How to Upcycle Kilner Jars or any Jars

I love these little jars, especially when painted & distressed. The Americans have Mason jars, we have these!

Here’s some I recently did ……

Materials:-

• Jars of course!, doesn’t have to be the Kilner ones by the way, but try & get some that have a bit of detail on them. I like using the Bonne Maman jam jars too.
• Paint; I use chalk paint, it’s easy to distress but you can use acrylic or some people use paint specifically for glass.
• Foam brush, I prefer to use these as they don’t leave brush marks.
• Sealer; I used Americana Decor Creme Wax, it’s a lovely creamy wax varnish, great to work with & gives great results, but you can use regular varnish too.
• Fine sandpaper or try a nail file
• Napkins & glue if you want to try some decoupage on the jars.

Ok, let’s get started.

1. First up make sure your jars are cleaned thoroughly, maybe run through the dishwasher first and remove any stickers. Some people rub them with spirits first but I don’t and they work out just fine.
2. Choose your paint & give the jar about 3 coats of paint, let it dry in between the coats. Paint in one direction. On one of the jars, I originally painted it pink and then gave it 2 coats of grey and sanded it to bring out the pink.
3. If you are going to decoupage then match the paint to your napkin, click here to read more on trying out decoupage on your projects or try a bit of painting on the jars, I did a small bit of folk art painting on one.
4. If you are happy with the coverage then you can begin to distress. Using your fine sandpaper or nail file , lightly sand over the detail on the jar, I worked on the name & the tag bit to the front. You don’t have to distress, you can leave it as is too. I just love distressing things!
5. Once you are happy with the look, it’s time to seal the jar , I gave the jars 2 coats & let them dry in between. It gives the paint a nice finish & brings out the colour more.

Remember these jars are only for display purposes & you can’t put them in the dishwasher. Just a wipe of a damp cloth should do, if needed.

You can use these for so many things & try different techniques ….. Here’s a few more I did a while back. Works great on tin cans too.

Have you tried to do these ? Did it work out?

#I link up here ..