Mason JarMadness
& Decoupage
Tips, Tricks & Tools
HOW TO CREATE A PHOTO ALBUM ON YOUR FACEBOOK GROUP PAGE
Click on photos under the page photo.
Click on create album
When you click on create this will open up a file on your computer hopefully where you save your photos.
Click on the photo you want to place in the album
I suggest tagging your name to all your photos
At the top of the album page the current date should be displayed. Type your name behind the date and then your album will be titled for others to know who the owner is.
How to Crackle a glass bottle.
My friend Paola Baughman taught me how to do this. It's very simple. You can use any glass bottle, apply your 1st coat of acrylic paint to the bottle, allow to dry completely. 2nd. Apply your crackle medium. I am using Folkart Crackle Medium. Let the medium dry over night. 3rd. Apply a contrast paint. Once you start applying your paint you should start to see cracks forming. Use soft artist brush to apply paint and medium.
I then decoupage images from my beautiful napkins onto the bottle.
USE OF SARAN WRAP FOR DECOUPAGE:
When you have put a layer of decoupage glue on your piece and have layed the napkin on the glue take a piece of saran wrap and stretch it gently but tight across your napking and smooth out the wrinkles. Wrinkles sometimes are nice but times you want it to be smooth. This is how you do it with SARAN WRAP. I love my saran wrap cutter. Makes life easier!
Brushes with Modpodge. Hate having to wash your brushes in between coats of modpodge on your project? Take a piece of saran wrap and fold it in two. Place the head of your brush in the saran wrap fold and it will not dry out before brushing on your next coat of modpodge.
Test Bottle:
Not sure how your paint is going to come out or if your crackle is going to crackle. Have a bottle set aside to do tests on before you paint your entire bottle and then have to hot wash it off because it flopped.
Tinting Instructions:
This is what I used for a Large Mason Jar
¼ cup mod podge or homemade modpodge
American Gel Food Coloring or regular food coloring. (this will make it transparent)
or Acrylic paint of any type. Glass, enamel, mettalic, pearl etc.which will not be transparent
1 tsp water
Put your modpodge or homemade decoupage glue (which is what I use to tint) in a measuring cup measuring 1/4 cup, add 1tsp water.
Stir very well with rubber spatula
Pour all into your jar and swirl around till covered completely (do not touch the inside your jar with anything as this will leave marks/scars on the inside.
Turn jar upside down on newspaper for 30 minutes
Pick up jar and place still upside down on clean newspaper and let it sit for at least 10 minutes
This insures all your additives are running down the jar
Clean the rim of your jar when you turn them or if not you can sand those off once they are baked and dried.
Turn jars upright and place on foil lined pan
Place in cold oven , turn oven on to 195 degrees and let your jars bake at least 30 minutes or until they are transparent. Just keep checking them till you get that look you want.
Happy Tinting!
Homemade Decoupage Glue
You can make your own decoupage glue by the following recipe:
Elmers Glue
Water
Take 3 parts Elmers glue and 1 part water and mix in a glass jar, Shake well. That's it! I prefer Modpodge because of the Matte finish it gives but if you maybe have a limited budget you can make your own. I do make up some and use it for the tinting of my jars.
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INSTRUCTIONS ON BAKING YOUR DECOUPAGED ITEMS:
This I learned from Patti Elhoff. "BAKING"
Items that I bake are my glass, ceramic, wicker baskets, ceramic tiles, anything hardy etc.
This is my process:
I DeCo my item and brush on a coat of Modpodge on the entire peice.
Place my item/s on a foil lined baking pan and put into a cold oven.
Turn on the to 175 and let it preheat. Once the preheat timer goes off I then turn off the oven and let it sit in the oven for 30 minutes. I repeat the entire process once more.
WATER RESISTANT: (supposedly)
Same process as above with your decoupage graphics and Martha Stewart decopage glue layers. Place in a cold oven, turn the oven to 350. Once the preheat timer goes off leave the oven on and set your timer for 30 minutes. I did this twice with my coffee mug.
***The mug is in the dishwasher top shelf right now***!!! This will be it's first time in the dishwasher so I will let you guys know how it reacted to the hot water.
Patti if you see anything wrong with this let us know, but this is what I do. I put everything in the oven. It gives it a brilliant finish.
Hope this helps!!!
