Make (craft) love, not war: toy soldier jar toppers

Hello! Did you play with toy soldiers when you were little? I didn't, yet for some reason, I had two big packets of them in my craft room. I collect a lot of weird things because I think I'll do something with them, and in this case I actually did!

I *always* need more craft storage, and I kinda hate throwing away jars (even though I do recycle them ... it's just the latent hoarder in me, I think! ~__^) so I decided to make some jar toppers to pretty up my craft room a little ^__^

 

These were really easy to make too! Here's what you'll need:

- toy soldiers

- clean jars

- thin craft wire

- glue

- spray paint

- thin plastic or cardboard (I diverted some cartons from my recycling bin for this purpose) 

- wire snippers 

- craft scissors

 

Firstly you'll need to cut out some small hearts from the cardboard or plastic. I used four, because I wanted one soldier to have two hearts, just to add in some variety.

 

Then cut a short length of wire and give it a little bit of a twist. Check out the photos below for some close-ups of the wire (it's probably easier than me trying to describe it! ~__^)

Use your glue to attach the heart to one end of the wire, then attach the wire to the end of the soldier's gun.

 

   

Since you've already got your glue out, stick down the soldier onto the jar lid ^__^

 

Then all you need to do is wait for it to dry, and then give everything a coat of spray paint. I *was* going to use cherry red, but I ran out! Oh no! Since I'm still trying to stick to my commitment of not buying new craft supplies, I used white instead. I'm actually glad though, because I think it gives the jar toppers a kind of ceramic look ^__^

Then you can fill them up!

I used my jars to hold some skeins of embroidery thread, my fabric pens and measuring tape, and my sewing machine threads. You could also use this for bathroom or kitchen storage, or even as cute way to corral all that wayward stationery on your desk! (Oh, wait ... is that just me? ~__^)

 

Whatever you think you'd use these for, I hope you like this project! Now, to think of a way to use up the other 1756 soldiers still languishing in my craft room ... ~__^

- Lisa xx