MASON JAR BIRDFEEDER

I love Mason jars old and new.  And therefore I'm always looking for new everyday uses for them. And by looking on Pinterest I ran across this idea. A chick feeder, old jar and lid as a bird feeder!

For this easy bird feeder craft, all you need is:

-chick feeder base, approximately $3 at feed or animal stores
-A mason jar, new or old
-a metal or enamel lid
-E-6000 glue

Super simple. Just steady your lid upside down ((I sat mine in the feeder)) and squirt e-6000 glue on the bottom of you Mason jar.

Then sit the mason jar bottom onto the upside down lid to dry.

Drying takes about 24 hours to cure completely as this is strong glue.

Then after completely dry just flip it over and screw the jar into the chick feed base.

Now you can start to see that when we unscrew the base , we flip the jar and lid  top upside down to fill with birdseed.

The lid acts as a topper to keep the exposed birdseed dry and the handle on the lids makes for an easy way to hang.

Here it is hanging out on a shepherds hook.

And here it is over beside my little chicken coop. The bits and pieces of corn and seed that falls are soon found. (Look in the bottom right of the corner of next pic down.)

When I take it down to refill it, I have plenty of help from the Gerty, Myrtle and the girls.

My little chickens are so curious about anything I am doing.

I loved how simple and beautiful this craft turned out to be that I am also going to go ahead and use a chick feed waterer base to make a hummingbird feeder this same way.  Remember, in case you don't know, you can't use a chicken feeder base like this to hold hummingbird liquid. I tried! It all runs out! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by ya'll! See ya' next time.

~Lisa at www.booth555.com

EASTER MASON JARS

Here is a pretty cute project that I got the idea for off of Pinterest.

A painted, two toned Mason jar in pastel colors for Easter.

The above is a robins egg blueish color and here is a different pic of it and another one up close:

I mixed up a sage green color on the other to match my bathroom.

 

This is really an easy project, so let's get started.

I started out with these plain, wide mouth Mason jars.

You will need:

-Mason Jar of any size you want

-Alcohol (to clean the outside of jar)

-Sponge brush

-2 paint colors for each jar (inside and out)

-Decorations of your choice for jar 

-Light grit sand paper

Okay, so first off we need to clean the outside of the jar with a bit of alcohol.  This removes all dust, lint and crap so it will have a good finish.

I just wiped it down with a paper towel and a dash of alcohol.

Okay, next you need to pick a color you want for the inside.
Remember to pick a color that will contrast with your outside color.

This allows the color to pop through once you sand off a bit of the top colors.

I choose an off white, antique color.

Go ahead and paint the inside.  It doesn't have to be great, just good enough to get a coat on.

Here it is with just the inside painted off white. I really like this how it is. So later on, I may make some and leave them like this.

Then we are on to the outside already.

Just paint on, in long strokes, a pretty good layer of paint.

This is coat #1.

We need to do another coat right after this dries.

Here's the blue first coat:

and here's the sage green first coat:

Okay, now here they are after the second coat was applied and dried.

We are ready to sand!

Grab your lightweight sandpaper and start off easy.  

I like to start with the lettering.

I love to see them stand out.

And then to the edges to make it look like it has some wear on it.

Above is the blueish one.

And here is my sage green one:

I about rubbed it a bit too much. So go easy on it, you can always take off more but it'd be hard to fill it back in at this point.

Here they are again after some sanding:

I love the blueish one so much better than the green.

Okay, now, if you think there will be a chance of scratches and such, now you can apply a

flat/matte finish coat. One coat is enough.

Be sure to get the matte finish though, because you don't want them to turn out shiny.

With this project, I think the flat colored pastels make this a plus!

Now time to start decorating.

No need to run out and buy something I may use (unless you really love it!) Remember to always look around your home for things first.  I love to re-purpose about anything!

 

And first and foremost, I got out my plain, plastic spoons. Yes, these are plastic. I have tons of wooden ones, but to give away or sell, I prefer to use plastic.  And of course, to keep the wooden ones!

I just painted these plastic spoons with one one coat of blue, left over from the jar.  And then streaked on a touch of the offwhite that I used in the inside.

 Above, I used some cut pieces of grapevine garland that I had strung on my primitive tree.

I just cut it, and scrunched it in a circle and tacked it in place with hot glue, high temp.

And next, I added a plastic egg that I also painted in almost the same color. I just flicked on a few splashes of white and darker blue to make it look like a bird egg kinda.

And if you look close in the styrofoam plate, I have some cut off pieces of pip berry. I had cut these from one of those long strands you always see in the primitive stores. I have those all around the house in my cabinets.  I am using the white for the blue jar and yellow for the green jar.

