Soccer Ball Painted Mason Jar w/ Acrylics

Recently, my son’s soccer teammate had a birthday.  He knew she liked Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and wanted to give her some.  However, he wanted something unique to put them in. 

We have A TON of Mason jars stored away for when my husband cans pickles, and I thought it would be cool to turn one of them into a soccer ball.  That way, it stores her candy, and then she can reuse it for whatever she wants.

I have an abundance of acrylic paints, but every tutorial I found, said to use a paint specifically made for glass.  When I finally found one for acrylics, it was only a picture with no how-tos. 

I decided to try it anyways, cross my fingers and hope for the best.

What you need:

Mason Jar
Paint Brushes
Acrylic Black & White Paint
Paper Hexagon Template
Acrylic Gloss
Spray on Acrylic Sealer
Cookie Sheet & Oven
{To add personalization}
Contact Paper
Template
X-Acto Knife

First things first… Make sure your glass is clean.  I always use a little rubbing alcohol over the surface to take off debris and fingerprints.

{If personalized}

This is where you transfer your design onto the contact paper, cut it out, and place it on the glass, smoothing out all the wrinkles.  I did this the same way I do when I etch glass.  To see how, visit my page on glass etching.

Now it’s time to paint.

Paint the whole jar white. Let dry.

 

Use a hexagon shaped piece of paper, and hold it to the surface so you can trace around it with black paint.

**Yes! I do know that the shape on a soccer ball is a pentagon.  However, that design only works on sphere shaped objects, otherwise the edges don’t match up.  How do I know this? Yep, I tried. That jar had to be scrapped.  At that point, I could have scraped off all the paint, but I just grabbed a new jar to save time, and I started over again.**

**On another note… That’s one of the reasons I love contact paper so much.  I peeled it off one jar and placed it on the new one.  It stuck like it was brand new, with no problem.**

Once the jar is covered in hexagon shapes, fill in the black spaces and cleaned up the lines.  That’s when you have your soccer ball Mason jar. Let dry.

I then wanted the paint to really stand out, so I covered it in an acrylic gloss medium.  It gave it that little extra shine and added an enamel like coating. Let dry.

Time to seal it.  Spray on an Acrylic Sealer. Use at least two coats, following the direction on the back of the can.  Let dry at least 20 minutes before going onto the next step.

{If personalized}

Use an X-Acto knife and cut around your template.  This helps to separate it from the paint on the jar.

Slowly peel off your design.

You’re almost done...

Place the jar on a cookie sheet and slide it into an empty oven.  With the glass in the oven, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

**Important… If you place the glass in an already preheated oven, it could crack.  The glass has to heat slowly for safety reasons.**

Once the oven is done preheating, set a timer for 30 minutes. More time might be needed for a larger piece.

Turn off oven and let the glass cool completely inside the oven. 

**I found it helpful to do this right before bed.   That way, the jar got to cool while everyone was sleeping and wasn’t in the way of any cooking.**

Take it out of the oven and admire.  The paint is sealed, dried, and ready to go. 

All in all, it might have been easier to use glass paint.  If the acrylic paint is too thin, you can see through it, but if it’s too thick it will chip.  You have to find that happy medium.  However, this was a great example of working with what you have.

Once the jar is ready to go, fill and decorate.  Mine, of course was filled with mini peanut butter cups and tied with soccer ball ribbon. 

This project was very simple to accomplish.  It WAS time consuming, but that was only because of all the drying times. 

I would definitely do this again, maybe to make a cute little wine glass. 

Have you ever painted any glass?

If so, comment below and let me know what you used and how it turned out.

Until next time…

Happy DIY-ing!!!