I know, I know. Another mason jar project :) I can’t help it! I have then on my mind with all this canning. I have now moved on to green beans. But I took a break to do this next project.

Blue jars can be hard to find and pricey. I like that I have figured out a do-it-your-self- version

I an LOVING how they turned out!!! Do you want to know how to turn a regular jar into a vintage looking blue jar???

You will need some glaze and some Crystal Gloss Enamel glass paint. You can find it in craft stores like Michael’s or online. And of course, you’ll need some jars.

I experimented with different amounts of each the glaze and the paint. The more glaze, the lighter the jar. Add them both to the jar. Swish it around until they have completely mixed together.

The slowly twist the jar while it is on its side until the paint has covered all of the jar. If there is a lot of extra paint/glaze you can pour it into another jar or into the garbage. I hold it upside down until it stops dripping. Then I wipe the top so there is only paint IN the jar and none on the outside. ***IMPORTANT*** After you have let it drip upside down and most of the extra paint has dripped out you need to set it on the counter and WAIT. You need to let the extra paint that did not drip out, settle to the bottom. I waited about an hour. More time wouldn’t hurt. I screwed up my one and only square mason jar ( :( ) because I was too antsy. If you stick it in the oven too soon it will start to get hot and the paint that is making its way down the side of the jar will harden in a wavy, drippy, pattern.

Like I said before, I tried different amounts of glaze and paint. The lightest one ended up not really working.  It just looked milky.

The you bake them in the oven at 200 degree F for 30 minutes. There are more (important) detailed instructions on the back of the bottle. Just follow those and you will be good to go!

Don’t they look amazing! The color is so even and it bakes so crystal clear! I love them. They will be making an appearance in my bathroom and office :)

Pin It

I am finally getting around to sharing the tutorial for my checkered ceiling. I posted it over at Centsational Girl a week or so ago but thought I would post it here too.

The first thing you need to do is measure your ceiling. Once you have your measurements you can sit down and figure out how big each square needs to be. Uggg. I hate math so this was the least fun part of the whole process BUT probably the most important. Measure, measure, measure.

Then get a laser level that will stick to your ceiling. Mine uses adhesive strips. This whole projects is easier if you have a helper so grab a willing assistant too :) After you make marks along the perimeter, then use the laser level to line up the marks on either end. My husband and I use a long piece of molding as our straight edge to trace the laser line across the ceiling. Once you trace all the lines going one direction, then trace them going the opposite way to create your squares. I guess it depends on the size of your ceiling but this really didn’t take as much time as it sounds like it would.

I marked every other square with an X to show which ones would be painted the darker green.

When I taped, I didn’t cover the line up. This way it would get painted. I figured I would have less pencil lines to clean up when all was said and done. P.S. Magic Eraser will get pencil off really well.

This is the part I kind of dread telling you. You will need to tape twice. I am sure there are other ways I could have approached this project, but I knew that doing it this way would create really straight, clean lines. You will tape so that every other row will be painted. You can’t tape all of it at the same time because you have to tape outside of the line for one row which puts the tape inside the next row. Can you see how some of the square look smaller? That is why.

My secret to getting beautiful lines when painting stripes or squares is this step right here. Use the base paint to seal the tape. My ceilings are mega textured. Even with good quality painters tape you would get some leaks. This way, any leaks are the same color as the ceiling and you don’t notice them at all. I know it adds one more step but it is totally worth it. You wouldn’t want to have gone to all this trouble so far only to have fuzzy lines.

I brush (or roll) towards the tape.

I wish this picture was even more clear so you could see exactly how clean those lines are.

Here it is with half of the squares painted. Sorry for the bad picture quality. I have 4 little boys so I have to work at night :) Darn flash.

Next you need to rip off the tape. I take the tape off while the paint is still wet. Otherwise you may have it rip the paint off as well. Go slow.

Wait for the paint to dry for at least 24 hours. You will be taping over the newly painted squares and you don’t want to risk the paint coming off.

And there you have it! It was probably more work than my stenciled ceiling in my bedroom, but I personally think it was worth it. I have had this on my to do list for over 6 years! I am happy it is finally done and I get to enjoy it everyday.

I can’t believe how much more bright my kitchen is now! It looks so fresh and clean too. Here are a few teaser shots before I get into the tutorial.

Okay, here is the “before”, which is really kind of a “during” picture. I forgot to take pictures before we got new appliances. I will dig around and see if I can find any pictures of the real before.

We still haven’t got our new cabinets we ordered. There will be a pull out garbage next to the dishwasher, a pantry next to the fridge, and some upper cabinets above the fridge.

I was so stressed about how to approach this project. I had read a lot of posts about sanding, stripping, and de-glossing. I didn’t want to do any of those things so I put off doing anything at all. Then one day I was thinking about it and decided I didn’t HAVE to do any of that.  I don’t do that when I paint a piece of furniture, so why do I have to for cabinets? I have furniture in my home that I painted 9+ years ago and it is fine. I figured (and hoped) my cabinets would be okay too.

Okay, the first thing I did was take off all the cabinet doors and hardware. I had replaced the handles a while ago and never got around to filling in the old holes. So I finally got them filled!

The MOST important step (in my opinion) is to clean them really well. You don’t want any grease, food, or residue on them or the paint and primer won’t stick. I scrubbed mine with a soapy rag to get all the food off and them used Minwax’s wood cleaner to finish it off so there wouldn’t be any residue. What ever you choose to do, just do it well. This is not a step to skimp on.

When you ask your husband to pick up a new drop  cloth, put an emphasis on CLOTH. This plastic was a pain in the rear since it was windy. I had to put a ton of rocks on it.

I used Kilz spray primer.

I totally had a spray paint affair!!! I am usually a Krylon girl and I cheated on on them!!!! I was in Home Depot and I saw this Rust-Oleum 2x paint and I wanted to give it a try. Anything to save on $$$ right?? Plus it was an EXACT match to our dishwasher that we needed to have blend in with the cabinets. I loved it. Yep. It covered really well and the satin finish is GORGEOUS.

In order to have regular paint to paint the cabinets inside so they would match the doors, I sprayed some of the spray paint on a piece of card stock and had the lovely folks at Home Depot color match it. I got one gallon.

I used regular primer with a foam brush to apply a thin coat and them used another foam brush to apply the paint. It took 3 thin coats of paint with a few touch ups. I was so tempted to just put a thick coat and call it good because it was taking forever. But I knew it wouldn’t look as good and that I would regret it. Thin coats are ALWAYS better and the foam brushes minimize lines.

I am only showing a few pictures of them painted because A) not all the doors are back on yet and B) I want to save the “big reveal” for when all of the kitchen is done. I am installing new floors this week, using my clearance items to decorate, and making curtains. I also have two surprise projects in the kitchen/dining room that I SUPER DUPER excited to do and reveal!!!!!