Showing posts with label upcycled. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upcycled. Show all posts

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Tissue Paper Jar Tutorial


I love these jars! They are so fun and easy to make. And are a great use of those empty food jars instead of filling up those land fills!

Supplies:
  • Clean jars, with label removed. If you don't have goo-be-gone (like me) you can run your jar under some warm water to loosen up the glue and any stuck paper left on your jar. With a little elbow grease, some glue will rub right off under the warm water. Others you may need to scrape off with a straight edge knife. But a bit of sticky residue won't hurt this project a bit.
  • Mod Podge or other decoupage medium of your choice
  • Tissue Paper
  • Paint brush
  • Scissors
  • Paint for lids of jar
  • Ribbon (optional)
  • Paper for tags (optional)

1.Gather supplies and protect your work area if need be.

2. Paint your lids. I used acrylic craft paint. I recommend using spray paint if you have it because in order to get good coverage with the acrylic I did 2 coats of white and 2 coats of my chosen color and you can my brush strokes. Ick!

Make sure you let each layer dry well between coats or you'll lift the previous layers up as you paint! You don't want this to happen, trust me!!!! When the paint dried I put a coat of Mod Podge to help "seal" it and get rid of the chalky matte finish the acrylic left, but you don't need to. 



3. Decide on the design you want on your jar and get your tissue paper ready. Remember the more layers of tissue paper the more opaque your colors will be.

Jar #1: Pink pockadots

Using one piece of tissue paper, cut a rectangle that big enough to wrap around your jar once. Secure your first edge down, then working around your jar about 1-1.5 inches at a time glue down the paper with the mod podge. When you've gone all the way around cut away any extra tissue paper from the seam and the top and bottom.


Jar #2: Pinks and orange

Tear off approximately 1 inch squares of tissue paper. Don't worry about being exact. Variations in size and shape of pieces are good. You need a minimum of 3 colors could have as many as you can fit on your jar. Start gluing your pieces down. Overlapping your edges just a little. Try to keep from placing 2 of the same color right next to each other. With only 3 colors it's hard to avoid at least having a few pieces touch but don't fret over it. Continue till your jar is covered.



Jar #3: Pink and Green

With scissors cut out squares that are just big enough that when placed on diagonal 2 will fit from top to bottom with a little overlapping at the tips, if you have a taller jar or want a smaller pattern you could do more but 2 worked great for me. Then take your secondary color (green) squares and cut half of them in half to make the triangles that go along the top and bottom. Then glue them down in the diagonal checkerboard pattern you see. Then with the leftover squares cut them into quarters and place one little square of the opposite color (green on pink and pink on green) in the middle of each of the big squares.

4. Coat your decorated jar with a layer of mod podge. This is to assure you have all your tissue paper secured down and to protect it from any moisture they may come into contact with.

5. I made some very simple tags but you could go as fancy as you want. All I did was cut some rectangles from some cardstock. I used my nifty round corner punch for the corners.

Then a simple hole punch to lace the ribbon through, and a calligraphy pen to write my words.

6. When your jar and lids are dry attach your tag with a simple piece of ribbon or yarn and fill your jar!

Easy peazy and they are such a cute way to store those little odds and ends!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Can Organizers





      I'm always in need of more organization and being a bit of an environmentalist and living in an apartment complex that has no recycling pick up I decided to start reusing as many things I can. With the fact that my husband and I eat a lot of canned foods I decided to start there. And here is the first thing I came up with. Can organizers.  These pictures show larger cans but I plan to make several smaller ones as well.
  






 



Supplies:
  • Empty and well cleaned can. (I prefer the regular cans that you have to use a opener to open, not the pull tab cans. I don't like the rim left on the pull tab cans.)
  • Yarn(s). (Leftover yarn from other projects are wonderful for this project!)
  • Hot glue gun
  • Beads, buttons, trim, ribbon, rhinestones or any other items you may want to decorate your can with. 


How To: 
  1. Gather supplies and heat up your hot glue gun. Make sure you are working on a surface that you won't mind some glue getting on. 
  2. Starting at the bottom rim of the can attach the very end of your yarn with a dab of glue.
  3. For the first few rows I fully attach the yarn with the glue to keep any pieces from slipping around the edges. Working about an inch at a time to make sure you don't have to reapply glue.
  4. After the first few rows are in place continue wrapping the yarn around the can attaching with a small dab of hot glue every 1- 1 1/2 inches. 
  5. When you reach the top of the can attach the last few rows just like you did the the first 2. 
  6. Remove as much of the hot glue "strings" as you can. 
  7. Now attach your decorations. This is a great time to hide any glaring spots of glue that might be peaking threw the yarn or that got on the outside of the yarn.
  8. Now fill them up and show them off!
These are so much fun! Do you have a large coffee can? Use it as a mail catcher or for all those takeout menus. What about those small tuna or cat food cans? How about for your jewelry, buttons, beads, or even your keys! Get creative!