Today I’ve joined 25 bloggers for ‘The Scoop on Creating a Handmade Christmas’.
I first used the Christmas township candle jars as a table decoration for a Christmas dinner party.
It is one of those projects that is super quick and easy, but gives spectacular results.
If you’ve been following along with my 4th annual Simply Christmas event you already know that handmade is my ‘thing’.
Simply Christmas runs for 8 weeks from 1st November through to Christmas Eve every year at Shabby Art Boutique and celebrates putting the homemade and home baked back into the holidays.
With just basic supplies, you can makes these Christmas candle jars that look amazing when illuminated at night.
One of the things I love most about handmade items is their uniqueness.
No one else will have exactly the same piece… even if they follow the exact same instructions. This is definitely one of those projects.
For your convenience, I have added affiliate links to some of the supplies I used.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- A clean empty jar. I’ve used coffee jars and mason jars.
- 1 piece of dark coloured scrapbook paper… mine was a charcoal grey.
- Template – download HERE
- Other supplies: paper, pencil, ruler, craft knife (or scalpel).
- Santa Snow.
- Epsom Salts and clear glue.
- 1 x light source – tea light candle, battery operated candle or battery operated fairy lights.
Note: Although I have a Silhouette machine, I chose to hand cut my townships and made different townships for all of my jars. If you have a cutting machine you may prefer to use that to cut the design for you.
Instructions:
1. Start by measuring the circumference of your jar. Mine was 30 cm, which is the width of a piece of scrapbook paper.
2. Determine how high you want your township to extend. My highest point is 9 cm high.
3. I sketched my township onto the paper, creating a skyline of several different houses and trees.
4. Cut out the silhouette with a sharp craft knife (or use a Silhouette machine). Allow an extra centimetre at one end to use as a tab to glue the two ends together. Put the cut-out aside until you prepare the jar.
5. I sprayed the top third of the outside of the jar with a light misting of Santa Snow. When it was dry, I applied a bead of clear glue around the top of the jar and sprinkled with Epsom Salts. This made it look icy.
6. Place a tea light candle or battery operated tea light candle in the base of the jar and then fill the remainder of the base around the candle with Epsom Salts. The Epsom Salts look like snow!
8. Wrap your township silhouette around the outside of the jar and glue the two ends together.
The amount of detail you include on this project is limited only by your imagination and your cutting skills.
I kept mine fairly simple as I needed to make quite a few of them.
If you’d like to see more of my handmade Christmas projects, please visit my ‘Tutorials’ page.
[PIN for later]
You may also like:
my hand painted Christmas Candle Jar
or my Halloween Candle Jar tutorials.
Hugs
♥
Kerryanne
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I love it! It looks so pretty with the candle lit … like a little winter wonderland! Thanks for sharing the tutorial with us.
Absolutely beautiful!
Oh dear me, this is simply beautiful! Love the details you put into your silhouette township! The snow adds so much to it as well. Just lovely!
Love this idea, how adorable and clever.
Thanks for joining us on the tour!!
Wow, it’s beautiful! I love the snowy glowy look when the candle is lit. 🙂
What a lovely candle holder – it’s beautiful and so effective.
Toni xx
Kerryanne, your candle jar is amazing. I have not seen anything like this before. They will look amazing on your holiday table.
Gorgeous and, oh, so Christmas-y! I will definitely have to try this. Thank you for sharing your beautiful idea!
Kerryanne,
Love the silhouette! So many different possibilities for designs…you are so correct that each one will be unique to the maker.
So glad to be on The Scoop tour with you,
Merry Christmas,
Judith
Kerryanne this is adorable I Love it!! You did a beautiful job!!
I love this one…so pretty and so unique! The little town is the perfect touch! Thanks so much for sharing with us! Hugs…Debbie
Kerryanne this is so cute! Love this idea!I love burning candles this time of the year and this can be left out all winter.
xx
Anne
This is so pretty, Kerryanne. I think I am going to make some of these — but I’ll be taking a shortcut and using my die cutter. I think this would be a great kid-friendly project, too.
