“Give Thanks” Recycled Painted Jars

If you have some extra glass jars that were headed for the recycling bin, don’t toss them just yet! Use them to create this adorable decoration that can be adapted for any season or occasion! Look for jars of different sizes and shapes  If you have the lids, great! If not, you can still made it work.  🙂

I’m using fall colors to go with my saying “Give Thanks”, but the possibles are endless – Welcome, Happy Birthday or maybe even Happy Holidays! You could use the same jars and just switch the sayings for each season!

Materials:

• Jars with lids (can be done without a lid) I used 7
• Acrylic paint (I’m using 7 different colors)
• Twine
• Sticker letters to spell out Give Thanks
• Cardstock paper and/or Kraft paper
• Hole punch
• Scissors or paper cutter
• Double stick tape
• Optional: Ink pad (brown), 3-D adhesive square or dots, berry pick, wire and pinecone

 

Directions:

Select the jars you like, make sure they are clean inside and out.  (Goo Gone is great for getting off the sticky labels!)  Get out the acrylic paints and find your colors.  Line your jars up in the order you want to display them , and match your paint to the jar. I like to put my paint in front of the jars in order to get a look at how the colors and jar shapes flow.  Now that  you know which color is going into each jar, the fun part begins…here we go!

Pour some paint into the jar – about 3 tablespoons (you can always add more). Put the lid on and roll jar around, letting the paint coat the inside.  If the kids are old enough (we are using glass!) get them to help. After you see the paint has covered the inside, with lid still on, turn jar upside down for just a few minutes, letting the extra paint run into lid.  Take the lid off, throw it away and let the painted jar dry upright.  Repeat for each jar. FYI:  it might take an afternoon for the paint to dry.

While the paint is drying let’s work on the saying, “Give Thanks”.  I’m using stickers (from the scrap booking section of the craft store) – one style  for “give” (which I’m putting all together on one jar),  and different styles of stickers for each letter of “thanks” (which I am going to use a different jar for each letter).

First cut Kraft card stock paper or colored card stock to a size that fits your jars.  The paper that I will stick  “give” on to  is a different size than the others. I cut the papers for “thanks” all the same size  (mine are 1 1/2″ by 2 1/2″) and  I inked around the sides.

Cut another piece of card stock, smaller than the first .  I inked around the sides with brown, and add a letter.  Do this for each letter until you have t-h-a-n-k, and a larger one for “give”.

With a punch, make a hole for the twine or ribbon.  I made only one hole for the twine to go through for each letter of “thanks” since the paper is skinner. Since my “give” is larger and different type of sticker, I wanted it tie on a little different.  So I punch 2 holes, bring the twine through one hole and around to the other.  Making a small knot on each end.

I used twine to tie the letters on, but ribbon would work also.  Pull both ends of twine through punched hole, looping around jar.  You can pull it tight or loose to let the letter hang down.  Make a knot to hold in place.

Get creative with recycled jars and paint!

I will be changing my jars to say “welcome” after the Thanksgiving season is over. Half the work will already be done, I can use the jars and just change the letters and the order of the jars for a new look!  So easy and fun! 🙂

Just a reminder, acrylic paint is water based, which means if you were to fill a paint coated jar with water (if you wanted to put fresh flowers in jar) the paint will start to dissolve.