How to Make a Vase From a Canning Jar

Canning jars offer so many different uses other than preserving food. They are wonderful for providing storage for a multitude of small treasures, and they make beautifully creative vases. These canning jar vases are made with a few ordinary items to create unexpected and sophisticated home decor accessories. They are quick and easy and can be made very inexpensively. These vases are great art projects for kids to make as gifts for their parents.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 2 quart-size canning jars
• 1/2-inch-wide masking tape
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Brown shoe polish in sponge applicator bottle
• Paper towels
• Clear acrylic matte sealer spray
• Suede lacing, 18 inches
• 2 pony beads
• Hot glue gun
• 1/4-inch-diameter spool of utility rope
• Rusty baling wire, 36 inches
• Wire cutters
• 18 to 20 miscellaneous beads
• Needle nose pliers

Faux Leather Vase

1. Cut 1-inch pieces of 1/2-inch-wide masking tape, and apply them to the outside of a quart-size canning jar. Overlap the pieces and turn in different directions so they do not appear uniform. Continue until the whole surface is covered to the rim, with no spaces of glass showing between the tape.

2. Paint the masking tape surface of the vase using brown shoe polish in a sponge applicator bottle. Use a paper towel to work the polish into the seams and to remove excess polish. Allow the polish to dry.

3. Spray the surface of the vase with clear acrylic matte sealer. Allow the sealer to dry.

4. Cut an 18-inch length of suede lacing. Tie an overhand knot, 1 inch from one end. Thread two pony beads on the lacing. Tie an overhand knot 1 inch from the other end of the lacing. Position each bead next to a knot. Wrap the suede strip around the rim, and knot to secure.

Rope-Coiled Vase

5. Apply a dab of hot glue to the bottom side of a quart canning jar. Place the end from a spool of 1/4-inch thick utility rope in the glue. Position the end so the rope is lying horizontal to your work surface. Allow the hot glue to cool to secure the end.

6. Run a line of hot glue around the bottom edge of the jar. Place the rope in the glue, winding it around the jar. Note: With the jar setting on your work surface, wind the rope even with the surface of the table. Apply more hot glue above the first row of rope and continue to spiral the rope around the jar until you have covered the jar to the rim. Cut the rope, and hot glue the end to the rim.

7. Cut a 36-inch-long piece of rusty baling wire using wire cutters. Wind the wire once around the rim. Twist to connect, using needle nose pliers. Thread 18 to 20 miscellaneous beads on the wire. Continue to wrap the wire loosely around the vase and to the bottom edge of the vase. Spread the beads randomly along the wire. With the pliers, bend the bottom end of the wire into a 1-inch hook. Hook the wire to a round of wire on the jar to hold.