Repurpose Glass Jars, To Vintage or Not

I love finding new uses for things that are usually  trashed.I have saved jars,plastic containers with lids  and boxes.The list goes on and on.i am not a pack rat by any means ,the things I save have a clear purpose in my mind.If they do not get used at some point I do trash them.The net has been a source of great inspiration to me.I use it like a library and feed my mind of new things everyday.

Now that being said lets move on to what I have always wanted to do.... make my own vintage looking jars without paying an arm and leg for them.

I can still see my Grandmother Cason's cook house with it's cement floor and long bench tables that we all sat around on family gatherings.She was a mother of 15 children and I forget how many grand and great grandchildren.  When I was growing up there was never a lack of playmates.The cook house was large  and hot in summer and cold in winter.I can remember looking inside the shelves   and finding coffee cups that had filters right inside the cup to strain the coffee grains(no coffeemaker just steep and strain) .

The depression coffee cups and the colored jars. Depression

 glass was given out free at many store even movie theaters.Some was included in food package like toys was in cereal and crackerjack boxes.This was to entice the buyer to purchase the product .After all during the Depression  times was hard and the poor people had no money to wast on pretty dinner ware.The pretty colors and etching on the depression ware gave them pretty dinner ware to use. If you would like to know more about the subject I have included some links.You might be surprised at the things you can learn about that time period just by looking at the products that were used .

Copyright © 2008 by National Depression Glass Association 

http://www.ndga.net/articles/whatisdg.php

Copyright© 2006 - 2012 - SuzieMax.com
http://www.suziemax.com/Depression-Glass.html

Hazel Marie Weatherman, copyright 1974.

http://www.mindspring.com/~reyne/dg.html  Now mason jars  were colored blue and a few other colors  because it was said that the darker the jar’s color is, the longer the food lasts. Today the jars are used not only for food but as a decorated accent for the home.Had we only known that the things from our past would be the treasures of our future we each could have carried a link to our family roots that could be shared with our children.

 Hazel Marie Weatherman, copyright 1974.

http://www.mindspring.com/~reyne/dg.html

 Now mason jars  were colored blue and a few other colors  because it was said that the darker the jar’s color is, the longer the food lasts. Today the jars are used not only for food but as a decorated accent for the home.Had we only known that the things from our past would be the treasures of our future we each could have carried a link to our family roots that could be shared with our children. 

Copyright © 2012  The Inglenook Decor. 

Now I will share the links I found on how to color your own jars below.Remember you don't have to limit yourself to mason jars.I save pickle ,mayo,fruit,and just about any other jar that catches my eye.

Lets begin exploring the diy  art of jar color !

 First thing to remember is that these methods are NOT intended for food use.If you want color jars for food use you will need to purchase color jars.

If you know of a way to color jars that are safe for food use ,please share with us .I always love learning something new.

1. HispanicallyEverAfter has a great tut for coloring jars .Nice pictures and clear directions.

http://hispanicallyeverafter.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/diy-color-tint-glass-jar/

2. Chicken in the Road is  another tut.In this one she goes in great detail of the failures and successes of dying the jars. I found this tut of great help in information .If you never look at another tut I would recommend  this one be on the must read.

She has a very nice imagery of the process and as a visual person this was right up my alley.

Do read the full post and not skip right to the tut.It has very good information .

http://chickensintheroad.com/house/crafts/coloring-mason-jars/

3. DIY: Tinted Mason Jars in Rainbow

By 

Liz Stanley

Another nice image  tut 

http://www.momtastic.com/diy/168908-diy-tinted-mason-jars-in-rainbow

4 Craftaholice Anonmos 

has a tut on creating permanent dyed jars basically the same as the others except she uses Crystal Gloss Enamels  to color the jars.

COPYRIGHT © 2012 CRAFTAHOLICS ANONYMOUS

5.Last but not least is creative little daisy blog site.Another great image tut .I love the little jars!So cute

.http://creativelittledaisy.typepad.com/creative_little_daisy/2010/06/have-you-priced-vintage-blue-canning-jars-lately-wanna-make-your-own-really-cheap-.html

there you have it.Several sites to get you started on creating those vintage jars at a fraction of the price.Even if it is not the actual ware from my childhood it still brings back those fond memories of my childhood that are long past.Families grow and move on,mothers ,daughters ,sons and farthers all have families of there own and if we don't hold to our past we lose a little bit of our future.So tell the stories and save that scrap of past to hand down to your children and most importantly make those memories .Sometimes memories are all we are left with,save the good and lose the bad.

