Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Painted mason jar

Hi everyone! I hope you're all staying safe and warm on this cold and icy Tuesday. With the ice storm that came through yesterday there are many people in my state without power. I am very thankful and blessed that as of now we have not lost power.

I've done a couple of simple projects this past week that I wanted to share with you guys.
The first is the popular painted Mason jars that you see everywhere these days.
I picked up my jar from The Dollar Tree for $1 and used supplies that I already had on hand to complete this extremely fast project. It took longer for the Mod Podge to dry than for the rest of the project combined. And speaking of Mod Podge, I actually sealed with 2 coats just to be on the safe side.
I watched several videos and it seems to be fairly equal between the number of people who paint the insides of the jars and those, like me, who opt to paint the outside of the jar.
I chose painting the outside simply because I wanted to sand the raised edges slightly to give the shabby chic appearance that I tend to gravitate toward.


As usual, I failed to get a true "before" photo but this is
pretty close, right? :)
As you can see I used a simple sponge paint brush and
craft acrylic paint in my color of choice. I brused the paint
on in an up/down motion as evenly as possible. After the
first coat dried I added a second coat for better coverage.
And here you have the finished product <3
After the paint was dry, I used a very fine grit sandpaper
and lightly sanded the raised areas on my jar.
The final step is to seal with Mod Podge, or some other
type of sealant.
I added some burlap ribbon and some string pearls and that's
it. 

I added my favorite homemade coffee filter rose to
my finished jar and I love it!
I *may* add some small roses around the burlap
later on, but I haven't decided just yet.
My next project was also simple. Even though it was simple, it was also quite a bit more labor intensive than the previous task.
I had been looking for a few weeks for something to add to top of the shelf in the living room but wasn't sure what. I'm one of those people who lives by the creed that "I'll know it when I see it" and that generally works well for me for the most part. Notice that I said "for the most part..."
We've all seen those flower balls, right? What the heck are those things actually called anyway???
Well I decided that I wanted a poofy flower ball for the top of my shelf. The only problem was that I was very particular about what color it should be and though I searched I was unable find one that I loved.
So, I did what any self respecting crafter does and decided to make my own.

The only supplies required are:
-paper lantern in your choice size (I used an 8 inch lantern)
-package of regular coffee filters
-acrylic paint (or some other means of coloring your filters)
-cup or bowl (to mix the paint and water)
-paint brush
-water
-glue gun and lots of glue sticks

You start with the coffee filters. Some people like to round the end of their filters but I chose to skip that step.
-I mixed my paint--the exact paint I used for my Mason jar above--with about a cup of water. Just mix the paint and water until you get the desired color.
-You will want to immerse as many filters as possible at the same time. Just take a stack and place into the paint/water mixture.
-When all the filters are saturated completely, wring out the excess paint just as if you were wringing out a wash cloth. Don't worry about the wrinkles--they add a nice texture.
-Once you have all your filters painted you *may* wish to lightly brush some undiluted paint around the edges. I did complete this step...using my sponge brush, I dipped into the paint and dabbed around the entire stack of filters.
-You will need to set your filters aside for about a day in order for them to dry completely.

Once all filters are completely dry you will begin the process of of separating them.
notice the hint of darker green around the edges? That comes
from painting around the edges of the filters while they were
still wet. 

After you have them all separated, you can get down to the fun part lol.

The first step is to take each filter and fold in half...take that half and fold in half again...and again, for a total of 3 times to create a triangle.

-Once you have all your filters folded you can begin layering them onto your assembled paper lantern. I started from the bottom and worked my way up. I don't really know how to explain this step other than to say that I went in a circle around the lantern and attached the point (small end) of the filter triangles with hot glue approximately an inch apart and then began layering upwards. I actually *staggered* the filters as I went. I'm sorry I got caught up in this process and forgot to take any photos. You can search youtube though and lots of videos will come up if you need to see a visual.
Once you have your triangles attached your *poofy flower ball* (haha) will look something like this. And you could probably leave it at this if you wanted to.
 
Once you have all your filters attached, you can begin the process of of *fluffing* the filters. You just basically are separating each filter and opening them up and shaping them. You'll see the "flower" start to take shape and it will keep you motivated to keep shaping :)
The color is a little off but you can see the end result :)
Finished! I love the way the colors vary...
And that is my finished *giant poofy flower ball* lol. I love the way it looks...I do wish I'd started with a smaller lantern because the filters add several inches and my finished "ball" is larger than I intended. I'm guessing it's approximately 13-14 inches across.
I do love that it's the perfect color for my living room and it turned out perfectly.

So, were those instructions clear as mud or what, lol? Hopefully, I explained well enough that if you wanted to try your hand you'd know where to start. If you have questions just leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll get right back to you :)

And that's all I have for you right now. I've been a busy scrapbooker though so I'll have a few layouts to share next time!
Be sure and check back soon!
Thanks for stopping by, y'all!
Rhonda

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