Aw, pretty jar...

Sorry the first Teachin' Tuesday is so late, but I had to work late.  Bummer, I know.  But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, right?

So I found this craft at one of my all-time favorite websites, Chickens in the Road.  This woman is a (wait for it) mazing!  She puts so many great things on her site, you'll always find something awesome to make or cook.  Or you can just pass the time reading about the totally cool old farmhouse she and her family moved into.  The woman makes her own cheese.  It's ridiculous (but in a good way).

Anyway, the craft is making a colored mason jar.  You've all seen the old mason jars that are tinted blue or green.  Well, they're hard to find and expensive.  So here's a super cheap way to make your own.

Start with the ingredients:

1 teaspoon of water
2 teaspoons of Mod Podge (this is a craft glue that you can find at any Hobby Lobby or similar craft store)
food coloring

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees, then line your pan with silver foil and wax paper.  Mix the water and Mod Podge in a bowl (I used a cheap bowl the kids used to use), then add food coloring until you get the color you're looking for.  I decided to try an amber color.

It tooks kind of orange here, but the color in the bowl isn't exactly the same as the way the jar turns out.  I didn't have any pint jars, which is what Suzanne used on Chickens in the Road, but I have a TON of half-pint jars for making jelly.  So that's what I used, since I had them on hand.

Pour the mix into the jar, then twist the jar around to coat the entire inside of the jar with the color.  Pour the remainder of the glue/color back into the bowl, making sure to coat the jar all the way to the lip all the way around.  Then put the jar upside down on the wax paper and put it in the oven.

Leave it in the oven for 3 minutes.

Take the jar out of the oven, flip it over and wipe any excess from the lip of the jar.  Then put the jar back in the oven right side up.

Leave the jar in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Take the jar out of the oven and let it cool.  Here's how mine turned out.

And here's the finished product compared to a non-colored jar.

Because the color is basically just glue, you can't put any liquids or foods inside the jar.  But you could use it to hold silk flowers or pretty stones or even just as a pen/pencil holder.  I'm sure you can think of plenty of uses for a pretty colored jar.  And since it's so easy, you can experiment with color combinations.

Anyway, that's our craft of the week.  Let me know if you try it, and how it turns out!