Yesterday my friend Peggy came over and we played with spray paint and jars. She had found this fun Halloween scene to put on jars and thought we could make them!
I had gotten this wonderful candle jar from my previous job. I brought it home to recycle it and I had set it in the foyer closet and forgot it. I'm glad I did. When I went in there to get the cans of paint out I found this and thought I would upcycle it instead of recycle it!!! Sometimes it does pay to be forgetful!!! LOL
SO, the first thing I did was removed the metal handle from the ring of the jar. Then I needed to get the remaining wax out of the jar. A pretty simple task. I just used a knife and pushed it into the wax and broke it up into pieces. Then I was able to just shake the chunks out of the jar.
Next I took some Dawn dish soap and cleaned out the inside. I found a sponge with a little soft scrubby on the other side was extremely helpful!
Then I filled the jar with water and set it in a bowl of water to soak off the label on the side and bottom.
Once that was done I dried the jar I wiped it down with rubbing alcohol and made a point to NOT touch the outside. I didn't want any fingerprints on it. I wanted it clean so the paint would stick. Once that was done and I made sure the alcohol had evaporated, I sprayed the jar with Krylon. This color was a purple plum and then I had a can of blue metallic Rustoleum and I sprayed a little of it all over the jar to give it some sparkle and I added a lot more to the bottom to give it some dimension.
Then the fun began!!! We went to Adventures in a Box and downloaded the Halloween scene. I used the witch for my jar. There's a whole city scene. You can do it all or in parts. I also did a small jar with the car on the moon too. It's not as nice as this is. The jar was small so I didn't have room for a city at the bottom. Go there and check out the designs. Oh and there are also Christmas ones you can do too. We opted not to do Christmas because we didn't like the idea of having glass outside in the winter. Anyway, back to the jar. Once the image was downloaded and adjusted to the size needed it was printed out on copier paper and cut out by hand. UGH!! That took a little while but it is SO worth it. Plus you can use the image over and over. The original instructions have you putting the image inside the jar and tracing that way. I found it too difficult, that is why we cut the image out. I'm sure it would save a lot of time putting the image inside the jar and tracing that way. You will have to experiment with yours and see which you prefer. The paint on the bottom part of my jar is a little thicker than needed so I couldn't see the image anyway. Plus cutting it out and taping it on the jar with removable tape was easier for me to do. Like I groaned a few sentences back, I didn't like all the cutting, but it really was worth it. I used an x-acto knife to cut out the windows. I did it while it was still on the jar. Then I took the tip of the knife and scraped away the paint to make the windows look more like a window. I did cut the witch out separately. She was flying too high in the sky for my jar. So once I got her cut out I could place her anywhere I wanted in the sky. I did not cut the broom handle or her thumb out. I cut them off. I later drew them in with the marker. The broom handle was done using a ruler to get it straight. I didn't trust myself doing it freehand. Anyway, it is done and I like how it turned out!
One more note here. You do not want to use a Sharpe marker. You want an India ink marker. You want a waterproof marker. You want a black marker. I used a Faber-Castell artist pen 2.0mm It has a nice tip to do detail but yet wide enough to color in the large areas. I used my 50% off coupon from Michaels. I'm sure most craft stores carry this type of marker.
I just need to add a candle (probably a battery operated one) and I'm all set!!! I have a shepherd's hook and I'll probably hang it from there on Halloween!!! This was a fun project. Though I don't see myself making anymore of them. Mostly because I don't have any use for more!!!
Check here for more "Halloween Painted Jar Luminaries". There's 7 great ideas there. Have fun!
Thank you SO much for stopping by to see my crafting stuff!!!
Wanda
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