Is there a pattern for the stencil.. I am not an artist and I could not draw that free hand. please help
Hi Dorothy, I have emailed you 🙂
I received your email this a.m However I did not see anything different, am I in the wrong place. I thank you for taking the time to email me.. I have been trying different things for making a “township candle”..
Hi Dorothy,
As I said in my email, I did not supply a pattern for this project. It is a freehand project meant as an inspiration to others to recreate something similar. I merely explain how I made mine and how you could create something similar. Everyone of the jars I created was individually drawn and hand cut, so no two are the same. I don’t have a pattern for this unfortunately… if I did I would send you one.
Hi can you please email me and how to get the stencil, as I am like Dorothy not very arty
Kind Regards
Mary
Hi Mary,
If you follow the link in the post, it takes you to the new post with the template for the township.
Have fun making the candle jar. 🙂
Can you please send me the template thank you so much
Hi Dawn, look for the red writing on this blog post where it says “Get template and instructions HERE”. If you click that, it will take you to the page where the template is and there are instructions on how to download it to your own computer.
I would love the template for this candle as well, I am definatly not that talented 🙂
The link to the template for the candle is in the post Shelley 🙂
Hi,
Do you have any ideas on where I could get the glass jars like this? I am trying to get several of them (20 or so) for this project, but the only thing I can find are the mason jars. I much prefer the shape and size of your jar. Do you have a source that I could try?
Thanks!
Hi Heidi,
I used Mocona coffee jars, but that’s here in Australia. You might have different ones there.
Happy crafting,
Kerryanne
Target currently has jars that would be perfect in their dollar area
This is really beautiful. Thank you for sharing it. I’ll be adding it to my board ‘My handmade Christmas’. http://www.pinterest.com/ByElsieB/my-handmade-christmas/
Hi just love your stuff, you do beautiful work and are very sweet to share your ideas, my question is the only jars I can find where I live, which is Houston,Tx. are the mason canning jars, and they have the logo on them which will interfere with the city scape, do you have any idea of what other kind of jars I could use. thanx Cindy
Hi Cindy,
I used empty Mocona coffee jars, but I live in Australia, so you may not have that brand in the states. Any empty glass jar will be okay eg jam jar, peanut butter. I just recycle our used jars 🙂
Hello again, can you tell me what size jar did you use. like a 32oz or bigger or smaller, I know any size can be used, but really the size that you used is perfect. Thanx once again Texas gal Cindy
Hi Cindy!
I’m also from Houston, Tx. Try checking out Dollar Tree! They sell a lot of different types of jars and glass vases and I’m sure you can find a size that you want. Another thing I like to do is re-using spaghetti sauce or pickle jars. Those are usually smooth and a pretty decent size! Hope that helps 🙂
Laura
Bonjour,
J’ai un problème, quand je vaporise mon pot avec la neige artificiel, cette dernière ne tient pas sur le pot et glisse, elle ne xe fixe
pas.
Avez vous une technique pour qu’elle adhere au pot.
Merci
Cordialement
Clodhy
Clodhy , sonne comme vous ne l’avez pas nettoyé le verre correctement . Si le verre est propre ( pas grasse ) les bâtons de neige . Si frotté il sera supprimé , mais résiste à utiliser si la neige ne soit pas trop touché .
Espérons que cela aide 🙂
Does the snow come off when touched? I was wondering how it would hold up being wrapped for a Christmas gift.
Hi Mindy,
The snow is exactly as it is if you used it on your windows. It will easily wipe off, so probably not good for postage. I’ve found that the jars I made last year have hardened somewhat with time, but I do remember the snow was soft when I made them. This year I’ve put handles on mine so they are easy to move around and it is not necessary to touch the snowy top.
Hope this helps 🙂
The township is just awsome. I can hardly wait to make it
I hope you enjoy making them as much as I did Suzanne 🙂
Dear Kerryanne,
I have pin this awesome clandleproject some time ago. This month i am gonna make it.
Tanks for sharing. Greetings from Holland. José Hummeling.
