Reusing Candle Jars

You CAN etch on Yankee Candle Jars!  I was so happy to discover it. I had wanted to try it, but was afraid it wouldn’t work.  It won’t work on Pyrex glass as I learned here.  I thought that the candle jars were made of the same kind of glass and wouldn’t etch, so I have been putting them in the recycle.  But I wanted to make a crayon container to hold the crayons I made last week, and I thought the Yankee Candle jar I had recently finished with would be perfect.  So I went ahead and cleaned it up and masked it off using my Cricut anyway.

I did a lot of googling and did run across some people who said they had successfully etched Pyrex AND someone who said they had etched Yankee Candle jars.  Of course by this time I was already committed anyway, so what the heck.  🙂  However, what a great way to be able to use these wonderful jars for other things.  Don’t use them for food, however, as they do retain the scent from the candles (this is what I keep reading, and I’m going to agree with the warning).  But for crayons, hey, so what if they smell like candles?!

This was simple, you can follow the etching directions found here.  I did it a little differently.  I used the letters and outlined them with straight lines, so that the letters are clear and the area around them is etched.   Of course, you will want to use your own creative ideas. 🙂 I wrapped the words around the jar, and it’s not quite straight, but it looks ok. You might want to measure, I probably should have. I wasn’t as careful as I could have been, because to be honest, I wasn’t really convinced it would work, and so I didn’t invest as much time into it as I probably should have. Still, I like it.  Oh, and the jar is against a red background so you can see the etching.  It’s not done in red, it’s all clear, but it doesn’t show up well in photos if I don’t have a colored background.

Then, I wanted something to cover the words on the top.  I toyed with several different ideas, but finally went to the craft store and my husband found a really cute heart (fit the theme!) that wasn’t perfectly heart shaped. I liked that, and it was just the right size.  So, I hot glued it on.  I overdid the hot glue a little (that baby’s NOT coming off!) but my thoughtful husband managed to clean up the mess.  I really love it.

Then I finished it up with some ribbon (which I’m sure will come off but just to make it look festive.  Then, filled it up with the recycled crayons from last week.  Finally, finished!  I know it’s the wrong season, but I think this would be a cute Valentine’s Day present, for a little girl, OR  a teacher for that matter.  And when the recycled crayons are gone, you can fill them with regular crayons (those boxes they come in NEVER hold up!)

I’m going to start saving those Yankee Candle Jars and etching them as gifts.  Easy project, now that I have it figured out!  Hope you do some and share your ideas with me.