I Love Mason Jars

I love Mason jars.  They conjure up images of lightning bugs, moonshine, and unidentifiable vegetables stacked in somebody's root cellar, floating in cloudy pickling juice for who-knows-how-many years.  I love the different shapes and sizes; the short, squatty jelly jars, the fat pint jars whose mouths are bigger than their bodies. They are just so simple and old fashioned. 

When I was a kid, we had little Mason jar salt and pepper shakers.  For my birthday this year, I got a "RedNek" Mason jar wine glass, which is put to good use several times a week.  After putting up some pickled eggs in quart jars recently, I got the urge to find a cute, crafty idea for making Mason jars into something worthy of Christmas gift-giving.

There are hundreds of ideas out there, and several caught my eye (lighting for the backyard!!), including this one.  I love how painting on the inside makes it look milky and creamy, while at the same time preserving the depth and beauty of the writing on the outside.  I originally intended these to be gifted as flower vases, but in the end I decided to fill them with bath salts, dress them up with tissue paper, and let the recipients decide for themselves what life the jars would end up with.  Here's what I did.

Make sure the jars are clean and dry, then choose your paint and a narrow brush.  I simply used leftover latex wall paint that I had stashed in the garage. 

Painting in Progress

In order to cover them well, you'll need to use more than one coat of paint, because although the paint is thick, you will have brush marks. Try not to use so much paint that it pools in the bottom. Let them dry upside down on a baking rack atop some newspaper, or something else that will let the excess paint drain out. I did three coats of paint. It is very important that you let them dry fully between each coat. 

I also baked them in the oven between coats for 30 minutes at 325 degrees just to ensure that the paint will last.  Be sure to let the paint completely dry before baking, or the damp paint will bubble.  I learned this the hard way.  Let's just say, some of  my jars had marks of extra character.

The final product, a pretty little Mason jar that has endless uses.  Of course you wouldn't want to use these for anything food related, but they make adorable vases, toiletry holders, utensil crocks, pencil caddies, candle jars.... use your imagination!