Painted Jars

                            

I was visiting my family for the past couple weeks in California, and sadly my husband couldn't be with me because of work.  I left him alone living like a bachelor in our little trailer, so when I returned home a few nights ago I knew it would probably be a spaghetti night due to lack of groceries.  As I was about  to throw away yet another spaghetti sauce jar I thought, what a waste of a perfectly good jar!  There are actually a lot of things you could do with your empty glass jars, organize loose packets of oatmeal, sugars, tea, or put together the dry ingredients of your favorite cookies for a birthday gift,  or paint them and stick some flowers in them for an easy decoration!  Here are the jars I used,  the picture shows a Prego Jar but I didn't think I would like the Prego logo that's imprinted on the top collar of the jar so I used a Ragu one instead. Then I grabbed a regular mason jar and an old Wyler's Chicken Broth Cubes jar I had saved under my sink.  I really liked how these jars lined up perfectly. 

Next, peel off any stickers and let them soak in warm soapy water for awhile. Make sure you get off all of the sticky glue used to hold on the labels. This is the worst part! ( ;  I had to scrub pretty hard on my smallest jar so eventually I just gave up and decided that part would be towards the wall.  Oh, and about the expiration date that's printed on the jar, it scrubs off easily.  And because we will be painting the inside of the jars, yes you will want this off. 

Now all you do is take your clean, dry jars and poor the colors of your choice in them, you really don't need too much paint but if you poor in a little extra it makes the paint spread a little faster when you close the lid and shake it.  I just used some old paint we had from painting our bedroom and kitchen.  After you shake your jars really well, put them upside down on a paper plate for a about 5 minutes or so. 

Then flip them up right so the inside can dry faster.

Next, grab whatever you what to decorate with.  I had some yarn, fake flowers from Walmart, lace ribbon, and I admit I am a bit of a button collector so I had quite a few to pick from. 

It's time to get creative! This is the best part, but if this makes you nervous, just copy me!  I would LOVE it! 

 

Hope you enjoy making these as much as I did.  This is probably the quickest craft project I have done in a long time.  There are so many possibilities, with different paint colors, buttons, ribbons, or even real flowers… if you decide to do this, please send me a picture!  I would love it.