Spring Flowers In Blue Jars

Recently I have been experimenting with making clear

glass jars look vintage-y by applying glass paint to them.

One method I tried was to paint the outside of the

jars as seen in the post Making Jars Look Vintage.

Another method I tried was to paint the inside of

the jars in Is This The "Perfect Mason" Jar Paint Technique?

I ended up with quite a few blue and green jars.

Twenty one of them are still out partying but the ones

still at home got some Spring flowers added to them today.

In the fields near my house Queen Anne's Lace and

other Spring flowers are growing wild.

My yard has a few flowers now...

gumpo azaleas and clematis.

I cut some of the flowers to put in the most recent jars that I had

 painted to make a small outside tabletop display for photos.

A few more outside tabletop shots were played with over on

the "Pic Monkey" photo editing website:

So that I could enjoy the flowers more, I moved them

inside to the kitchen table and added more jars with flowers.

 

Is This The "Perfect Mason" Jar Paint Technique?

After trying to paint some jars to look like vintage mason jars

in the blog post Making Jars Look Vintage, I was not totally

happy with the results.  I decided to try again with another

technique that I had also seen on Pinterest by My Design Folder.

Instead of painting on the outside of the jar, the Design Folder

folks swirl the paint on the inside of the jar (or bottles too).

I stopped by the thrift store during some "half-off!" hours to

find some more jars and bottles to experiment with.

The grand total for these jars (tax included)...$1.51.

I had glass paints left over from the last experiment.

I did try to stubby glass paints "Perm Enamel" again with this technique but they did not give the

desired effect this time either.  I would recommend getting a glass paint marked "Transparent"like the

taller containers are. These all came from JoAnn's. They were on clearance for 50 cents each.

 I got the Pebeo Porcelaine 150 paint in Turquoise

 at Michael's for about $4.  It looks like something they stock regularly.

With this paint technique, you mix your paint color with

enough acetone (fingernail polish remover) to make it thin

enough to swirl around in the jar.  That's the tricky part...

how much is enough and how much is too much? 

I would say that I poured about a tablespoon of paint on

the plastic plate and then poured about a teaspoon

of polish remover on top of that and mixed them together

before putting the mixture in the jar.

Once you put the mixture in the jar, and start swirling it slowly

inside the jar, you will be able to tell if it is thin enough and if

you have enough paint to coat the inside.  If I didn't think I had

enough paint, I would add some more polish remover and mix

the paint again in the bottom of the jar with a long bamboo

skewer.  This is not ideal because I sometimes made bubbles

and bubbles in the jar are not your friend.

Do not put the paint mixture in the jar and shake it...you will have lots of bubbles.

I only mixed up enough paint and acetone for one jar at a

time because the paint starts drying pretty quickly.  I found it

better to turn the jar on its side and rotate it to coat the sides.

When you have paint mixture on the sides, it is time to tilt the

jar enough to get the paint on the inside "shoulders" of the jar

without all of the paint coming out of the jar.  Keep a little pool

of paint in the jar on the shoulders and rotate it while tilted.

After getting the paint mixture on all the inside surfaces of

the jar, I would just dump the excess paint back onto the plate.

Then I let the jar stay upside down on the newspaper to let

more excess paint drain back out.  To try to avoid a build up

of paint on the mouth of the jar, I moved it around frequently.

To get a more blue color on some of the jars, I mixed the

transparent blue, green and white glass paints with acetone.

Here are some of the jars draining with the color of paint

that was used on them to give you an idea of what a

certain color looks like after it is on/in the jar.

This jar and the one above were just the straight turquoise paint with some acetone.

The original blog post from My Design Folder said that if

you let these dry for two days, the paint would be permanent.

A commenter suggested that the only way to make them

permanant was to bake them.  I had had good results with

baking the other "batch" so I did these also for 35 minutes

at 300 degrees on a foil lined cookie sheet after they were dry.

(You should let the jars dry for at least 24 hours before baking)

Sadly, Mr. Minature Bottle fell off of the cookie sheet.

 With most of my projects, I have high expectations when

starting but then have to adjust when things don't always

turn out as planned.  The jars came out with "some issues".

I'm not blaming the instructions...the issues are "user error".

A couple came out with blotchy areas.

This may have happened if those areas got more acetone than paint in the mixture while swirling.

A few drips

Too much or too little paint at the mouth of the jar

If I tried to wipe off the paint when it collected on the mouth while draining,

too much of the paint came off usually.

