Today’s DIY project is painting mason jars your favorite color! I made mine turquoise.
I love mason jars! They have an endless amount of uses and really just add an extra cuteness to everything. My favorite are the aqua Ball jars, but they are always so hard to find at thrift stores and shipping prices when buying them off Etsy or Ebay are not friendly. So why not replicate the look by painting regular mason jars? With a little more investigation I found out about Vitrea glass paint, and how it comes in lots of pretty colors, not just turquoise.
What you’ll need:
Vitrea paint in the color of your choice
Paint thinner (optional)
Paint brush
Mason jar
Small dish
Squirt a pea-sized dab of the Vitrea paint onto the small dish. If you decide to use paint thinner to give your mason jar a more opaque look, combine a dab of thinner with your paint and mix.
Put your mason jar on a paint-friendly surface. Using your paint brush, make long even strokes from the top to the bottom of the glass. I experimented with a normal paint brush and a sponge paint brush and I settled on the sponge brush.
Once the jar is completely painted it needs to dry for 24 hours. Once dried, it needs to be cured in the oven. Follow the instructions on your paint bottle. I baked mine at 325 degrees for 40 minutes.
After the jar cools you can add some pretty lace and twine if you’d like, and it’s ready for flowers, or anything else you want to store in a pretty jar. This would be a great DIY project for wedding centerpieces. You could have flowers in mason jars that match the wedding colors!
Enjoy!
Oh I love this :). Although I’m not so sure I need any more mason jars…I found the vintage blue mason jars at a thrift store here in Lincoln NE…I needed them for our wedding centerpieces! 30 of them :). Can you believe they were only 2 bucks each?!?
If you ever want a couple shoot me your address!! I’m happy to send you some 🙂 xo
are they turquoise blue? i would like to buy all 30 if you will sell them. how much for the whole bunch?
Lindsay,
If you haven’t sold them already and are willing to sell them, I’d like to buy all 30. I’m getting married next year and am looking for the blue/teal antique mason jars for my wedding. It’s been hard finding them for a reasonable price in CA.
Let me know!
I would love the jars as well. Let me know how much you want for them. Thanks pbodeen@gmail.com
Would love to have them! Let me know if you havent sold them all. GINGERLETSON@HOTMAIL.COM
This is so pretty, I’ll be trying it when I move into my new house x x
I’m loving the color you chose! This is on my “to try” list for sure. Thanks for sharing 🙂
This is so pretty and so easy!
Oh my gosh I LOVE YOU!
I didn’t realize you could paint them blue…I thought you had to find and pay the $$ for the old vintage ones!!!
p.s. love your blog… so happy I found you via the Blog Team!!
Oh I am thrilled at this tutorial. I am doing something really cute for my picnic day with hubby and I needed a colored mason jar. Thank you so much.
oh wow I’m doing this. I think I’m going to make some for my pens and stuff for my desk. I’ve been using the same black mesh containers since I was like, 15. I need an upgrade.
Love this tutorial. I pinned it and posted it to FB.
What color of Vitrea makes the jars look most like the aqua ball ones? Thanks!
Hi Kathleen! I used the turquoise Vitrea paint. :]
Hi There…so love this diy tutorial! One question…did you end up using the thinner or not for this?
this is adorable, and definitely on my to-do list. i’ll keep an eye for them at garage sales!
Love this! I’m totally trying it. Thanks for the post! (I pinned this too!)
I just painted my jars this weekend and baked them today using a glass paint !!! – but they still came out with some streaks in them, not perfectly glossy. I used a sponge brush as well and did the same process on my own… Did you end up with some small streaks in yours as well? These are our wedding vases. Lovely.
~Megan Pence
Hi Megan! Mine have slight streaks in some places. I found that when I put water and flowers in it it made them unnoticeable.
I love the look, just wondering about putting them in the oven with paint thinner on them, isn’t paint thinner flammable?
I found this on their website:
How do you get rid of brushstrokes?
The Vitrea 160 paint was developed to give the appearance of true colored glass (on transparent surfaces); therefore the paint tends NOT to hold the brush strokes. To minimize the brush strokes even more, a natural hair
brush is best (particularly a squirrel brush). Apply a fairly generous amount of paint to the brush in application.
Also add a bit of Vitrea 160 Gloss Medium to the paint (approximately 1 part medium to 2 parts paint). Vitrea
160 Thinner (diluant) will assist in lessening the brush strokes. Water may be used to thin the paint up to 10 %
(see Question #6).
