Pintervention: DIY Colored Mason Jars

Hello, my name is Jen and I have a problem with mason jars. I realize it’s cliche and expected at this point, but that doesn’t deter me. I love the things. So when I came across a plethora of DIY colored mason jars, I had to be in on it.

First, I would like to say that I’m pretty sure my husband hit up my stash and threw a few of them out (not cool, dude). That had me a little leery to try anything new with my beloveds. So I turned to a stash of dollar store glass that I had leftover from a photo shoot I styled last year.

I found a couple of different colored glass tutorials, so I decided to give both a try. I dug out three candlesticks and a plate and got to business.

Momtastic told me I could have a gorgeous rainbow of colored glass by using glossy Mod Podge and food coloring and then baking it. Happy Hooligans told me I could do pretty much the same thing but get a frosted effect if I swapped out the Mod Podge in favor of regular old white glue.

So I mixed up two concoctions. I added about 10 drops of green food coloring to some glossy Mod Podge and used 5 drops of red and 5 drops of blue to make a purple that I mixed with regular glue. Of course I was short on both glue and Mod Podge and more than a little worried that I wouldn’t end up with enough coverage.

But I went for it. I coated the underside of a plate and a candle stick in purple after deciding that I was going to glue the two together to create a frosted cake stand (I have no interest in eating off of the side I’m painting on, do you?).

I got a little sloppy and crazed as soon as it started to dry a bit and it looked really light. And by sloppy I mean I started dabbing all the extra “paint” on that I could. Don’t do that. It’s never a good idea. Thin, even coats are always your best bet when painting. I should know this.

I threw them all in the over at 175 degrees and hoped for the best, although I figured one particularly light candlestick would probably be a total bust.

I was wrong. The candlestick I was afraid of is that one on the right. It came out the best, hands down. Why? All of the others had messy bubbly bits where I had obviously gone wild and tried to get the most color on that I could. Not smart.

Still, none of it came out terrible. In fact, from afar they look pretty darn cool– especially considering I got them at the dollar store and colored them myself.

(Those cookies, by the way, are not the most beautiful cookies on the planet but they are a pretty freakin delicious healthy snack alternative. I got the recipe from Skinnytaste and made it my own by swapping in almonds for the walnuts and adding a splash of vanilla and a tablespoon of cocoa powder.)

Once I saw how my first run came out, I decided it was safe to give it a go with a single mason jar. With very little Mod Podge left to work with, I added a splash of water–which was part of both of the instructions that I left out. Of course, my little splash was bigger than I wanted and made the consistency way thinner than I would’ve liked, but I went with it.

This time I poured my concoction inside and swirled it around to coat the glass. I’m including this shot so that you can see how dark the paint looks in comparison to how it actually came out:

Super, duper light. Which is fine. Just not quite what I was trying for.

There are a few things I plan to do differently when I do this again:

• I will definitely be neater than I was with my first batch. Thin, even coats are key.
• I think I’ll leave out the water. I’d love my jars to come out more like they did on Sippy Cup Mom.
• I’m going to listen to Momtastic’s advise and put them in the oven upside down for half of the time and right side up for the other half. I think that will help with some of the excess around the rim.

*Note: the lightness at the top of my jar is partially because of the way the light is hitting it and partially due to the fact that my mixture was so watery. While it’s easy to swirl the mixture around the bottom to coat it, it’s a little trickier to do that towards the top without staining your entire kitchen (says the girl with the blue-stained pants).

VERDICT: Success. I’m almost positive that any of the issues I had will be fixed on my next go-round. The one thing I’m wondering is how my mason jar will hold up to having water inside it when I want to use it to hold flowers. I’ll let you know on my Facebook page after I give it a try this weekend!

What do you think? Will you try to make your own DIY colored mason jars (or some other colored glass goodness)?

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