Thursday, June 2, 2011

Chalkboard Painted Jars

So I had a few minutes to myself the other day (chime in with the hallelujah chorus!) and decided I wanted to do something crafty.  I haven’t made time to do something besides housework, mommywork, and sewing in a long time.  I’m redoing my sewing area (I can’t call it a sewing room, it’s overrun with gobs of toys!) to make it a little more functional to hold all of my stuff.  I have more fabric than I know what to do with (addiction, maybe?) and all the usual office looking clutter.  Anyway, this post isn’t about my redo.  It’s about the jars!  So in my redo, I decided I wanted some cute little jars to hold things like buttons, pins, safety pins, alligator clips, and the like. 
This is a very easy tutorial with lots of pictures.  You’ll have to excuse the pictures, though.  Go read this post to see why. 
Okay, so let’s get started!
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I got some half-pint canning jars at Walmart.  These are the Better Homes & Garden line.  They have a small space on the front to write on. 
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Then go get some chalkboard paint.  It’s not crazy cheap, but the possibilities are endless with this stuff!  I have more things I’m planning on doing with mine.  There are several different brands.
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Tape around the edges of where you’re going to put the chalkboard paint.
Ahem.  We did not have any painters tape.  I HIGLY recommend painter’s tape.  I did, however, have Scotch tape.  And because I’m cheap, and lazy, and live 20 miles from town, it’s what I used.  Regardless of what you use, if your jar doesn’t have a flat surface for the tape to adhere to, you’ll probably have a little seepage.  But never fear!  You’re painting on glass so it can easily be scraped off with a knife or razor blade.  Smile  Carry on.
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Take your fingernail (or whatever) and do your best to make the tape stick down around the edges.  This is probably where painter’s tape would’ve come in handy.
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Get your paint out.  Shake the can up a lot! 
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Smooth some paint onto the surface.  Go from side to side (not up/down) and try to do it in one or two strokes.  Don’t worry if it looks a little drippy.  It gets smoother as it dries.
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Paint your jars (I did 6/12) and wait on them to dry.  They dry to the touch in 30-60min.  The can says not to write on them for about 4 days.
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Sit your jars aside.  If you want to spruce the lids up, continue on!
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You’ll need scrapbook paper (or fabric) glue, a marker, the 2 lid pieces, and some scissors.
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Take your jar lid and and marker and trace a circle onto your scrapbook paper.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.
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The circle will be just a smidge bigger than the inside piece of the lid.  Anyone know what that thing is called?  Smile
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It will fit like this….
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Put some glue on your lid.  Yeah, it’s clear.  Don’t ask why I took a picture.  Whatever.
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You have two options here.  You can glue the excess edges onto the inside piece or you can cut the excess off.  I chose to cut it off.  Doesn’t have to be perfect, you won’t be able to see the edges.
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Here’s the new inside lid piece.
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Stick it inside the outside piece.  Smile
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Screw the lid on your new cute jar!  This is post-tape peeling and paint scraping due to the scotch tape incident.  USE PAINTER’S TAPE. 
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With buttons!
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This entire project was done during naptime!  It doesn’t take very long.  I did 6 jars!  The package came with 12.  Any crafty ideas on what I should do with the other 6?  Winking smile 
Enjoy!

I'm linking up to Power of Paint @ Domestically Speaking, Somewhat Simple Link Party Thursday, and Transformation Thursday @ Shabby Chic Cottage!




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3 comments:

  1. Oh those are so cute! I love chalkboard paint! =)

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  2. super cute!! Great Idea! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Kacie, what a fun little project. They turned out so well. Great job and thank you so much for using Rust-Oleum.

    Btw, we loved the project so much, we just posted it as our project of the day over on our Paint Ideas Facebook page.

    facebook.com/paintideas

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