After quilting for the first time, I was the proud new owner of a ton of safety pins. I had an extra blank mason jar laying around from the coin banks I made for my nieces and nephew, so I figured it would make a good container to keep all these newly acquired pins.
To make one of these, you’ll need a blank mason jar, vinyl/contact paper (to save money) or stickers if you don’t have a vinyl cutting machine, Silhouette Cameo, and Krylon frosted glass finish spray.
Start off by measuring the area of your jar where you’d like the label to go, and creating that sized mat in your Silhouette Studio.
Once you have your sized work area, you can design your label. Selecting the text icon to add text on the right side, will allow you to chose your font and size.
The next feature of this program is one of my favorites. In order to get my safety pin image, I grabbed an image of a safety pin and dragged it into the program.
Select the Trace tool found on the top right of the program, then Select Trace Area. Draw a box around your image you’d like to trace and select Trace. You can then move and discard the image you dragged into the program. You should be left with something like this.
You don’t need the Cameo to cut unnecessary lines, so right-click on your trace to get to the menu to select “Release Compound Path.” This allows you to move each individual item within the image. I selected cuts I didn’t want and deleted them.
You’ll want to select the image again by dragging your cursor over it with a pretend box to select all pieces. Right-click again to select “Make Compound Path” so when you go to move it, it won’t leave something behind. Now you are able to position and resize it to fit with your text.
All set to cut out. Place vinyl on your mat and load into your Cameo. Select Send to Cameo icon in the top right corner, then Adjust Cut Settings on the bottom.
Be sure to chose the correct Material, in this case vinyl. Silhouette has recommended settings laid out for you but don’t rely too heavily on these as more often than not I have to change them and that is where I bring you to the most important feature in this program – Test Cut. I wish I would have figured this feature out when I first opened the box and installed my machine, I wasted so much vinyl, so much money. Always test cut your material with your settings first. The test cut will run a small square with a triangle inside. After your test cut make sure you have enough room for your design on the vinyl and the cut you made for the test (you may have to move your design over or down slightly to accommodate).
If your test cut turned out for your material, Send to Silhouette. While the machine is cutting your design, make sure your jar is clean, dry, and ready for paint. Once you have your cut design, you’ll need to weed the excess vinyl.
After weeding, your vinyl should look like this:
I’ve used a lot of different transfer tape, but my favorite it is the Cricut brand. For small designs, you can use painters tape, which is a lot more cost effective. Apply transfer tape to your design.
Rub your finger nail over the design to ensure the transfer tape is secure before peeling up. I like to flip mine over and remove the backing this way; the design seems to stick better and for me it’s less of a hassle when trying to pull the backing from the design rather than the design from the backing.
One you have separated the backing from the transfer tape, apply your design to your jar.
Same as before, seal it with your fingernail and slowly roll off the transfer tape, making sure none of the design comes with it.
Remove the lid and you’re ready to frost. This dries extremely quickly so once you’re done with your first coat, you can apply a second. I applied 2-3 coats and left it alone over night. Mine did scratch a bit at first but now that it has been sitting on my shelf for a while, it has become difficult to scratch it. So when you are finished with the spray, be careful peeling the stickers off, so you don’t scratch yours. I use a tool like this:
This is the Silhouette weeding tool, but you could also use a pin to help remove the vinyl from the jar.
I purchased silver jars lids to replace the gold one the jar came with because I’m not a fan of gold, filled the jar with my safety pins, and placed it on a shelf next to my sewing stuff. These are nice for anything, not just pins and can be made with other glass containers if you’re not a fan of mason jars.