Glitter & Bows

I have officially dubbed this summer to be “The Summer of Pinterest Crafts,” and I am both terrified and thrilled to see what kind of crafts I’ll be able to muster up over the course of the next few months. In order to get into the swing of things, I spent a majority of my spring break pinning different craft ideas I considered to be well, relatively simple. I mean, let’s be honest, a majority of the crafts on Pinterest are just a bit advanced, if you know what I mean. In light of my endless craft searching, I began to get antsy. I decided it was necessary to attempt a craft or two in order to get in touch with my artsy side. Here is what I ended up with…

GLITTER & BOW MASON JARS

A while back, before my spring-break-pinning-spree, I was about to finish up a two-hour Pinterest session (Pinterest really consumes you) when I saw and repined an image of mason jars spray-painted with glitter. I am in love with mason jars! They can literally be used for a million different things. A while later, I wound up at a local thrift store and discovered three dusty jars just waiting to be up-cycled. Before I knew it, I found myself wandering the aisles of Jo-Ann Fabrics with ribbon and glitter spray paint in my hands. Apparently I had subconsciously decided that it was time…time to actually attempt a Pinterest masterpiece. As I can never, I repeat NEVER do anything the easy way the first time around, I figured I would post a step-by-step DIY for you all so you stray from the same mistakes I made. You’re welcome!

As with anything you find at thrift stores, the jars were in need of a serious “heavy duty” cycle in the dishwasher. Once they were all clean and ready to go, I removed the lids and placed duct tape over the tops (doing this will keep the spray paint from getting inside the mason jar, I’ll explain the importance of this later on).

Now you’re ready to get at the spray paint! What I found (after I had already attempted to spray paint my biggest jar) is that if you plan to ONLY use glitter spray paint, you’ll need at least 20 cans. So instead, I sprayed my jars with black spray paint first. Doing this will allow you to use less glitter, as your surface will be darker. After you’ve coated the jars in black, let them dry.

Once they are all dry, it’s time to break out the glitter. My suggestion: go nuts with the glitter, absolutely nuts. Make sure every last centimeter of your jar has been coated in glitter, the more the better! Again, let the jars dry.

Next step, ribbon and bows! I used a black satin ribbon for my bows. Just tie them around the neck of the jar, and voila! Adorable glitter mason jars! I decided to use mine in my bathroom. My largest jar holds my brushes and combs, the medium jar holds cotton balls, and the smallest holds Q-tips.  If you intend to use your jars like me, it is important that you cover the jars prior to spray painting! If the glitter gets inside the jar, your cotton balls and Q-tips will stick to the glitter remnants on the inside and come out covered in glitter!

Happy crafting!