Sunday, October 22, 2006

GRUBBY JARS!

SUPPLIES:
GLASS JARS
MODGE PODGE (OR ELMER'S GLUE)
INSTANT COFFEE OR GROUND SPICES

Pour instant coffee granules into a large bowl (you can use a plate or cookie sheet-whatever. Coat the jar with modge podge, one section at a time and then roll/push it into the coffee granules-bang the jar to get off the loose coffee...Do each section and then let it sit overnight. Then coat again with modge podge and roll again in coffee granules...Let dry overnight. Do this as many times as you want for the look you want.

Just a few notes: ALOT of the granules will fall off and after the first application you'll still be able to brush them off when dry-DON'T DO IT! Coat for the 2nd time and roll again. As the modge podge mixes with the granules it will make the modge podge DARK as it dries...kinda looks like molasses but dried...You can see in the pic the parts that look like that.
After you are satisfied with the look and it's dry, coat one more time to "seal" with modge podge.... (I didn't do this part tho...A TINY TINY amount of coffee "dust" came off when I ran my hands over the jar so I'm thinking if you coated one final time it'd be "sealed" really good)
You could try this with cinnamon or other ground spices too-or mix the coffee/cinnamon together...You might need to do one round of the coffee and then the next time do cinnamon as when the coffee gets wet it tends to dissolve a bit....
You will notice that some of it will slide down the jar-don't put too thick of a coat of modge podge on the jar or it WILL slide down-remember it's like spray painting-a few light coats is better than one drippy heavy one!
I did not use anything to "prep" the jar, I did not do the inside of the jar either...
You could print out your vintage picture or label and glue it on the jar then do the grunging around the label...I havn't tried that either.
These would be really cool with prim fabric flowers in them...or candles...I have this one sitting on my counter with a votive in it-looks very cool-hard to capture the "glow" on camera tho...



My friend Rilda used a similar method for grubbying up those tacky electic candles you can buy around Christmas time...Here are her directions and some pics to go along with it...
Coat the candle stick in modge podge and rub on different spices (Ground cinnamon, allspice, clove etc...). When it dries completely, coat with more Modge Podge and another coating of spices. This is the before-plain white...

After the 2nd coat had dried completely, she painted the brass bases with a bit of black paint.

Aren't these great looking?? She added some "pizazz" by adding a tie, some berries and the cute tags!

And yet ANOTHER version from Rilda...Instead of spices she used glitter on this candle. You could use glass glitter or mica also...Isn't it beautiful?

1 comment:

aphons said...

This is a great idea, I have used just plain craft paints after sanding them a little to make it "stick" better. But I will do mine like this now. This would look great in my jars and centerpieces instead of haveing to by the much more expensive prim look candles! And it would be different than every other booth!!! Kim