Reversible scarecrow snowman porch sign, how this custom order brought me to tears

I love fun décor. My grandma was the queen at free handing pieces like these. Hers were WAY more detailed and more amazing that anything I could ever dream of doing though. She had an eye and talent of taking old discarded pieces of anything, rusty saw blades, pieces of drift wood, old shoe horns, and turning them into beautiful works of art.

I am proud to say that I got a small morsel of her free handing abilities though. Although I don’t do a ton of free hand work I do enjoy creating this particular piece. I love that no two signs are identical. I love flaws. I love imperfections. I have never been a perfectionist….thankfully. I am a momma and Lord knows life with kids is full of imperfections.

We’ve been making this particular sign reversible porch sign for a few years in our shop and I love when I see these orders pop across our dashboard.

This winter we got a message from a super sweet lady requesting us to make her two of these reversible porch pieces. And she also asked if we could add a little extra touch to them. She was buying them for a friend of hers that was going through a pretty rough season in her life. Her friend had been faced with a lot of heartache in the last year and she wanted gift her something special.

She requested we add cardinals to the hats of these sweet guys. See, her friend had lost loved ones in recent months and when people see a cardinal they tend to associate them with their loved ones who have passed on. It’s not often we get such sentimental requests in our shop so when I read this one I broke down. It hit pretty close to home for me. I’ve lost many people in my life that I love and care so deeply for and when I see a cardinal I think of them too.

I’m not going to lie, I was so nervous creating these pieces for her friend. This was such an honor. Such a big job. Such a sweet request. And I couldn’t let her down.

But there was just one problem…I had never free handed a bird before. That wasn’t stopping me {after all, I’m a mom of four, us moms can pretty much do anything if we set our mind to if we try}! I couldn’t use stencils because the rest of the face was all done free hand, talk about mismatched. So I practiced a few times on a piece of scrap paper. The first few didn’t turn out so great but I finally drew the perfect cardinal and I was so darn proud!!

I decided I was going to cut that perfect little guy out and lightly draw him on the hat brims. This way they were similar but not identical. I was so happy with the outcome of these! They have so much love behind them and I am happy our little shop got to spread happiness to not just the women who lost her loved ones but also her friend that gifted them to her.

I sent our customer a picture of them once they were finished and she was so insanely happy. She had nothing but the most kind words to say to us. Again, insert the tears!

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You can order your own handmade reversible SNOWMAN SCARECROW porch sign here

Do you LOVE DIY? Try my super simple CRAFT KITS. Everything you need to create your own Pinterest worthy pieces at home.

Shipping mason jars? How to easily and safely package them with these simple tips.

Mason jars…who doesn’t love them? Fun fact, we actually use them as drinking glasses in our home. We’ve been doing this for years. They are SUPER affordable, ridiculously cute, and very sturdy {in a house full of kids this is an absolute must…we don’t do the whole plastic cup thing}

But you can also decorate with them. Painted mason jars are soooooo dang cute! What’s not to love? Just look at these snowmen mason jars….can we say ADORABLE!

We sell painted mason jar sets in our online shop and ship them all over the country. So we’ve learned a thing or two about how to package these fragile jars so they arrive in one piece each and every time.

Want my FREE PRINTABLE for my 5 must haves to shipping wood signs? CLICK HERE TO GET IT FROM MY FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY

We only ship USPS. We really LOVE our local post office. We live in a small town of roughly 8k people and it has that true small town feel. Our postal workers always have a smile, they great us as soon as we walk in the door and it’s just always overall an enjoyable experience for our whole family when we drop packages off there.

Usually we ship all of our orders with priority mail boxes. We order them in bulk online and they are perfect for the handmade items we sell. But, not with our mason jars. Priority boxes are just a little too thin for this job so we opt to purchase sturdy boxes for the job.

Here’s what you’ll need, with links to what we use

Sturdy box

packaging tape

tissue paper

craft paper

bubble wrap

Don’t mind the paint on my hand, it was a crazy busy day of getting orders finished up and shipped out in our craft studio.

First, wrap your mason jar in tissue paper. I do this for 2 reasons. 1. it gives it a clean professional look when your customer opens their package, and 2. it keeps the bubble wrap from sticking to the paint. Sometimes humidity causes unwanted sticking of packaging materials. Tissue paper is lightweight and just plain perfect for the job.

Next you want to take some brown craft paper and stuff it inside the jar. This will give the jar more protection. I put enough inside to fill the entire jar fully.

For this next step you’ll need 2 feet of bubble wrap. Be sure your bubble wrap faces OUT when wrapping glass. Lay you mason jar at the top and roll it up, fold the ends in and secure with tape.

When our shop ships out mason jars we ship priority via USPS but we don’t use their boxes. They would probably work just fine but to be on the safe side we buy thicker boxes to ship them in. First assemble the box leaving one end open. Be sure to tape the bottom really well so it doesn’t open during shipping. Second crumple up craft paper and line the bottom of the box. Do not skip this step.

Now place your jars inside. We typically ship our jars in sets of 3.

You’ll want to crumple up more brown craft paper and stuff it in between the jars and box so that there is a barrier of craft paper all around the jars. Then crumple more brown craft paper to fill the top. Be sure to put in enough so that your jars don’t move around once you close your box. Side note…we include a handwritten thank you for supporting small business with each and every order;)!

Now close your box, tape it up, slap the label on and it’s ready to ship!

Let me know if you have any questions.