Welcome Jose. I hope you have lots of fun making this project. There’s a new post that give more information about this project that you might find helpful – http://shabbyartboutique.com/2014/11/its-no-secret-women-love-candles.html
Hi Kerryanne! One question about the construction of this beautiful jar–do you spray the inside or the outside with the Santa Snow? I couldn’t tell from the pictures, though other comments about adding some kind of handle so the snow is not disturbed when moving it leads me to think it is sprayed on the outside. Is that a correct assumption? Thanks for this fantastic idea! Yours looks so homey and pretty. 🙂
Hi Patricia,
Yes you spray the outside of the jar. I have a new post about this project that you may find more helpful – http://shabbyartboutique.com/2014/11/its-no-secret-women-love-candles.html
I hope you enjoy making this candle holder.
I’m assuming you sprayed the outside of the jar with snow , but if this is true how do you keep it from coming off? If inside does it burn ?
Hi Jody,
You spray the outside of the jar, as it may catch fire if you spray the inside. This project ahs been updated with more information here – http://shabbyartboutique.com/2014/11/its-no-secret-women-love-candles.html
hi! This is absolutely beautiful! I was hoping to make them soon, but I have one question! This may sound stupid as hell! But do you spray the inside or outside of the jar with the snow spray? I know you have to glue the paper cut out township on the outside, but I’m a tad confused about the snow! Haha forgive me if I sound like an idiot!
Thanks! Xx
Hi Hollie,
You spray the outside of the jar with the Santa Snow. If you pop over to my home page, yesterdays post gives more details about making this project.
Happy crafting,
Kerryanne
This s awsome. I Have been looking for some handmade decorations. And this is something im definitely goin to try:) Thankyou:)
I hope you enjoy making yours as much I did Gladies 🙂
I would love to have the link for the stencil for the town as well please… I am not an artist, and want to make this for a special occasion …several tables… also I was wondering if you used a flameless candle if you could spray the snow on the inside to keep from messing it up….
I have to use electric candles for this event not allowed to use real candles.. This is coming up very soon and I don’t have much time to make 20 + of them so as soon as I can have the information the better and I really appreciate all your help!
Thank You!
Brenda
Hi Brenda,
The link to the new post with the template is in this post. Hope you enjoy making the township candle jar 🙂
You are such a talented and generous person Kerryanne. Thanks so much for sharing the template and how-to’s, think there will be township candle jars all over America and other parts of world this year. I have some big pickle jars so would like to enlarge templates to put in one of them anyway. Not sure how many I can get done before the holiday. Hope I can figure out how to enlarge, help daughter, I’m terrible digitally challenged, Good thing we have technology smart daughter. Somehow I missed all your wonderful holiday creations last year. I tried to resubscribe but the page told me I already am, hope I can get your posts regularly. I so enjoy seeing how you come up with so many outstanding projects. I’m a senior (74) citizen that loves to create. Keeps me busy and out of trouble, not enuf hours in any day. Keeps hubs hopping also making things, cutting things out for me.
Hope you have wonderful holidays and again thank you so much.
Amazing blog! Following you! <3
Thanks and welcome to Shabby Art Boutique Vania 🙂
This is brilliant for those Like me who are challenged when it be nice if you could actually sell the paper products premade online so we could just glue them to our candle jar??:-)
It’s so adorable Kerryanne, and I would love to make my version of it, and if I do, I’ll come back to show it to you, ok?
Thank you for this beautiful diy.
I hope you do Regina. I have a link party every Friday and we’d love to see your version of the Christmas township candle jar.
Hi Just to say thanks for this great Idea and the kids loved the activity. One for the big scrap book.
Many Thanks
Ian
great idea will try thankyou
Thank you for sharing this tutorial. I work with a wonderful group of people who have special needs, and with some slight modifications this has been a great Christmas art project for us. Holly.
would you share your template with me? I love this idea. Thanks
Hi Lisa, the template is available on my blog… the link is in this blog post. Have fun creating this project 🙂
Very pretty and would love to make this for the holidays. Could you please link to the template for the village. I would soooo appreciate it.
Hi Suzan, the link to the template is already on the post written in red. Just click on the word ‘HERE’ and it will take you to the page with the template.
