Craft Ideas for Glass Jugs

Recycle your old glass jugs into a craft project that will be past down from generation to generation. Every craft you make with the jugs should be original and show your own special personality. You can make memories, beautiful decorations and works of art with just a little work and creativity. Here are some easy and artful ideas to get you started to crafting with your old glass jugs.

Memory jars were the modern folk art of Victorian times. They are antique scrap books, if we had to compare them to today and you can make one with your glass jug. You will need memorabilia from your life or someone special to you, lots of it: little things, like coins, jewelry, bottle caps and buttons. Some trinkets included in some antique memory jars were beads, small toys, campaign buttons and pipes. Use anything that holds a memory for you. It can be done all at once or you can take your time and add things as you find them. The only other thing you need is the adhesive. Use grout, thinset or paintable caulk. Place the adhesive on the jug and embed your memory trinket. You can paint the adhesive or purchase a grout in the color you like. These make wonderful decorations as well as gifts for parents or grandparents.

If you are artistic and like to paint, you can paint an entire mural on a jug. Snow scenes, beach scenes and landscapes are yours for the painting. If you are not very artistic, then there are always stencils. Give your jar an Amish or Americana look. Once the paint is dry, fill the jug three-quarters full of water and put in a few fresh flowers. Or if you have allergies and can't bring in flowers, place a tapered candle in the mouth of the jug and use as a coffee table centerpiece.

Clear jugs make for charming little wonderlands. You can fill the jug halfway with sand and find some tiny shells, little chunks of driftwood and an artificial crab or two to lie on top. Use a clear acrylic adhesive to glue some shells around the base of the outside of the jug. Paint a sky on the tapered top part. You can make any kind of miniature scene inside the jug by going to the local craft store and checking out the miniature section. Create a little farm, fishing hole or miniature butterfly farm.

You can create the look of stained glass by using colored tissue paper and a decoupage medium. Cut or tear small pieces of the tissue paper and stick them to the glass in a pattern or randomly, or create your own scene. Once dry, use a black paint squeeze tube to carefully outline the colors to resemble the lead in real stained glass. You can have your child make this craft also, only instead of a hard-to-handle tube of paint, give them a black permanent marker or a thinner paint and a fine paint brush to do the outlining.