Paint collecting in the bottom of the jar

I thought this large jar had drained all it was going to so I baked it

right side up and some paint slid down into the bottom of the jar.

BUT

even though you might have some imperfections on your

painted jars using the "inside job" as noted above or

 streaks using the "paint on the outside of the jar" method...

(These jars were done by painting on the outside of the jar then baking)

...when you get water and flowers in the jars those

boo-boos are hardly noticeable!

So is this the "perfect mason" jar paint technique?

Well, not when I do it but I will say that it IS

"perfectly fine".  YOU might come out with "perfect" results

(and even if you don't, you will probably be the only one to see the imperfections).

If you would like to see even more jars with flowers on

my kitchen table, click over to Spring Flowers in Blue Jars.

 

Making Jars Look Vintage

I have been meaning to try this project for months but kept

putting it off due to more urgent tasks at hand.   Then THIS

project became urgent because I wanted to join in on Debbie Doos

April 26th Magazine Copy Cat Challenge AND a friend of

mine needed table decorations for a baby boy shower. 

There are different methods on the internet for adding a blue or

blue-green tint to mason jars but the one I tried to follow most

closely for this post was Kristin's on the Bridal Buzz blog. I also tried another method in "Perfect Mason" Jar Paint Technique? 

Old mason jars used for canning got their aquamarine color from

the iron imperfections in the glass jars.  The color that Kristin

recommended was the Aquamarine made by Vitrea...I did not

find that paint but this sounded very similar.

While I was at the craft store buying the glass paint, I noticed

that several of the colors of other types of glass paint were

marked down so I got some other paints to experiement with.

The jars that I had gathered to try this project on were, of course,

some mason jars...

...some jars from the thrift store...

...and some food jars from home that I washed out.

Make sure that all labels, glue, dust, fingerprints, etc. are off

of the jars before beginning.  I found that a foam brush worked

the best for me to get the paint onto the outside of the jar

with as little streaking as possible.

The blue-ish color on the jars above was made by mixing the

transparent colors of white, dark blue, and green along with

a little clear gloss glass paint in the same brand.

In the photo below, you can see the difference in the blue mix

and the straight turquoise.  The Pebeo Porcelaine paint was

the easiest to use and was transparent even though the

info on the paint did not say that it was.  I only needed one coat

straight out of the turquoise paint container for the look on the right.

Either kind of paint tends to catch in the raised "writing"

 on the jars.  I found that it was helpful to have a soft

 lint-free rag on hand to dab the excess paint off immediately.

The dabbing technique was also good to soften any parts of the

paint that looked to "streaky".  The paint starts drying quickly

so work in small areas in "up and down" strokes and dab as needed.

My least favorite paint was the non-transparent glass paint.

Even with a dilutant made to go with these paints, they

were harder to work with and get the look that I wanted.

I did discover that you can use fingernail polish remover to

get the glass paint off the jar if you do it before baking.

After the paint dries for 24 hours, you can bake it for 35 minutes

in a 300 degree oven to make the paint permanent.  I did this

even on the paints that said to "air dry" for 10 days and they

all came out wonderfully.

Real canning jars (the one on the left has the non-transparent paint)

The recycled glass food jars

The large thrift store jars

Did you know that John L. Mason created canning jars in 1858 and revoloutionized food preservation?  His design was copied

by the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company starting in 1884. 

The Ball canning jar became the front runner in canning jar

production.  Kerr is also a major canning jar company.

Now that the jars are tinted, they are ready to party!

First to the Magazine Copy Cat Challenge Link Party:

In the most recent issue of "Southern Living" magazine,

there is an article about growing flowers in your yard,

and then using canning jars as vases for your flowers.

Although I couldn't find the exact flowers for my copy cat

attempt, I did get to use my faux vintage canning jar.

This was not even my favorite jar but with the water and flower stems masking the "mistakes" it looks just fine. 

 The "best" jars had gone to the baby shower.

My friend and I gathered some wild flowers and some "store bought" flowers to add to the best tinted vasesthat were going to the actual party/shower.

For the larger jars, we put regular tape in a grid

over the top to help the stems stand up.

We tied raffia around the necks of the jars for a little whimsy.

Hopefully the guests at the shower "got" that the vases

were tinted blue in honor of the new baby boy on the way.

I didn't actually go the the shower so I don't have any photos

of the new "old" vases in action but here they are being

packed up and ready to go party.

My friend said that the arrangements.were a hit at the baby shower.

I did some more blue jars and put flowers in them for my kitchen

table.  You can see them at the Spring Flowers in Blue Jars post.