July 4th Mason Jars

Hi everyone! The next big holiday is right around the corner. I’m re-posting the step-by-step instructions for these festive and patriotic July 4th Mason Jars that I made a couple years ago.

They were such a hit that I decided they need to be on repeat every July 4th. This is a great project to get the kiddos involved with if you are hosting a July 4th party or if you want to bring a gift to someone who is hosting you for the holiday. When it gets dark, add a tea light and let your patriotism shine!

I came across this idea for Patriotic Mason Jars on Pinterest several months ago and immediately fell in love with it. I knew that as soon as the July 4th holiday came around, this would be the craft project. I wanted to do something fun that my kids could get involved with too. Catherine and I sat down at the patio table outside and painted these patriotic mason jars drawing inspiration from the American Flag.

For this project, you will need the following supplies that are all available at your local craft store:

3 large mason jars, they don’t need to be the same size
red, white and dark blue chalk paint (it adheres really well to glass)
a paint brush and a sponge brush
painter’s tape (if you have a steady hand and can paint straight lines, the tape is optional and then you missed your calling to be a surgeon)
self-adhesive foam stars

Begin by protecting your work area, you can use a newspaper or a paper grocery bag. Paint all the jars white and allow to dry for about 20 minutes. You will be painting one jar with stars and two jars with stripes. You can start with either the stripes or star jar.

| this paint adheres well to glass |

| paint all three jars with white paint |

| one down, two to go |

| my little helper |

For the two striped jars, you can take your chances and paint the red stripe freehand or you can apply painter’s tape if you are obsessed like me. Press firmly on the painter’s tape at the seams to prevent the red paint from seeping through the tape and getting onto the white paint. Allow to dry for about 20 minutes.

| apply painter’s tape to the jars once the paint has completely dried |

| using red paint, paint between the painter’s tape |

Moving on to the star jar, apply the foam stars to the jar in a random pattern. Note: The package of stars that I bought at the craft store had stars in different sizes. I like the idea of different size stars, but it you want to use the same size for the entire jar you probably will not have enough to cover the entire jar. This is easily solved, because once you are done painting with one section of the jar, you can carefully remove the stars and reapply them to another section until the entire jar is covered. Once you have applied the stars, blot on blue paint using a sponge brush.

| these foam stars work perfectly as stencils |

| paint over the foam stars with blue paint |

| you can carefully remove the stars and adhere them to other parts of the jar and continue painting |

| this is what the jar looks like when you remove the foam stars |

I also found it helpful to use a small paintbrush to get in between the “v’s” of the stars. As previously mentioned, once the paint has dried, you can carefully remove the stars and reapply them to another section of the jar and continue painting over the stars with blue paint. When you are finished painting and everything is dry, remove all the stars to reveal the white stars.

| the final product |

If you are having a party, you can use these jars to hold utensils like knives, forks and spoons. Once the sun goes down, remove the utensils and add tea lights – so pretty! This would make a very thoughtful hostess gift, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a handmade gift that is as practical as it is beautiful.