If you used a preserving jar you could also include a top stencil of the night sky with perhaps the moon, stars and a few angels. You could use a taller candle or the tea lights.
Hi , if I don’t have santa snow , can we replace it ?
Thank you so much for sharing the “recipe” for the xmas jar… it just looks fabulous. I don’t know if I can find epsom salts here in Luxembourg (Europe), but I will look for it. Best wishes, Dominique
Thanks for sharing this. Inspired by your work, I repurposed a lamp with Mumbai city silhouette. It turned out to be excellent. Unable to upload the pic. Thanks a ton!
Thank you so much for sharing! I can’t wait to make one. I absolutely love it and I know it will be adorable.
It’s so great!I love it:)
Beautifull great idea for Christmas
bu harika bayıldım ellerinize sağlık
Hi!
I loved these jars so I made them as Christmas gifts for my family. However I did not realize the Santa snow would wipe right off. Do you know of any clear coat spray I could use to make it stay? I’m really hoping to find something so I’m able to give these gifts and not have to get rid of them after the time and money I spent on them.
Thanks!
LOVE THIS… Can I buy the silhoutte or completed jars from you? The jars are beautiful!!!
I do not have steady hands… Thank-you for this post
Hi Louise, unfortunately I do not sell these in my shop. Kerryanne
Thanks for your idea, love to try this christmas, as I have lots of jars and never know what to do with them.
Love the look of this is there a wy for me to get a email of the township sent to my computer ?. I use mostly a tablet like now,and I can’t find a wayto email from your site or to download to print it out. Want to make for my thanksgiving and xmas dinner next month.. thank you for your help and great ideas new too. Ernie
the jars look great!! thanks! – i am going to give this a go!!
Kiitos, onpa kaunis.
Thank you Kerryanne for the nice Tutorial
Greetings from Mari
Thank you for sharing your creativity! What a cute way to repurpose a jar! You are an inspiration!
Thank you Kerryanne to share your beautiful template with us. I made a Christmas candle jar and my husband was very impressed. I told him the idea was not mine but yours 🙂 Next year I will make some more and also some for Halloween.
I love this! Thank you for the template and the directions
My boss just returned from a safari in Africa, caught your mason jar town and I am looking for a scene to make one for him for remembrance. Absolutely beautiful!
Thank you for allowing the use of your photos on pinterest linking back to this post!
OMG I AM SO IN LOVE WITH YOUR BLOG! I Just found you through Victoria from HomeBNC. I decided to browse and became a fan immediately! I just signed up and hope we can be great friends! I love what you do! I have been a sewer for many years, as well as a woodworker, mom, grandma, major crafter, love home design and renovations..etc. etc. etc. I just can’t get enough of it…it is my whole life! I appreciate just about anything that goes into a home including the inside and out. Unfortunately age gets ahold of us and limits us but I keep going and going the best I can. ? I am getting a new sewing machine for Christmas and can’t wait to put it to good use with 960 stitches! Anyway just thought I would share a bit and again…love your blog and hope to use much of it! Happy Holidays!
Hello,
I am wondering if you have this in a different template? I’m trying to upload it to my cricut and i can not because it is a PDF file. This is amazing and i hope to be able to cut it! Thank you!
Hi Bekah,
This was a hands on project I made with a craft knife and I never intended to share it when I was making it… so no, I do not have an alternative template unfortunately.
Thank you for your lovely easy step by step guide and template, I’m actually not very good at crafts but this turned out really well and I’m chuffed to bits, I cant wait to put these and the decorations up in only a few more weeks. well done for fighting for your copyright battle. Jenny from Cornwall UK
Love this village how do I get a svg file for my cricut? Thanks
Hi Kim,
I’m glad you like the Christmas Township Candle Holder. This is not a cricut project. Even though I have a Silhouette, I didn’t use it for this project. This is a good old fashioned handmade project, all cut by hand with a scalpel knife, with every township completely different to the others.
I wish this were available to buy, I am not crafty and afraid it will turn out badly. Beautiful job!