EASTER MASON JARS

Here is a pretty cute project that I got the idea for off of Pinterest.

A painted, two toned Mason jar in pastel colors for Easter.

The above is a robins egg blueish color and here is a different pic of it and another one up close:

I mixed up a sage green color on the other to match my bathroom.

 

This is really an easy project, so let's get started.

I started out with these plain, wide mouth Mason jars.

You will need:

-Mason Jar of any size you want

-Alcohol (to clean the outside of jar)

-Sponge brush

-2 paint colors for each jar (inside and out)

-Decorations of your choice for jar 

-Light grit sand paper

Okay, so first off we need to clean the outside of the jar with a bit of alcohol.  This removes all dust, lint and crap so it will have a good finish.

I just wiped it down with a paper towel and a dash of alcohol.

Okay, next you need to pick a color you want for the inside.
Remember to pick a color that will contrast with your outside color.

This allows the color to pop through once you sand off a bit of the top colors.

I choose an off white, antique color.

Go ahead and paint the inside.  It doesn't have to be great, just good enough to get a coat on.

Here it is with just the inside painted off white. I really like this how it is. So later on, I may make some and leave them like this.

Then we are on to the outside already.

Just paint on, in long strokes, a pretty good layer of paint.

This is coat #1.

We need to do another coat right after this dries.

Here's the blue first coat:

and here's the sage green first coat:

Okay, now here they are after the second coat was applied and dried.

We are ready to sand!

Grab your lightweight sandpaper and start off easy.  

I like to start with the lettering.

I love to see them stand out.

And then to the edges to make it look like it has some wear on it.

Above is the blueish one.

And here is my sage green one:

I about rubbed it a bit too much. So go easy on it, you can always take off more but it'd be hard to fill it back in at this point.

Here they are again after some sanding:

I love the blueish one so much better than the green.

Okay, now, if you think there will be a chance of scratches and such, now you can apply a

flat/matte finish coat. One coat is enough.

Be sure to get the matte finish though, because you don't want them to turn out shiny.

With this project, I think the flat colored pastels make this a plus!

Now time to start decorating.

No need to run out and buy something I may use (unless you really love it!) Remember to always look around your home for things first.  I love to re-purpose about anything!

 

And first and foremost, I got out my plain, plastic spoons. Yes, these are plastic. I have tons of wooden ones, but to give away or sell, I prefer to use plastic.  And of course, to keep the wooden ones!

I just painted these plastic spoons with one one coat of blue, left over from the jar.  And then streaked on a touch of the offwhite that I used in the inside.

 Above, I used some cut pieces of grapevine garland that I had strung on my primitive tree.

I just cut it, and scrunched it in a circle and tacked it in place with hot glue, high temp.

And next, I added a plastic egg that I also painted in almost the same color. I just flicked on a few splashes of white and darker blue to make it look like a bird egg kinda.

And if you look close in the styrofoam plate, I have some cut off pieces of pip berry. I had cut these from one of those long strands you always see in the primitive stores. I have those all around the house in my cabinets.  I am using the white for the blue jar and yellow for the green jar.

 And I also tied a bit of bakers twine around the top to attach a gift tag with.

Okay, now lets take a look at some of the green one. I don't want to leave it out just because I don't like it as much.

 Again, I painted the plastic spoons with the same green and then streaked on some off white.

 Added a plastic egg I painted and speckled, some grapevine garland for a nest and some cut pieces of pip berry.

Tack them all with hot glue!

 And for this one as a tag, I found a cute fake seed pack sign.  It was one out of a pack of note pads I had from the Dollar Mart.

This one says, "Bloom where you are planted."  I love it.

 I tied it on with some yellow and white bakers twine.

Here they are side by side.

BLUE vs. GREEN

Which color do you like best?

I hope ya'll give this Mason jar craft a try.  It was really easy and will make a cute Easter or spring gift!

