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.
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!!!