Happy DeCo Baking
SPONGE PAINTING
Instructions and Photograph
Courtesy of Paola Bauhman
Paint 2 coats of the color base on your project that you want on it. Once it drys you put a little bit of a darker paint on a kitchen sponge, take out the excess on a paper towel; then you start taping your jar with the sponge here and there... as much or as little you want to. There you will have a nice sponge paint base. Make sure you decoupage your napkins then do your sponging.
Courtesy of Karen Valentine: For a disposable paint tray use the styrofoam tray that your meat comes on. When you're done you can just throw it away, nothing to clean! Aprilanne also suggested putting foil around and when done throw the foil away or you can slip it inside a small trash bag. Before using for your paint, don't forget to wash in hot soapy water. We don't want germs in our craft projects..hehe
Decoupage Instructions
by: Paola Baughman
Always paint a light color to begin with unless you are going to crackle your item; once your item has 2 coats of acrylic paint well dry, you can start decoupaging your napkin... always start from the middle; with a very soft brush. I apply a light coat of glue (modpodge) in a small area, then place the napkin and keep on decoupaging.... DO NOT put too much glue, a light coat is the key (for me) to avoid wrinkles; do not rub the napkin with your bare finger or with the brush; you can grab a cloth and wrap it in a plastic bag and very gently smooth out any wrinkles or air bubbles with out rubbing too much. After it is completely dry, apply 2 more coats of glue (modpodge), let it dry in between coats and do not brush too much the same area; always make sure all the corners are perfectly glued. I hope this is helpful and make sense to you. :)
Decoupage and Egg Shell
Courtesy of Tawnia Long
Needed_
Fabric or napkins of choice
Mod Podge
Paint of your choice
Alcohol inks or water colors of choice (alcohol inks are rather expensive but well worth the money as they last a long time and a little goes a long way)
E6000 glue (if you intend to glue items such as buttons, flowers, or any other item like that)
To clean your egg shells you will need to soak them in very hot water for at least an hour then drain off the water, afterwards carefully remove all of the membrane from the shell, this is very important as if they are not removed your egg shells will not stick properly and will fall off. This is a time consuming project. If you have any small egg shells keep them, they can be used for other projects in the future. You may ask, “How am I going to get so many egg shells?” Well to be honest I have two people saving mine up for me and so far I have about two gallon size bags filled with them. I’m a bit egg shell happy, you could say…lol.
I usually prime my items with gesso, it isn’t necessary to do this but if you’re going to use the alcohol inks I would certainly do it.
Now it depends on what type of project your working on and rather you want to use resin for it or not, so in this case I’m just going to start with a simple glass or bottle. To begin, like I said I usually will prime the item with gesso, to me I think it helps the egg shells stick to the piece better after priming it, I may paint the gesso as well and usually I do.
After priming apply mod podge to the item, working on small areas at a time. After applying the glue (I tend to use a good amount of the mod podge when I’m doing this) press the egg shells onto the glass/ bottle covering the entire piece. Don’t worry about it cracking when you press on the egg shell; this is actually what you want it to do. Once that is completed and you have allowed the glue to dry thoroughly, start applying the inks, now you will only need one or two drops and this will start to run a bit, if you want it in certain areas just move the item around or up and down, I have heard of people painting with alcohol inks and a simply paint brush but to me it drowns out the color a bit, you may find it works for what you’re doing though. A little hint if you blow on the ink or use canned air (like the type you would get for cleaning out your computer) it will allow the ink to move differently and will certainly have a different look. If you’re not sure you will like it, try it on a blank sheet of paper. The ink will run not only over the egg shells but can run in between it as well. Once the alcohol ink is dried, which will not take that long, you can then decoupage over that or simply seal it using mod podge. The ink will not run when you use mod podge over it. I use different sealers and I don’t have just one favorite but it all depends on the look you want to achieve.
Sounds like a lot of work, I know, and usually it takes me about three days or more to complete the project but the outcome is really unusual and you will have a one of a kind project.
Here are some links which I have watched many times and will give you some insight on Alcohol inks and alcohol inks using egg shells.
Deerfoot Brush application
Dab your brush in water then dry the excess of water
Dab your brush in to a light color paint; tapping the brush paint all over the object you are working with, then without rinsing or cleaning the brush, apply paint (one shade darker ) tapping all around again; you can make it as lighter or darker as you want just applying the two colors at the same time or alternating them.
This should looks like sponge paint
