easy color-coordinated vase

Have you painted the inside of an old jar yet?  It seems to be very popular right now.  When I first started seeing them around, I had to laugh, because when I was young, painting old jars was something my friends and I  would do at the summer playground when we ran out of all other craft materials…after exhausting all the supplies for making tile ashtrays and gimp keychains.

Over the years, I have painted an occasional jar as a nostalgic activity.  I haven’t really been motivated to do it lately…not, that is, until I was in Anthropologie the other day and saw the many jars the store was using as props for their in-store displays.  They had painted the insides of mason jars.  But, rather than painting each jar a solid color, several colors were used in each jar.  The result was almost a tie-dyed look.  Using pastel colors in similar hues, I thought the effect was really beautiful.

With my coneflowers in full bloom, I decided to paint a jar in colors to coordinate with the color of the coneflower  blooms.  I have purple coneflowers, so I would use subtle shades of lavender and gray.

It is such an easy process…if you haven’t yet tried it, don’t feel intimidated.  You can’t mess up :)  Simply pour a little paint into the jar and swirl it around to cover the inside of the glass…that’s it!

I found out that my craft store plastic paint bottles were perfect for the multi-color application.  I just squeezed the various colors into the jar and swirled them around.  I added a little splash of silver too, just to add a little sparkle.  You can control the pattern the paint creates by controlling which colors hit the glass first.  Let some paint drip from the top to the bottom of the glass.  Then, pour some paint in the bottom of the jar and swirl it around, tipping it to cover the sides.

If you make an experimental jar first, you can get the feel for how you can control the pattern of the paint covering the glass.  I experimented on a couple of Snapple jars that were in my recycling bin, but I saved a mason jar for the vase I intended for the coneflowers.

The great appeal of this project is being able to create a vase in any color scheme you choose, at virtually no cost – repurposing old jars and leftover paint.  It’s easy to instantly create a vase to match a color scheme for a party or a room in your home.

Give it a try!  Please post a photo of your creation on my facebook page:    https://www.facebook.com/insimplethings

Note:  I put a plastic cup inside the jar to contain the water.  I don’t think the water sitting in the paint would provide a happy result ;)