To get rid of brush strokes completely use the Coulee Method. This is a squirt method using the Applicator
bottles. First dilute the paint with 1/3-1/2 thinner (diluant) into an Applicator bottle and apply the paint by
“squirting it” onto the surface of the glass. This allows the paint to “run” down the side of the glass item (wipe
the excess off once paint drips to the bottom).
It also says to not use paint thinner, only water.
I cannot find the Vitrea paint anywhere in my area. Hobby Lobby,Michaels,and JoAnn claim to not have heard of it. I tried regular transparent glass paint, and the modge podge versions awhile back and both left unsightly streaks. Now I see you have done it with Vitrea too! Where are you finding this?
Hi there, I got the Vitrea paint at Michael’s. :]
I bought mine on Amazon.com
Every online site I’ve checked out says “Michaels” for purchasing this paint. However, I’ve been to Michaels and they no longer carry this brand. They only carry Americana (which I tried and doesn’t work very well – brush strokes show) and Martha Stewart (which are over priced – my opinion). It looks like I’m going to be ordering it online and having it shipped to me just so I can finish a project (gift) which absolutely sucks that I can’t find it locally.
Vitrea paints can be found in better art supply stores.. here in Canada it’s available at Opus Art Supplies, they have an online shop but I don’t know if they ship outside of Canada. I’m sure it would be available online somewhere though.
Michaels has it. PLUS all colors are on clearance!! I live in Houston, TX. I got some today.
A lot of the employees don’t know what it is…
Beware of the clearance bottles at Micheals. Mine turned out to be all dried up when I opened it.
Mine was dried up too….. I added thinner and it came around….. I think Amazon has it….. still trying to perfect this…..
Hi Julie Ann,
thank you so much for your tutorial on painting jars. I was wondering if you tried experimenting with jars other than mason jars? I have a lot of sauce, salsa, pickle, and jam jars that I would love to paint, but I’m afraid that they will explode in the oven. Or do you only recommend mason jars? Thanks.
I have never used any other jars besides the mason jars. I am not sure if it will explode but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it, just in case!
I’ve never done it before and I’m afraid to place the mason jars in my oven. So you preheat the oven and place them on the hot rack? Thanks
Did you paint the outside or inside of the jar?
I painted the outside.
Do you know if the paint leaves the jar safe for use with food? I Drink out of mason jars. Colored ones would be fun. jen@cookieathlete.com
Did yours turn out streaky? If you use the paint thinner, will it help the streaking? I followed your instructions but mine look streaky so I want to see if using paint thinner helps. Thanks!
What size mason jars did you use?
What size mason jars did you use?
I have some outdoor Mason jar lanterns I would like to paint–does this paint hold up outdoors?
Michael’s website says one type of the paint is dishwasher safe, so I assume it can spend the summer outside as well?
Hi Julie,
I’m getting married this September and I’m going to make my own centerpieces. I decided to use your great idea to paint the mason jars that I will be using. I was wondering, how did you place your jars to bake? Did you place them on something solid or just on top of the tray in the oven?
Thanks,
Claudia
Good for you, this is awesome. I get scared to do DIYs like this. Your project looks great!
To those asking about types of glass you can put in the oven. You can put almost ALL glass in the oven! I have heard that blown glass can’t go in, but my buddy art glass painters haven’t tested this theory yet. Blown glass items tend to be fancy vases, they’d be pretty pricey. But from what I understand, most of the dollar store glass CAN go in the oven, so your choices are next to unlimited. If you want to try a test with something smaller, just in case, buy two of them and don’t paint it. Follow heating instructions and then you’ll know. I am planning on painting vases, bottles, bowls and all sorts of things! Vitrea is not JUST for clear colored glass, you can paint paintings on the glass items, mix the paint colors as any artist would and have a ball painting flowers and designs on the glass item. If you want to do plates, paint the underside, because while they say Vitrea is not toxic, they also say for it not to come into contact with food. It’s even supposed to be dishwasher safe!
In Canada, I buy at Colours http://www.artistsupplies.com
Vitrea also comes in liner markers and paint markers, so you can do a stained glass effect. You can add thinner, a frost medium or a shimmer medium directly to the paint as you mix it to create different effects. There are limited colours available, so you may have to mix to get the perfect color (I’m trying to achieve cobalt and having a heck of a time!). Good luck, have fun!
Here is my favourite website for learning painting techniques:
http://www.your-decorative-painting-resource.com/glass-paint.html