Painted Mason Jar with Paper Pinwheels

I have no luck painting on mason jars - remember the cool flag jars I made for my sis a couple years ago that were such a nightmare for me to paint? Click here to revisit that post - they are really cute and she displays them all the time so that's nice, at least my suffering wasn't for nothin' hahaha! Anyway...I saw on Pinterest someone painted a jar with chalk white paint and I thought I'd give it another try - bought chalk paint that specifically says for painting on glass, I thought maybe the prob in the past was the craft paint I used - but nope, this was just as bad.

I painted one coat and let it thoroughly dry overnight, then when I added a second coat the base coat peeled off in spots. Ugh. I was going to skip this all together and not even show you, but hey, it's what I made so there it is - Pinterest fail. I am using it to display the paper pinwheels from yesterday's post, and with the addition of ribbon and tulle I'm hoping the bad paint job is disguised!

second coat

I even tried adding another coat - hard to see in this picture but it still peeled the under layers off!

One year ago: red, white, and blue berry trifle...SO good!

Fishnet Wrapped Mason Jar

When we decided on a beach theme for Ronda's seasonal display table I immediately thought about those cute net wrapped mason jars I see everywhere - in fact when I showed my sister the one I ended up making and told her she needed one she replied "yep, I own that. except I bought it". Well where's the fun in that haha? So I wanted to make one - did a little internet searching and ended up sort of following the directions I found here. Wasn't hard at all, you only need twine and a jar (and scissors) - I took lots of pictures to show you the process, if you need more directions click on the above link and see if her instructions help.

Directions:

1. Wrap a piece of twine around the top of the jar with a little extra to tie off. Lay it out on the table.

2. Cut 10 lengths of twine that are 32" each. Fold in half, put the loop under the short piece of twine that will go around the top of the jar, then feed the two ends thru the loop and pull tight. Repeat with all ten long pieces, space them out on the short piece, then tie the short piece around the top of the jar.

fold 32" piece in half and put under the short piece

bring the two ends up over the short piece and thru the loop, pull tight

repeat with all 10 long pieces, space them evenly 

then tie the short piece around the top of the mason jar. with the 10 knotted pieces hanging down

3. For the first row, knot two lengths of twine together about 1" down from the top. Repeat the whole way around. For the second row continue knotting 2 lengths together making a diamond pattern. Repeat each row until you get to the bottom of the jar - note you are creating a net of sorts and it will stretch, once I got towards the bottom I turned the jar over and stretched the twine to see how many more rows I needed. Once you have created enough net to cover the jar tie all the little ends together underneath the jar, try to make them somewhat even so the jar will sit straight when upright.

 

take two lengths and tie them together about 1" down from the top

 repeat around the jar to make the first row.

repeat for each row

stretch the net a bit until it looks right and is long enough to be able to wrap around the bottom

then start knotting all 20 of the ends together to hold the net in place.

try to space the knots so they aren't all on top of each other in one place so the jar sits flat and not all wobbly. 

4. Trim off any tails - you could finish this with additional twine wrapped around the top of the jar if you want. 

For Ronda's table I filled them with paper spider mum flowers; sand, shells, a candle, etc. would look good too!

I found some instructions here at itallstartedwithpaint.com

Mason Jar Graduation Gift

This might be too late for you to make this year since it's almost mid-June and most kids have graduated by now...but it's a cute easy idea if you still need a gift! Or if you are hosting a graduation open house these would be super cute decorations on the tables.  It's been on Pinterest for a while now, I have no idea who to credit for the original post! I'll try to remember to re-share this idea next Spring in time for you to make one ;)

Supplies:
black cardstock
embroidery thread
1 brad
hot glue
mason jar with ring

Directions:

1) from black cardstock cut out a 3.5" square and a 1" strip as long as needed to go around the ring that screws onto the top of your mason jar
2) glue the strip around the ring, then glue the square to the top of the ring.
3) make a tassel out of embroidery thread (whatever color you want but if you can make it the school colors that'd be nice!) that is about 3" long, leaving a 6" tail. If you need instructions for making a tassel click here but remember to find something to wrap the embroidery thread around that will give you the correct length of your finished tassel.
4) poke a hole in the top of the cardstock square and run the tail thru it, letting the tassel dangle off the edge of the square. I put a star shaped brad in the hole over top of the thread to make it look nicer, a round one would work fine. Or whatever you have that will cover the hole! Then trim any thread off that is hanging on the inside.
5) it's not necessary but I cut a circle out of the black cardstock to cover the underside of the cap where the thread and brad are, just to finish it a little more.
6) fill the jar with anything - I rolled up dollar bills and stuffed the jar full but you can fill with whatever gift you want that will fit! gift cards, candy, a mini survival kit...or just use these for decorations - so cute!

