Pretty Paper Peonies

I was asked to make centerpieces for someone's bridal shower in the near future and really had no clue what to do, until I came upon a neat post on Pinterest.com, paper peony flowers.  This is not a tutorial, but if you'd like to know how I made these centerpieces you may feel free to contact me or search online.  The pictures below are not the finished products but rather the step before.  I need to purchase some vases for these floral creations and arrange them properly, then they will be finished.  But until then, I just wanted to share with you what I created and encourage you to make more things by hand. Enjoy!

These little beauties will be interspersed within the white flowers.

A close-up of one of my flowers, particularly focusing on the underneath wrapping.

DIY Glass Jar Centerpiece

Now I'm not Marta Stewart or a writer for Better Homes & Garden, but I do like to save money and be creative, which is what brings me to my current blog post.  I decided after seeing some beautiful centerpieces at a wedding, I wanted to recreate that look for my own home.  The centerpiece at the wedding included three clear glass mason jars with real flowers in each jar on top of a curvy rounded wooden flat plank, just gorgeous!  Me, being on a budget, decided, do I actually have to spend money to make this?  The answer was, NO!  I took what I had and repurposed it, I felt so accomplished and creative. 

So here is what I did: 
I took one spaghetti sauce jar (believe it or not, they are real mason jars).  My jar happened to be the Atlas brand.  You unfortunately won't likely find the infamous Ball brand in your local grocery store, but they are beautiful though.  I then took an empty salsa jar and then one old jam jar I had stored in my cabinets.

The trick with repurposing old jars is getting the label, the glue, and the expiration date off. 
To get the label off peel what you can first. If you can't get it all off run it under hot water and that will loosen up the glue and paper, making it easier to rub off.  To get the glue off I used dish liquid and a rough scrubby sponge.  I'd put the dish liquid directly onto the stubborn glue and that would really help to lift the glue.  There is probably an easier way to do this, but this is what worked for me so far.  The easiest part is removing the stamped expiration date.  It will literally come off if you rub it with your fingernail, but save your nails and just give it a good rub with the scrubby sponge, it'll come right off!

The last thing you need is to put something inside the jars.  I used old artificial flowers I had in two varieties and placed a votive candle in the widest jar.  I also decided to place the jars on some repurposed door frame corners turned into coasters that I traded for on Etsy a while ago.  The end result is colorful and unique.