I don't know about anyone else but here in Colorado this summer has been delightfully cool and very wet. It is a good thing for any lightening strikes that start fires, the fires here have been really bad the past 2 years, a lot of homes burned and even lives lost. The rain is also good since the last few years we've had a bit of a drought. Mid July through mid August is what is called 'monsoon' season here in Colorado. The moisture from the Pacific comes flooding into the state where it hits the warm air rising from the south and they collide over the Rocky Mountains and create lots of rain and storms. It is the precursor to fall and winter. Our summers don't last that long, heck my spring flowers are just fading and the summer one's are just starting to bud. They'll be all finished by mid August when we could get our first snow. Yes, I said snow in August. It has already snowed on some of the higher peaks here in Colorado, including Pikes Peak, this week. Tomorrow it is only supposed to be 61 degrees! I just don't know where the 'summer' has gone, I mean it is August already. Wasn't it just May last month?
As I sit here tonight writing this post it is thundering and lightening outside my window and the rain is coming down like crazy. On a good note, it will save me lots of money on my water bill for my lawn! Always a good side to everything.
Since it has been so cool this summer we haven't been able to spend much time on our porch but I have still taken the time to decorate and make it look nice for the times we can use it this season. This weekend I took advantage of the warm weather to do an easy craft that took little time and was pretty cheap.
I like to re-use or re-purpose things instead of just throwing the item away and clogging up the landfills. What I do is small but it makes me feel better. One thing I never do is to throw away glass jars. I re-purpose them for holding coffee in the camper or craft supplies or dog bones. I even decorate some glass jars for candle holders, vases and other decorations.
Decorating glass jars is easy and fairly cheap, depending on what you do to the jar.
You will need:
1 glass jar - any size. I used a really large pickle jar, yep a pickle jar!
1 can of spray paint, any color
1 tube or jar of craft paint, any color
1 can of clear spray paint
1 tube of crackle medium - optional
An extra color of spray paint - optional
A stencil - optional
Twine, jute or ribbon - optional
To begin with, after your jar is empty, make sure you clean it well with warm soapy water. Remove the labels and you can either keep or throw away the lid. I keep the lids and will make coaster out of them, yep coaster!
I used nail polish remover and a flat razor blade to get the labels off. This was the most difficult part.
Next - Dry your jar really well. After I towel dried mine I let it sit for 5 minutes or so while I got everything together.
To paint the jar get an area prepped. The spray paint does tend to make a mess. I only spray paint outside. It must be a well ventilated area and the outside temperature needs to be above 36 degree's. I put down a trash bag and tie it down with small rocks or wood. I then placed my dry glass jar open side down in the middle of the trash bag.
Step 1 - Make sure you shake your spray paint up until the ball inside the can moves around easily. The spray away! Check your spray paint can for drying times. I let mine dry between coats. I gave the jar 2 coats of spray paint. I then let it dry overnight (you don't have to do this overnight step).
Step 2 - In the morning I then took my craft paint and began my next step. Here you could apply a stencil or you could tape the jar off and spray paint another color then remove the tape. There are many options you could do. Use your imagination! I chose to pour a blue paint over the bottom of the jar and let it drip down the sides. I let that dry for a good hour then I lightly painted the blue with a crackle medium to give the blue a broken effect. Again, I let this all dry overnight.
Step3 - My final step was the clear enamel spray paint. Still with the open end of the jar down, I spray painted with the clear enamel spray paint, this made the jar shinny. I let this dry for an hour.
Step 4 - Here is where you can embellish your jar. You could tie jute or ribbon around the top opening or you could leave it alone as I did. You could fill your jar with sand and put a candle in it. You could tie a piece of jute around the middle or top and hang a sea shell or other item from the twine or ribbon. You can glue anything you want to the jar, small shells, wine corks - anything! Use your imagination.
For this large jar, I mean it is really big, I chose to stay simple and I just filled it with flowers from my garden.
Again, here are the steps I followed in pictures.
Clean your jar -
As always, I appreciate you stopping by. I hope you come back. Next week I've got a great and easy shrimp recipe for you.
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I appreciate you reading. Have a safe and happy week!
Victoria
What a cool vase, love the drip effect! Thanks for linking up with us at Best of the Nest.
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