 And I also tied a bit of bakers twine around the top to attach a gift tag with.

Okay, now lets take a look at some of the green one. I don't want to leave it out just because I don't like it as much.

 Again, I painted the plastic spoons with the same green and then streaked on some off white.

 Added a plastic egg I painted and speckled, some grapevine garland for a nest and some cut pieces of pip berry.

Tack them all with hot glue!

 And for this one as a tag, I found a cute fake seed pack sign.  It was one out of a pack of note pads I had from the Dollar Mart.

This one says, "Bloom where you are planted."  I love it.

 I tied it on with some yellow and white bakers twine.

Here they are side by side.

BLUE vs. GREEN

Which color do you like best?

I hope ya'll give this Mason jar craft a try.  It was really easy and will make a cute Easter or spring gift!

See ya'll next time,

~Lisa

MASON JAR MINI PLANTERS

Super simple idea here ya'll. If you like little mason jars as much as I do, you may like this.

I started off with these clear, plain and simple little cute Mason Jars.

And sometimes, instead of clear, I use the these ones I hand stain.

I just took some little new growths of  "Hen & Chicks," (I think, no idea really about names, but someone told me they were) separated them,

 added some more good ground dirt to the jar

 and stuck them in their very own mason jar.

That was pretty much all there was to it.

Now I know this doesn't give the little plantings much room, but I don't mind transplanting them on down the road into something larger.  

But as for now, I am loving having the little brown, grubby jar sitting on my desk.

I even stuck one in this cute little dish I found at a flea market.

I love it!

Happy Crafting Ya'll,

~Lisa

 If you want to see I tinted the clear mason jars blue and various other colors, click here.

 Or how I made the jars n' things grubby, click here, for the previous post.

MASON JAR LID MAGNETS

MASON JAR LID MAGNETS

These are some cute ideas that I had from having lots of extra Mason Jar lids.

(The rings I am going to also use on an upcoming post, so stay tuned!)

If you don't have any lids laying around, don't worry. You can find a box of 24 (both lids-12 and rings-12) at Walmart for around $2.50.

I had some left over from trying my first ever Bread N' Butter Pickels

First I simply just laid them out on and gave them a base coat of red in Rustoleum spray paint. 

Let it dry and sometimes if it didn't cover totally, I went back and did a second coat. (I'm not a great spray painter.)

And then I took a can of white spray paint and did the speckle effect.  

I do this by just barely putting any pressure at all on the spray nozzle and just holding it there. 

It will finally start to spit and spray and soon little specks of white paint will fly out like snow.  Just hold the can over what you want to spray and let it spit.  It looks cool!

Some of them, I just sprayed them white and then re-speckled the white again. Leaving out all red.

Just to make some different.

Then I took out my large Mason Jar stamp I got from eBay.

Dabbed it in black ink and while holding the lid in my hand, stamped it on.

I had to keep it in my hand so that I could apply the pressure evenly from the back of the lid.

Laying them on hard surfaces didn't work too good for me.

Notice not all of the center was stamping great on them. So that's where I started pressing harder from the back.

And after letting them sit and dry for about a good hour, because of the ink.

I went and attached a round magnet, size 3/4" (19mm diameter) that I got from Walmart. A package of 52 costed like $3 or so.  They have a really good strong hold. I do not recommend those peel and stick strips for things like this.

The glue I used is called E-6000 and it forms a very strong hold!

I use if for most everything.

 Here are some more pics of them done.

 These were the large mouth lids, if I forgot to mention that. That's why I used such a large stamp.

I also have a smaller stamp that I am going to make the regular mouth lid magnets with also.

I just have to go find it now. lol.

(I am a stamp collector also!)

(Here is the link to make the bottle labels, if you are interested.)

If you like these but don't want to try making them, 

I listed a few "buy it now's" on eBay here  for $9.99 with free shipping.

Hope ya'll give this cool Mason Jar Lid Magnet craft a try.  I figured they will look cute in about any kitchen!

I'm trying something new and linking up with Made by You Mondays to share in a linky linkup.

See Ya'll next time!

~Lisa

UPDATE:
Maggie from EyeballsbyDayCraftsbyNight asked me below, if these smear.
With regular handling mine don't. 
But after she asked, I went back and took my thumb and kept rubbing into it and yes, they started to smooth out on the sharp lines.
So, if you want to take this a step farther, you can finish them off with some type of sealer or spray clear coat even. 
I think I will give mine a coat to be safe.
Thanks Maggie, for thinking of this!