Since it’s a New Year and Christmas has passed us, I can officially share with you how some of my gifts were crafted!
I had been thinking for quite some time what to make for my nieces and nephew. On one of my many trips to the craft store, I noticed they had jar lids to turn a mason jar into a coin bank. I had seen this done before but I wasn’t thrilled with the logos on the jars, especially after they were painted – I wanted smooth glass jars, if this project was going to work for me. Successfully, I found some jars at the local craft store with no logos and picked up the lids to go with them. My other supplies included: Round foam stencil brush, white acrylic paint, & 8×11 thick foam sheet in black.
Both of my nieces and my nephew are so different and unique so I knew this would be fun to create three different banks that fit each one of them. Once I had the jars, I needed paint that adheres to the jars well, so I chose Krylon Fusion spray paint. Spray paint is my paint of choice for most of my projects because it is a lot faster and I don’t care for brush strokes. The only place around town here that carried this specific spray paint was Ace Hardware. I headed there to pick out my colors: Red & Ballet Pink.
My oldest niece was decorating her room with a Paris theme so I wanted it to match well with her room. Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut out an image of the Eiffel Tower that would fit on the jar, but any solid sticker would do just fine.
Making sure the vinyl (I use Contact Paper when I’m discarding afterwards because it’s a lot cheaper) is completely sealed to the jar, I gave the jar 2-3 coats of the ballet pink, letting it dry overnight before peeling the vinyl off. I felt it was quite plain and my niece is anything but so I added glitter to the entire jar. First, I covered the jar with Mod Podge with a foam brush and poured glitter covering the entire jar. For everyone who knows me – this was a real struggle. I hate touching glitter! No matter how hard you try it – it lingers… for days. To seal the glitter and paint onto the jar, I sprayed 3-4 coats of Rust-oleum’s Triple Thick Glaze. The lids I purchased looked a bit rustic to me so I sprayed hers with the ballet pink and clear coat. When you paint the inside of the lid, twisting it on and off will scratch the paint and the jar but since it’s under the lid and goes unseen it didn’t bother me.
Final results?
For my nephew, I attended several of his baseball games over the summer and was in the progress of making him a baseball applique quilt for Christmas already so I went with a matching baseball theme. For his, I sprayed the jar red first with 2-3 coats, applied the vinyl stickers I cut out on my Silhouette Cameo, sprayed the jar again red to seal the vinyl in place, then finished with 2-3 coats of white – allowing to dry overnight before removing the stickers and clear coating 2-3 coats. Final Results?
Last but not least, my youngest niece. She has a love for Minnie Mouse. Spraying hers with 2-3 coats of red, I finished with the round sponge brush and the white acrylic paint, before sealing with clear coat 2-3 times. I did not purchase the black for her lid, so I used Krylon black gloss spray paint that I had already and then finished with clear coat.
It’s not Minnie Mouse without the ears. I used the thick foam sheet to cut two circles. I had no measurements just guessing and trimming. Trimmed off excess for the foam to sit on the lid of the jar like ears and used hot glue to adhere them.
Added a bow. Final Results?
These were so much fun to make and I know they are being put to good use. 🙂