Amanda’s Eat Jars with Gloss Enamels

DecoArt sent me some gloss enamels to play around with. I moved just before Thanksgiving, so I’ve been slowly adding splashes of color to my mostly white kitchen. We painted the cabinets white, the counters and floors are a white tone, and the walls are a color called “toasted nutmeg”. It’s lovely and bright and I adore it, but it begs for bits and pieces of color.

You might remember the distressed eat sign that I made a while back, and I love how the word “eat” just blends perfectly into a kitchen, so this project was really a given. I save all sorts of empty jars. In my collection I had three Spice Island herb jars just begging for a makeover.

For this project you will need:

3 empty glass jars with lids
rubbing alcohol
paintbrushes
DecoArt gloss enamels in Burnt Sienna, Dark Chocolate, Honey Brown and White
Krylon satin black spray paint
Black or white transfer paper
Rustic looking fabric scraps
Scissors
3 acorn tops (or buttons)
Hot glue gun

First be sure that your jars are clean, then wipe them down with rubbing alcohol. Start by painting the top rim of the jar and around the bottom.

Then paint the rest of the jar.

Set the jars aside to dry. Meanwhile, spray the jar lids with >a href=”http://krylon.com”>black spray paint.

After the jars are dry to the touch, choose a favorite font (I used Saginaw Medium) and print off the letters e a t. Resize until they fit your jars then cut them out. Trace the letters onto the jars using graphite transfer paper.

Using a thin liner brush and white gloss enamel paint, trace over the transferred letter.

At this point, you can wait 48 hours then bake the jars in a low temp oven to set the paint. Mine were just going on a shelf and will not be disturbed, so the other option of air drying for 21 days is what I chose. Therefore, I could move forward with adding my bows.

Cut material into 1/2″ wide strips, fraying the edges by pulling out some of the threads. Tie around the neck of the jar, be sure that the knot is centered above the letter. Trim the ends if needed and fray.

Put the lids on the jars after tying all the fabric. Hot glue an acorn top (or a button) to the center of the knot.

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