I have a few of the old blue mason jars with the zinc lids and love the look of them. I've tried painting new canning jars with the Vitrea paint and heating them in the oven. That worked well, but the Vitrea paint is somewhat expensive, even with a coupon. I then found Suzanne's post on her blog Chickens in the Road about using Mod Podge, food coloring and water.
I started with:
2 tablespoons Mod Podge
1 tablespoon Water
4 drops of Blue Food Coloring
1 drop of Green Food Coloring
I mixed those in a bowl, then played with the food coloring to make it more blue, although it stayed somewhat green...
I poured some of the mixture in the clear canning jar and swirled it around until everything was covered. I tried to let any excess drip out.
You will only be putting the color on the inside and please be aware that because it's Mod Podge, you cannot add water to these. The color will come off. I would not put food in them either.
Suzanne recommended using parchment paper, then foil on a cookie sheet. I put those down and set the jars upside down on the parchment paper. It continued to drip out, so I moved the jars around so they wouldn't have a pool of the mixture at the bottom.
I then put them in the oven at 200 degrees. After a few minutes, I pulled them out and using a hot pad to hold the jar, carefully wiped off the excess with a paper towel. (Even though I did this, there was still a lot of excess even at the end of the process...)
I put them in the oven for about 35 minutes total.
It's funny how different the colors look here, but once they were done, I couldn't tell them apart.
After the 35 minutes, I pulled them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. I didn't get a picture of this step, but there was a fair amount of goop that had pooled at the lip of each jar. I used plain steel wool and wetted it with a little water to remove the goop. I had to be careful not to rub the steel wool too hard into the jar, only on the lip where there was a lot of excess.
Now that I had bluish-greenish jars, I decided to see if I could make zinc looking lids.
I found some Dophin Grey paint and mixed it with Black Antiquing Gel. I only used the antiquing gel because I couldn't find a bottle of regular black paint...
I used a 1" foam brush and dabbed it on until it looked rough enough.
I let it dry and kept adding a little more paint and texture until it looked right.
I really like the way they turned out.
I like the look of sand and shells in them too.
Thanks for your visit!
Pam
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