModPodge instead.)

 

After the first coat of ModPodge is mostly dry, add a second, thicker coat of Modpodge around the whole outside of the jar. Again, press down any edges that are sticking up.

 

When the ModPodge is completely dry, wrap twine, yarn, or raffia around the top edge of the jar several times. It took about 10 times around for our thinner twine to look good. Cut and tie in place.

 

Add a candle to your Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder. We like to use flame-less candles so that they are safe around the kids.

 

Your completed Mason Jar Leaf Candle Holder Project is now ready to be added to your fall decor.