See ya'll next time,

~Lisa

Primitive "Kitchen Themed" Wooden Spoons

You can do a lot with wooden spoons in a country theme. This is kinda a spinoff on my Snowman Spoons and Primitive Wooden Spoons posts. I bought oodles of spoons and so I decided to do a different theme this week. I had toyed around with making hanging ornaments out of them. And here's how they turned out.

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Keep in mind you can keep these hanging up all year round on your prim trees. That's what I'm going to do in my dining room!

Here's the before of the plain wooden spoons:

First, I handpainted each with acrylic Apple Barrel brand paint. I used a variety of old country colors such as antique white, black, colonial green, burgundy and gray etc.

Then I scuffed up all the edges with some coarse sandpaper to give each a very worn look. Like so:

as seen in my Primitive Wooden Spoons post.

Then I just took some antique white paint and wrote on each with a tiny paintbrush, the words like:
coffee, tea, collector, flour, sugar, grandmas kitchen.. Words that would typically be heard in a kitchen.

Then I cut some homespun fabric strips and tied them around the ends for hanging them up. I started to drill a tiny hole in each handle to thread the fabric through, but decided against it because I was afraid to crack them out.

You could go a step farther by "grubbying" them up. By maybe adding some browns or black paint streaks around the edges, but I like them how they are now. And here's how they turned out.

If you notice closely, on a few of the letters, I put the little dots on them to make them more country. I like it better like that.

I priced these for $1.99 each in my Booth#555  (currently available) at the Morehead Peddlers Mall. I will be also offering them in a packaged set of 4 very soon, approximately Friday at my booth and maybe in my Etsy shop.


You may also liked a similar post titled Vintage Styled Rolling Pins where the paint technique is quite similar.

~Happy Crafting~
See ya'll next time,
~Lisa

Primitive Wooden Spoons

A country must in my prim themed kitchen is old time colored prim wooden spoons.

Instead of going out and buying some pre-made, I thought I'd try to make'em. After all I had plenty of plain wooden spoons laying around after making the Snowmen Wooden Spoons.

Here's a pic of a few of my finished prim spoons:

If you notice, I try to stay with old timey colors such as reds, greens, grays and blacks. I just like them better. I wanted to throw in a mustard colored one, but have ran out of that color.

If you want to make these, here's how I did it. I started with some plain wooden spoons from Walmart. I choose the cheap pack of like 6 or 8 for $1.50. Can't remember exactly, but it was cheap. They looked like this:

This is my favorite crock. And here is where I store my plain spoons. I just love it!

First off, I took them outside and lightly spray painted them, both sides, black in the Rustoleum brand.

 I also tried to hand paint a few, to see which ones I liked better, with flat black craft paint:

The color was nice and strong, but it took forever doing so by hand. Keep in mind, I bought about 10 packages of these spoons to make, so that I could also sell some in my Peddlers Mall Booth. So I'm sticking with the spray painting!

Then I brought them inside and grubbied them up an extra bit while adding some color at the same time, like so:

by mixing the preferred color (at this time it was actually another flat black but I had a pic of the burnt umber) I mix them about 50/50 and apply kinda sparse. You don't wanna fully cover up your first coat of spray paint. You want to let it kinda show through. (I wish I'd snapped a pic of another color spoon below other than black to show what I'm talking about, but I'm sure you get the idea.) You just wanna kinda give it a paint on paint look. Not just one solid color.

Then I take some heavy grit sand paper and scuff up all the sides and inner rims, and down the handle a bit like so:

And then I went back and added a piece of jute string to some of the handles. Just to make a lil more country look.

I've been mixing the colors and selling them as a 

set of 4 for 

$4.95 in my Peddlers Mall Booth. 

I'm also planning to add these to my Etsy shop soon.

They'd be great as a display in an old mason jar in your kitchen. I may be making some Christmas ornaments out of these in an upcoming post. So I better get going and start drilling some hanging holes. Don't forget to check back soon to see them!

And you can check out current items in my booth by visiting facebook, Booth #555

 

Here's some mixed in with my Snowman spoons too.

Happy Crafting!