Frugal Kid's Crafts: How to Turn a Pickle Relish Jar into a Work of Art

My daughter is one of those girls who seems to have endless piles of accessories. To keep her hair clips, rings, and rubber bracelets organized, she turned old glass jars into snazzy trinket containers. These also make terrific containers for homemade Christmas gifts such as bath salts and soaps.

Materials needed

Any glass yard with screw top lid will do; pimento, relish, and artichoke jars work quite well for holding smaller items, pickle jars are great for holding belts or hair accessories.

Sticker assortment in a related theme. I use the stickers that often come in the mail as promotional items for children's magazines, such as travel stickers, Disney or flower stickers. If you don't have any stickers, small magazine pictures will also work.

Decoupage medium, such as Mod Podge (one jar retails for about $5).

Spray paint, any color (these retail for about $4, though can often be found in discount bins for less).

Newspapers to protect the work surface.

Scribble paint or glitter paint pens are optional items, but do add sparkle and variety to the jars (a nice assortment of glitter or scribble paint will cost less than $6).

How do I begin?

The first step is to wash both the jar and the lid. To remove the label, soak the jar in warm water for 30 minutes. Some label adhesives can be stubborn; these can be removed with either rubbing alcohol, rubber cement thinner or very fine steel wool. Rinse both jar and the lid, and set out to dry.

When the lid has dried, it can be taken outside to spray. Place it on a bed of newspaper and apply paint with a light and even coating. It may take 2 or 3 applications to completely cover the brand name.

While the lid is drying, arrange the stickers on the outside of the jar. When they have been applied, cover the entire surface of the jar with a light coating of Mod Podge. Be mindful of the brush strokes since they will be quite visible after drying. A great effect is to apply the decoupage in the same direction using either straight, diagonal, or circular brush strokes. The decoupage medium will look cloudy at first, but dries translucent.

Once the spray paint has dried on the lid, you might decide to place a sticker on it as well. Apply a thin coat of Mod Podge over the entire surface of the lid. Allow both jar and lid to dry thoroughly. This should take about an hour.

After the decoupage medium has dried, you can then apply your scribble or glitter paints, working from top to bottom.

The final touch

Scribble paints are squeezable jars of acrylic paint that can be applied without a paint brush, and dry 3-dimensionally. My daughter doesn't try anything too fancy with her paints. She'll paint spirals and squiggly lines, or even outline the shape of her stickers. For a final touch, she usually adds lots of dots in a pattern of color. Once the paint has been applied, set the jar aside to dry for at least 24 hours.

With the material list provided, you should be able to create at least two dozen decorated jars; though the number will vary depending on the size of the jar.