Monday, April 1, 2013

Old Jar Makeover...How to Take a Not-So-Pretty Jar From Blah to Beautiful!




Hello, Friends! Lately on Pinterest I have seen old, clear canning jars transformed into colored jars simply by using Elmer's glue and food coloring. I decided to see if it would actually work, and above is a photo of the jar that I turned to a pretty shade of blue and decorated with burlap, lace and muslin. Here is a step-by-step photo tutorial on how I created this lovely:

First off, you'll need to round up an old canning jar. As you can see in the photo below, the jar that I had was in pretty bad shape...all etched and milky looking. (I have it sitting on a soy sauce bottle to hold it up while I paint it.)


I then gathered the supplies needed to color the jar...simple ingredients that I had on hand: Elmer's glue and food coloring. I used an old yogurt container that I had washed out to mix the ingredients in:


I poured a little glue into the plastic container, added 2 drops of blue and 1 drop of green food coloring:


Using a plastic knife, I stirred the glue and food coloring until it was the pretty consistent shade of blue that I was going for:


Using a sponge brush I applied the glue mixture to the outside of the jar and allowed it to dry:


Here's a photo of the jar while it was drying...


TA-DAH!! Here's a photo of the jar completely dry...pretty cool, eh??


Next I decided to "spiff up" the jar a bit more by decorating it. I started with a piece of burlap ribbon that I attached to the middle of the jar using Terrifically Tacky Tape:



I then created a flower made from a scrap of muslin that was about 2" wide and about 14" long:


Fold the muslin in half and make a running stitch down the raw edge, gathering the muslin as you go:


When you reach the end of the strip of muslin, hold raw ends together and stitch in place to create a flower:


The flower looked perfectly fine like that, but I decided that I wanted it to be fluffier and have a bit more definition, so I snipped the fabric around the entire flower:


Which created a cute, fluffy flower like this:


I decorated the flower with a pretty chipboard button and a piece jute; attaching the flower to the burlap on the jar using a liquid adhesive called Liquid Fusion that I purchased at Hobby Lobby:



Using additional strips of Terrifically Tacky Tape, I attached 2 pieces of ivory colored lace around the burlap on the jar and then added a couple of pretty blue pearl head pins to the flower:


Using just a dab of CTMH Pearl Create-A-Shade Paint, I painted a simple chipboard key that came in a package of several cute chipboard shapes that I discovered in the $1.00 bin at Michael's:


After the paint on the key dried, I punched a hole in it and tied it to the mouth of the jar using jute twine:


And that's it, folks! I added some florist pebbles to the bottom of the jar, added some water, cut some daffodils from my flower bed and placed them in the jar which is now a beautiful shabby-chic vase. I LOVE how it turned out!! Hmmm...think I'll try to make a pink jar now...


Thanks for dropping by...have a SUPER week!!

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5 comments:

  1. Fab.u.lous! I love canning jars. I use them in the kitchen like canisters, from half gallon to pint. I use them to store my buttons and other loose scrappin' stuff in. Gonna have to try this out. Thanks for sharing.

    (You could have titled this post, "What in Glue Glazes?") heehee

    Jill
    a-little-red-wagon

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    1. I, too, am a canning jar addict, Jill! They line the shelves of my pantry storing dry goods; as well as keeping my craft room organized by holding buttons, brads, wooden spools, ribbons and the likes! Your "What in the Glue Glazes" title would have been PERFECT...you are so witty!! :)

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  2. this is my new fav. post of yours.. you keep showing your self up.. lol love it.

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    1. LOL, Kimberly! Thanks for the kind words and for having me as the current guest designer at Scrap-It-Girl...I'm honored! :)

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