Rustic (Rusty) Mason Jar Canning Ring Pumpkins

Another Pinteresting idea. I had seen this idea awhile back - who knows how long - and had been saving rusty-ish rings here and there. Over the Summer, my neighbor came into a large stockpile of canned foods cleaned out of a lady that had passed away 's house. She brought them to me to feed the contents to my chickens, and we share the jars. The jars had obviously been put from water bath to box, with water trapped under the ring, which caused them to rust. Re-using rusty rings can cause your lids to not seal during water bathing or pressure cooking, so it's a good idea to not re-use them in canning, if you don't want to risk losing your hard work. 

I used 24 of the regular (not wide mouth) sized rings, facing the same direction, strung them onto a string. I used jute, you can pretty much use whatever will work.

Tied the ends of the jute/string together as tight as I could get it and knotted.

Organized the ring into a nice round circle.

I glued a used wide-mouth canning lid on the bottom to stable/sturdy it/give it a base.

I went outside to the burn pile and found a stick and cut it with a handsaw at an angle to resemble a pumpkin stem. You could also use a pumpkin stem, if you have one, or cinnamon sticks.

I had some old fake flowers I pulled the leaves from, and glued them on. You can also add ribbon, raffia, moss, etc.

I liked the rustic (rusty) look, but you could also spray paint the rings orange or white, or any color you wanted, before tying them up.