DIY Craft: Bright, Colorful Mason Jars with Mod Podge

I have been working tirelessly on making my little 10′ x 10′ craft room/home office well organized. That may not sound like much but let me tell you, it has been a severe pain in the neck. My father has plans to help me build shelving which is going to help immensely, but while we managed to get the woodcut, some hernia thing popped out of his chest and the project has been delayed. At least until parts get surgically sucked back where they belong.

In the interim, I have decided to work on a container system. Little blue plastic tubs with handwritten masking tape identifiers are stacked sky-high. We have everything from “elastic”, “patterns”, “random paint”, to “origami paper”. Basically, I went to the store and purchased 28 little tubs, 8 medium-sized tubes, and 10 large tubs, opened them up and laid them around the house and took every stick of everything out of this room, and traipsed around my house dropping magnets into my new plastic magnet tub, glitter into my glitter tub and so on. Don’t believe me? Here’s a sample of what one side of my hall looked like:

You had to step over tubs to make it into any of the 3 bedrooms or the bathroom. Bigger boxes overtook my bedroom, the guest room and the living room. It was absolutely nuts.

What I learned is that while I have a ridiculous amount of crafting stuff, some of it isn’t enough to warrant a tub. That is when I started saving every glass jar that came through the front door of this house. And I started eating jelly like a maniac – all in the name of an organized crafting/working space. So now my jingle bells and buttons can live comfortably in a glass jar instead of a huge tub that could be used for my stash of fishing line that I have somehow managed to acquire.

Not only are these jars functional, but they are also totally gorgeous and that means a lot to me. Whether yours are for storage or for decoration purposes, you just have to rinse out that spaghetti sauce and get after it. Please note, however, these are NOT safe for drinking or as vases with water inside – plastic stems ONLY.

For this project you will need:

• Glossy Mod Podge
• Liquid food coloring (I used neon colors)
• Water
• Mixing bowl(s)
• Spoon(s)
• Oven
• Cookie sheet lined with wax paper
• Paper towels

Take a dollop of gloss Mod Podge and place it into your bowl. Add about 10 drops of food coloring and mix well.  Add a few spoonfuls of water and mix until the mixture is still thick but considerably runnier – like a melty milkshake.

Just so that you know at this point in the game, you’re adding white that is going to turn clear to the mix. If you want to gauge the color, look more closely at the color of the food coloring. Granted the darker the mixture the darker it will inevitably come out, but take that into consideration. If color is imperative, I’d highly recommend doing a single tester and modifying your mixture for the real deal.

Pour your mixture right into the bottom of your jar. Twist, turn, and roll the jar around until the entire inside is well coated with your Mod Podge mixture.

Allow the excess to run off back into your bowl. Wipe any large globs off of the rim and turn it upside down onto some paper towels so it will finish coating (with extra pooling on your paper towels). After 5 minutes, pick up and move to a clean spot on the towel. After another five minutes, turn upright and place on your wax paper covered cookie sheet.

Here are my jars filled with the wet Mod Podge mixture. If you like this look, you can achieve a finished product like the above-using acrylic craft paint instead!

Set your cookie sheet onto the oven rack and turn the oven onto 200 degrees.  Leave in until all of the Mod Podge inside turns transparent. These have been in the oven for about 45 minutes. You can see that the green ones on the left are practically done but some of the others have a long way to go. Check on the jars every 15 minutes and remove as soon as there is no more opaque liquid in the bottom.

Allow them to fully cool and then you can start using them for storage or decoration!

Just remember, if you want nice, dark colors go kind of heavy on the food coloring! Have fun!!!

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Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.