Hello friends. How’s your Monday going?
Right now it’s a bit crazy around here because Anne and Ryan’s wedding is coming up this week. Thank goodness my sister-in-law hosted Easter dinner at her house, because I’ve been working on a few wedding projects in addition to the floral arrangements Kirsten and I will be doing.
I’ll be sharing the photos with you soon, but in the meantime I wanted to show you one of the tinted Mason jars I just finished. We’re putting the flowers in these cool, turquoise-tined Mason jars that are supposed to look like authentic vintage jars.
Only using real antique Mason jars are expensive and this method was relatively easy once you get the hang of it..
There are all kinds of tutorials out there in the bloggersphere, using the Vitrea 160 glass tint and thinner but after some experimentation, this is how I did it.
Basically I used four items:
- Pebeo’s Vitrea 160 tint and
- Pebeo’s thinner
- a fan brush
- piece of tack cloth
1. Decide how blue you want your jar and blend the tint with the thinner until you get the desired color.
I mixed the tint with a dab of thinner in a disposable bowl. This is where you can get creative and play around with the depth of color you want on your jar. I’ve seen some crafters mix 1/2 tint and 1/2 thinner but I found that went on too light. Although if you act quickly, you can add more color by simply dipping your brush into the tint and adding it to the color you’ve just brushed on. But you have to do it FAST so it will blend easily.
2. Brush it on quickly
I used a small fan brush. I put the jar over my hand (so that it’s upside down) and dipped the brush into the tint mixture. Then I brushed from top to bottom, about four strokes going around the jar, and making sure there was enough color around the raised lettering on the jars.
3. Blend with tack cloth.
Then I quickly picked up the tack cloth and started blending the color on the jar. I used light dabbing motions rather than wiping. I repeated Step 2 and 3 until the jar was completely covered.
I avoided brush strokes by using tack cloth
I kept reading complaints about brush strokes being left on the jars after the jars baked, and while some people don’t mind because the water in the vase makes it barely noticeable, I still chose to blend the blue tint after I brushed it on the jar.
Some crafters recommended any piece of cotton, but I found the cotton hard to work with; it ended up looking too smudgy. And the tack cloth seemed the best choice. But please, feel free to experiment, there’s plenty of wiggle room with this project.
And sorry I have no photos of any of this, I had to work quickly once the tint was brushed on the jar. And there was no time to grab my camera.
4. After the jars are tinted, let them set for 24 hours.
5. Bake them in the oven.
I baked them at 350 degrees for 40 minutes on a cookie sheet. Nothing on it, just the jars.
And that’s it. You should know it’s still not going to look perfect. There will be slight variations of blue from the dabbing motion, but I still think it’s better than brush stokes. You can choose for yourself. The important thing to know is once you bake your jars you can use them as vases with no worries about the color being washed away.
What do you think about blue mason jars? Do you like them?
xoxo
Leslie
