Painted Mason jars for Christmas gifts

A few years ago, I fell in love with all the glass and mason jar projects on Pinterest. You could say I went slightly overboard-to the point of painting and decorating about forty jars. I mean once I got going, there was no stopping me.

By the way, did you know mason jars even come in a gallon size? I couldn’t believe it when I found them at one of our local big box hardware stores here in Michigan. (Menard’s)

I decided to share them again this year as they are so much fun.

The grey jars you will see first were made for my daughter to go with an antique stool I re-purposed for her.

Her bathroom is painted a “warm” yellow. The floor is grey so these jars were meant to coordinate with the stool and the wall color. I had a last minute happy surprise when painting these particular jars. Wouldn’t you know they were the last ones I did and I ran out of time to paint any more of them.

Here’s what happened. You might want to try this yourself. I didn’t take pictures because I never expected this would happen.

I spray painted the jars in metallic paint and then painted over that with chalk paint. Imagine my surprise when the two paints reacted to each other way they did.

(Oh, I can just see all the projects in my future. 🙂

(I make my own chalk paint using either calcium carbonate or in this case plaster of Paris. I mixed this particular color with a heavy concentration of the plaster of Paris. I have no “recipe”. I experimented a great deal over the holidays with various combinations. But it seems the heavier I make the paint the better I like it. It sands off so beautifully when it’s thick.)

The bows are off more to the side of the jar than the picture shows.

So without further ado———-Here’s the first slideshow of the grey jars. Make sure you go to the end of the post. I went kind of wild with my new skill.)

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This is the stool. I forgot to take pictures of the stool painted the yellow undercoat. You’ll just have to imagine it.

I sanded off the grey to reveal the yellow underneath. It really is the color yellow peeking through the grey. I couldn’t get a good picture.

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Here are other jars I painted and embellished. The first set of vases were clear vases that I painted inside and out with black chalk paint. Then I painted two coats of white chalk paint. Finally, I did a lot of sanding. The black velvet ribbon and the jewelry really set them off.

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Here’s more!!!!! Most of these are painted black first then white. The littlest one is just white. All our distressed.

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I think these next jars are some of my favorites. I wish I could tell you how I got the various finishes. I simply add layer on layer until I get what I want. I do a lot of experimenting.

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This first picture is of a three-gallon size mason jars spray painted red and then distressed.  You can distress with any type of paint. It’s just easier with chalk paint.

The final jars.

This was so much fun. I wish I had someone to make them for this year. It’s one of my favorite projects.

God bless and I hope you have a great day.

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