Remember

Love What You Are Doing 

and 

Do What You Love!

Re-purposing all Kinds of paper

 Brian Dettmer

 Doing my usual searching  I came across some amazing art work using old books.I would never have thought that you could make something so simple as old books turn into something that was as awesome as this. His name is Brian Dettmer or the book surgeon.  I wanted to share his link with you so you can see his work.Just think of all the books that would have rotted ,filled up the land fills or been burnt( I discovered all books do not get recycled due to the large spine!Who knew?!!!)  I think he has created true masterpieces here. click the link below to go to his homepage and discover that you can do more with a book than read it

.http://briandettmer.com/

 Brian Dettmer

 Brian Dettmer

 Brian Dettmer

 All photo's belong to Brian Dettmer.

Remember
Love what you are doing
and
Do what you love!

Cotton plant Christmas ornament tutorial .

SNOW BURST

   As   promised here is the tut on making a Christmas ornament out of a cotton plant.This is a easy craft to do but it is very pretty when the lights from the tree hit the glitter.Oh how they sparkle! I live in the south and cotton plants are not hard to find here,but I do not know if you can purchase cotton online .

cotton in the field

Materials
cotton plant ( I got mine from local farmer)

 hot glue gun and glue sticks

glitter ( your choice but I like the fine iridescent glitter)
white craft paint (again your choice)
paintbrushes (not big ones ,use what you need to paint the snow burst)
ribbon(I like all kind but like anything else its what you like)
bowl (to catch the glitter for reuse.just pour back in glitter battle )

image 1

First you need to cut the cotton bulb off the stem. What you want is the husk or open bulb see image 1 . Then you need to remove the cotton from the bulb.This is easy to do just gently pull cotton out. See image 2 and 3.

image 2

image 3

Now take the husk apart by gently moving them back and forth while holding one side

hull broken apart 

drop of glue on torn end

Now using your glue gun place a drop of glue on the end of the hull.This is the end your broke from the other hulls not the pointy tip.Now add another hull to the one with glue on it. Hold a few seconds so it will cool and stay on. You want to alternation the hull position meaning the wider side and the sides with the indention should not always face each other.Neither should they always be facing away from  each other.see the image 4.

put another hull on the tip of the glued one 

hull position  image 4




Now take another hull and place it at the top and one at the bottom,. Making a star figure.see image 5 

image 5

this is the shape you want  for the bass

Now place a hull in center of star ( image 6) and another hull on the other side in the middle  of the star 

image 6

 Now keep adding hulls in between  to form a star burst like shape
See the images below .There is no wrong way to add the hulls .Keep adding
till you get the look that you want.

keep adding hulls

add hulls till you get the shape you want

finishes snow burst

 These are my finished snow burst.Remember each will be different.

Add caption

 Now take your white pant and cover the snow burst completely.This will need to be painted 2 times because the cotton hull soaks up the paint.Make sure to get in all the corners and hiding places .

paint snow burst

While the paint is still wet take your glitter and hold your snow burst over a bowl(to catch the excess glitter.you can reuse this ) Sprinkle glitter all over the snow burst making sure to get all sides and the insides.

 Now after it has completely dried take your ribbon and glue it in one of the hulls in the center of the burst. You can take a small bristle paint brush and paint the glue white if you wish ,being careful not to paint the ribbon where it shows

Ribbon added to dry snow burst 

 That's it! Now you can create an heirloom that you can hand down to your children and so forth.It's using nature to create and repurposed at its best. i enjoyed making these and my best friend already wants to make some for next year christmas gift! Below are some images of them on my tree.See how they sparkle? my camera could not do them justice.I hope you enjoyed this tut and if you have any questions please ask away!

 Remember 
Have fun doing what you love
and 
Love what you are doing!