Mason Jar Salt Pourer

Oh my gosh, this was such a quick little project and I love how it turned out! Literally just cut the top off a cardboard salt container (the round cylinder kind with pour spout in the top) and fit it onto the top of a wide mouth Mason jar, secure with a jar ring.


Saw this idea here, how cute and easy!

Painted Flag Mason Jars

Ever have a crafting day where nothing goes right? Well I certainly do and this project falls under that category... good grief I struggled! I'd seen this mason jar project numerous places and thought it was cute - and then my sister mentioned she saw it and was hoping I would make them for her. Sure thing sissy, I'm always happy to have a purpose for crafting haha.

It started out fine, if you count going down to the basement to get 3 pint jars from storage and knocking over an entire shelf of plastic containers fine. And that was just the beginning. I couldn't find navy paint at 2 different craft stores so figured I'd just make my own by adding black to some brighter blue. That actually worked, but still - why can't I just buy navy paint? So 2 jars get painted white and one navy; there was something wrong with my white craft paint and it ended up going on uneven and gooey. I tried to speed up the drying process by hitting it with the hair dryer but it just looked bad - fortunately I used regular old acrylic craft paint so it was easy to wash off the jars and start again with fresh white paint and the second time I painted them went better. I ended up painting all 3 jars with a second coat. After thoroughly dry I taped off the areas where I wanted to paint the red stripes using washi tape as recommended - I read that blue painters tape would pull the paint off the jar. Guess what, washi tape pulls the paint off too...ugh. 

I couldn't get the tape to stick tightly around the curved edge of the
top of ball jar, so I used a fat rubber band as a guide

this is what the jar looked like after removing the washi tape...a little messy!
I touched up the area where the red went into the white and where it peeled
the paint off with a small brush.

I used a tip I saw online to make the star stamp and hot glued a couple foam stars to the end of a wine cork, yes - that worked! Great idea I will def use again. Then dip the stamp in white paint and stamp over the navy, except the jar is round so I had to press the edges of the star onto the jar - you won't get nice crisp star edges doing that but I decided the rustic handmade look is what I was going for and not try to make them so perfect. 

glue foam stars to a wine cork to
make the stamp

One site I found with directions said when they were completely decorated and dry she lightly sanded them in places to make them look distressed, I know why she did that - cuz they don't look so good and you want to rough them up a bit to help with the illusion that you meant for them to look beat up!

after I lightly sanded them to give them a "distressed" look.
Actually I was distressed more than the jars!! 

After sanding I sprayed them with clear shiny sealer so they will hopefully last forever and I don't have to remake them for her! I'm not saying this isn't a cute or worthwhile project - once completed I actually really like them, but let's just say that after having everything go wrong I'm not going to be making another set!

once dry, I took them outside and sprayed with a clear sealer

2021 update: my sis still brings this out every year, she put silverware in them a couple weeks ago for Memorial day and they still look great. It's making me rethink making another set - enough time has gone by that I'm willing to try again LOL!! 

Halloween Layered Candle

I made this layered candle using colored granulated wax (purple, orange, black, white - good halloween colors obviously) - it's a simple project that is good to do with kids. It can be a little messy but I've found these things help combat that:

• lay down newspaper
• I like to work on top of old cookie sheets - helps catch wax that doesn't make it into the container
• transfer the granulated wax (it almost has the consistency of sticky sand) into plastic containers - I use old cool whip containers
• use a different plastic spoon or scoop for each color so you aren't transferring colors into each other

Find a clear glass container that you can burn wax in, I usually use mason jars (any size, even little small ones work). Stick a wick to the inside bottom of jar, making sure it's at least as tall as the container you are using, in these photos I have wound the wick around a skewer to help keep it straight up the middle of the jar.  Then layer in the different colors making whatever pattern you like - it's a lot like making sand art, did you do that as a kid? You can tilt the jar so the wax stays on one side then tip the other way for another color, or just do straight layers, or take a long skewer and run down the sides when you're done for a v shaped pattern...whatever you want. Trim the wick to just a little above the wax before burning. Oh, and don't tip the candle over - the wax stays loose until you start to burn it. Yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way...;)