How to Recycle a Jam Jar

There's a stack of printed paper in the office, destined for the shredder.

I intercepted the stack as it was being moved toward the shredder, and decided to turn it to a better use.

First, I tore up the scraps of paper into small pieces and soaked them in plain water for 1/2 an hour. Once sufficiently soggy, I pasted the soggy strips of paper onto an empty (clean) jam jar. Basically, I did the pasting in a clockwise pattern, taking care to compact the soggy strips onto the jam jar so that they stuck (and any excess any water ran out). Once covered, I left the jar to dry thoroughly for 3 days.

The finished recycled paper coating was hard and stuck fast.

I then decided to decorate the piece with a piece of olive green and gold shimmering ribbon from my ribbon scraps box.

To add some colour, I shaded over the dried recycled paper coating with an olive green and gold pastel crayon, using different colours to highlight contrasting textures.

The finished product is now being used as a pencil jar!