Wednesday, April 13, 2011

How to - Decorative Jar Lids

I use recycled jars a LOT. They are great for storing small things, and ... assuming you're as crazy about spaghetti sauce, pickles, and jelly as we are ... completely free. 


However, they're not terribly pretty. 


Especially with those glaring blue and yellow lids proclaiming that THIS WAS ONCE THE HOME OF PICKLED BEETS!!! (alright, I made the beets up. I've never bought picked beets in my life. I don't even know if you can pickle a beet...) 


So, after looking at the ugly lids for long enough, I decided to cover them with something pretty.


Here's what I did. 


I looked through my stash for some pretty fabric remnants that would look nice in my living room, grabbed my ugly-lidded jars, and these few other materials:


White glue,
Water
Flour
Sissors
Fabric Pen.


First I mixed up the flour (maybe a teaspoon or two), water (two teaspoons) and glue (about a teaspoon at first. then add more if it needs thickening). Until I got a good sticky paste to work with. Kind of like paper mache. I'm sure this would work with spray adhesive, or even some hot glue around the edges. But this is what we had on hand today. It looks watery in the picture, but it was actually pretty thick. Smooth, but thick. 








I traced the lids onto the fabric (being sure to mark the backside of the material). Then I measured about a half-inch around the circle I'd marked ( I eyeballed it... you could use a tape measure, I suppose). I cut out along the lines of the larger circle. 
With the paintbrush, I brushed a little glue over the top of the lid, and centered my fabric, fixing it to the lid, and being sure to smooth everything out as I went. (as you can tell, I didn't iron the material at all, so the smoothing was kind of important. Next time, ironing first. You learn as you go...)





Then I flipped the lid over, and, with some sharp scissors, cut slits in the extra fabric around the edges.



The edges were a little long, so i trimmed them up, applied some more of the paste to the edges (inside and outside) and folded the edge pieces in. 


Continued doing this all the way around. 


I set it to dry on a cookie cooling rack, and moved on to the next lid. 



Left them to dry for a few hours, and... 
viola!


What I would do differently next time:

Iron first. 
Double check the smoothness (see that wrinkle in the black one... grrr) 


But our marble jars are much improved, and nobody has to know just how many pickles this family eats. 
Tune in tomorrow to see how we use these jars EVERY DAY.

Glue and Giggles,
-shawnacy













6 comments:

Alison said...

Cute! I'm impressed- you essentially made your own Mod Podge. amazing. :)

Anonymous said...

Nice quick idea. Thanks for sharing.

PS- I am catching up on blogreader and I am waaaay behind. I noticed your post about light graffiti. I really, really want to make LED throwies with my students and go out and LEDize a building :)

Sun Hats & Wellie Boots said...

These look fab! Gonna have to try this soon :)

Unknown said...

I never thought about putting the fabric on the outside. I always used it inbetween the 2 part lids. Great idea and thanks for sharing.

AllieMakes! said...

Cute! We go through pickle jars around here like water... We love the vinegar... Pickled beets are a staple too!
Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie! I can't wait to see what you have for next week!
AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

love teaching said...

these are adorable - going to use this idea for my girlfriends group at church - thanks so much for sharing! =)