25 Days of Handmade Christmas: Day 3

I'm incredibly excited for today's Handmade Christmas tutorial from Allison at Crafted Love! Allison actually did all of the design for my blog and is a fellow Southern Ohio girl! Make sure you check out her amazing site. Here is her tutorial on turning a plain jar into a beautiful Christmas piece!

Hi everyone! My name is Allison Kaye and I write a super crafty blog called Crafted Love! If I'm not making something, you can find me behind my computer doing graphic design or blogging. I love the holidays and absolutely love making presents and decorations for my apartment. What I love almost as much as crafting, though, is saving money. Every time I walk through a store I end up saying, "I could make that". And most of the time, I do! I'm here today to show you one of my little "copycat" projects I've done recently that turns a boring old jar into something magical!

Happy December!!! Today starts a month full of holiday cheer and of course, DIYs!!! The other day I was walking through Hobby Lobby and passed the Christmas section. I noticed these super cute porcelain dinner sets and was immediately in love. I'm not one to switch out plates and accessories for the holidays, nor am I one to pay $20 for a teapot I'll never use. But I could use a cute place to hold holiday candy... That's when that little voice in my head chimed in with "I could make that". So I did. And now so can you.

I had an apothecary jar laying around without a real use so that ended up being my muse for this project. You could use anything really. A tea cup, platter, anything! If you're using something glass, you'll need to rough up the surface a bit so that the paint has something to stick to. Otherwise it will just scratch off two seconds after you finish. Grab some semi-coarse sand paper and start to rub the glass until you can see scratch marks all over the glass. Don't worry, you won't be able to see or feel these marks in the end :]

Take your blank canvas [so to speak] outside and lay out a tarp or some scrap paper... spray paint kills grass :-P Spray a thin coat of paint on the glass. You want it to still be transparent but you'll need a thin layer for the next step to work well.


Print out different sized snowflakes from online or just sketch them out yourself. A few different designs gives it a nice look. Cute them into individual pieces and grab some masking tape.




Tape the sketches on the inside of the jar. Using fabric puffy paint, trace over your snowflakes all around the jar. The thin layer of spray paint gives the puffy paint something to grab a hold of, otherwise it would just kind of peel off.


Make sure your puffy paint is fully dry before this step. I would recommend waiting several hours. I'm not sure on this one, but I would imagine covering the puffy paint before it was completely dry would stop the drying process and leave it squishy. No good. Anywhoooo... once it's dry, take it back outside for a few more coats of spray paint. Two coats should be enough to to give it even color.

After those coats are all dry, it's wise to spray a few coats of clear sealant on your new little jar/piece.

I painted the bottom as well so to avoid scratches and sliding, I added little rubber bumpers to the bottom. I snagged these guys from my parent's junk drawer. They were originally for padding cabinet doors and can be found in almost any tool aisle.


Fill it up with candy and add it to your festive decor! I'm so in love with this little jar. You have no idea. It's so much more rewarding to look at this and know I made it rather than to have bought one from the store. Now go make your own and tell me about it!!! If you'd like to see more of my DIYs and crafty tutorials, just click the button below!!!

Note: using spray paint is not recommended on items that will touch food or your mouth. Yucky. This project worked because the paint was on the outside, not inside where the candy would touch. Stick to decorative items on this DIY :]