Reusing old jars

Wash the jar and let it dry. I can't remember what this one held but I think it was some or other spice or sauce.

 Paint the lid in chalkboard paint. Give it a few coats and let it dry.

 Spray the back of a stencil with contact adhesive or use stencil glue. Wait the recommended time according to the manufacturers directions.

Place the stencil on the jar. I taped the top and bottom down because my stencil was a little big for the jar.

 Follow the bottle directions on the etching cream to apply the product to the jar. Wait the recommended time. Mine said to wait 2 minutes but a previous product I had worked with said to wait 30 minutes so I decided rather safe than sorry and waited about 20 minutes. PS: Don't forget to wear rubber gloves and protective clothing.

 Wash the cream off (not forgetting your protective gear). Remove the stencil and tape. Give the jar a good wash with warm soapy water or running it through the dishwasher.

 Once it's washed and dried then find a nice use for your "new" pretty jar.

Personalized jars

We have these nice glass jars that our coffee comes in that I did not want to throw out. Instead I decided to pull the labels off and paint them with chalkboard paint for reuse around the kitchen and house.

Materials needed:

coffee jar

contact paper

Design of your choice 
permanent marker
craft knife 
Brasso metal polish 
alcohol swabs
Tape
contact adhesive 
chalk board paint

Instructions:

Soak an empty and nice coffee jar in water to soften and remove the label. Some elbow grease may be required. Let it dry.

Stick a piece of contact paper onto the bottle. 

Pick your design and trace it onto the contact paper. I just outlined it with a permanent marker.
Using a craft knife cut out the design and pull the piece off the jar. Keep in mind that where you cut out and pull off is where the paint will go.

I didn't get off all the gooey sticky label glue and murphy's law that showed up in my cut out design. So I just wiped it off with a bit of Brasso metal polish, ( I don't know why that works but it does) and wiped it off with an alcohol swab when I was done. Needless to say only use the Brasso on the outside of the bottle.









Tape off any remaining exposed areas.
Spray a layer of contact adhesive and wait about ten minutes until it is dry (or however long your contact adhesive tells you to wait to achieve a permanent bond). Don't forget to work in a well ventilated area.

Did you notice how the contact adhesive seems to crack? I didn't know how that will influence the painting part of the project and the final outcome so I decided to wipe it off with another alcohol swab and try again.

This time I stood further away when spraying the adhesive and only added a thin layer.
...wait for another ten minutes...

Spray on a layer of chalk board paint. I stood at about the same place I did when spraying the second coat of contact adhesive. It felt like far away. I also only sprayed a thin layer. I could still see the back of the bottle. I figured a few thin coats would be better than one thick one.

Let it dry and repeat as needed.

After I painted the third coat I almost immediately pulled the tape and contact paper off and left it to dry properly. 

Once properly dry; wash the bottle, dry it off properly, add a pretty ribbon if you like and find something to put in the re-purposed bottle.