DIY Tinted Mason Jars – Two Ways

The Fourth of July holiday is officially behind us, and the second half of summer vacation lies ahead. Finding ways to keep kiddos happy, engaged, and entertained, during the long summer days, can sometimes be a daunting task. Have no fear – we’re here to help! For the remainder of July and August (excluding two weeks for a much-needed family vacation) we will be sharing various summertime crafts and activities that you and your little ones are sure to love. And today, we are starting out with a bang – with this colorful DIY Tinted Mason Jars craft!

If you’ve been following Capturing Parenthood for awhile, then you already know that we LOVE rainbows! Needless to say, when it came time to create our very own tinted mason jars…a rainbow set was on the top of our list. 🙂 But we couldn’t stop there. So, we decided to conduct some color-mixing experiments…to bring you yet another fun and engaging way to tint mason jars!

While we’ve had an obsession with mason jars for quite some time, this was the first time that we’ve ever tried to color our own jars…and I’m happy to report that the process was super easy! We just followed Shutterfly’s DIY tutorial – How to Tint Mason Jars in 8 Simple Steps! What I love about the Shutterfly tutorial is how simple it is to follow. Who knew that coloring and customizing your own mason jars could be such a breeze? The tutorial includes helpful step-by-step instructions, as well as easy-to-follow images.

But the best part about this craft? It’s something that your kiddos can create on their own – and it’s a craft that provides several learning opportunities along the way! Your kiddos will practice their math skills as they measure out ingredients. They will build dexterity as they stir their colorful glue-mixtures together…and swirl the mixtures around in the mason jars. And if you go with the color-mixing jars, your kiddos will have the opportunity to create a hypothesis…to predict what their final jar color will be. Lastly, your little ones will have to practice patience, as they wait for their jars to dry, bake, and cool!

Feel free to pop on over to Shutterfly, to follow their tutorial…or keep scrolling to discover the steps that we took to create our Rainbow Tinted Mason Jars, as well as our Color-Mixing Tinted Mason Jars.

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DIY Tinted Mason Jars

Supplies:

• Glass Mason Jars (we used the 16 oz. size)
• “Gloss” Mod Podge (if you use “matte” you will not achieve the same vibrant results)
• Food Coloring (we used our Good Cooking Gourmet Liqua-Gel Food Coloring set)
• Small Plastic Cups (one for each color)
• Wooden Craft/Popsicle Sticks (one for each color)
• Newspaper (we used the packing paper that the mason jars came wrapped in from Michael’s)
• Baking Sheet
• Parchment Paper

How To Make Rainbow Tinted Mason Jars:

1. Set aside six glass mason jars. Place a few layers of newspaper (or packing paper) on a flat surface or tray.
2. Grab a small plastic cup and add approximately 2 Tablespoons of the Gloss Mod Podge.
3. Carefully add 2-3 drops of red food coloring, along with roughly 1 Tablespoon of water. Note: The less water you add, the richer the color. If you add more water, you will achieve a lighter, more subtle tint. 
4. Stir the mixture with a wooden craft stick, until the ingredients are fully combined…creating a consistent red color.
5. Pour the red glue mixture into a glass mason jar (making sure to keep your plastic cup nearby). Swirl the glue mixture around inside the mason jar…spinning the jar in every direction to thoroughly coat the inside. Slowly pour the excess red glue back into the same plastic cup that you used to mix the glue mixture together. As you pour, make sure to spin the jar around…completely coating the top (interior) portion of the jar.
6. Place the jar upside down on the stack of newspaper/packing paper. Let dry for approximately 30 minutes. Lift the jar up periodically, as it dries, and wipe off any excess glue that may be collecting along the top lip.
7. Repeat the above steps to create an orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple jar. Make sure that your last jar still gets at least 30 minutes of upside-down dry time (it’s completely fine to let the other jars dry for longer).
8. Preheat the oven to 175° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
9. Once the rainbow-colored jars have dried the appropriate amount of time, place them upside down on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
10. Place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
11. Remove the jars from the oven, and flip them over onto a cooling rack (so that they are right-side up). Let cool for 20 minutes.
12. If the jars still have streaks, place them back in the oven for 10 minute increments…until the streaks disappear. Make sure to cool the jars for at least 20 minutes, between each 10-minute stint in the oven. Note: We ended up doing 3-4 cycles in the oven to eliminate as many drips and streaks as possible. We still ended up with a few drips in each jar…but they are not very noticeable. 

How To Make Color-Mixing Tinted Mason Jars:

We were intrigued when the Shutterfly tutorial mentioned the possibility of using more than one color of glue per jar…to create marbled jars. We obviously had to give it a shot! However, we discovered that it is extremely difficult to achieve a marbled effect…with all of the spinning and swirling that is required to coat the entire jar with colored glue. When you initially start swirling the multiple colors around, you will see a beautiful marbled effect…but by the time you’ve coated the entire interior of the jar, it will most likely end up being one dominant color. We also found that any marbling effect that survived the drying stage…inevitably didn’t survive the oven. Once our jars were baked and cooled, they turned one main color – although the process did create some fantastic little speckles inside the jars!

And even though we failed at marbling…the multi-colored technique was still a success…because it turned into a fabulous color-mixing experiment! Who doesn’t enjoy adding different colors together, to see what kind of magical creation will result? Kids love color-mixing…so these multi-colored jars were a huge hit with our little nugget!

1. Set aside a mason jar. Place a few layers of newspaper (or packing paper) on a flat surface or tray.
2. Start by selecting 2-3 different colors of food coloring. You don’t want to use too many colors…or you will end up with a beautiful brown jar. 🙂
3. Grab a plastic cup for each color you plan to make, and add approximately 1 Tablespoon of Gloss Mod Podge to each cup. Note: I decided to use larger plastic cups this time, to make it easier for our little nugget to stir them all by herself! 
4. Carefully add 2 drops of food coloring, along with roughly 1 teaspoon of water, to each cup – making sure to keep the different colors separate (for now). Note: The less water you add, the richer the color. If you add more water, you will achieve a lighter, more subtle tint. 
5. Stir each cup, with their own wooden craft sticks, until the ingredients are fully combined…creating one consistent color in each cup.
6. Pour the various colors of glue mixture into a glass mason jar. Swirl the colors around inside the mason jar…spinning the jar in every direction to thoroughly coat the inside. Slowly pour the excess glue back into one of the used plastic cups. As you pour, make sure to spin the jar around…completely coating the top (interior) portion of the jar.
7. Place the jar upside down on the stack of newspaper/packing paper. Let dry for approximately 30 minutes. Lift the jar up periodically, as it dries, and wipe off any excess glue that may be collecting along the top lip.
8. Repeat the above steps for any additional color-mixing tinted mason jars that you wish to create. Just make sure that your last jar still gets at least 30 minutes of upside-down dry time (it’s completely fine to let the other jars dry for longer).
9. Preheat the oven to 175° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
10. Once the jars have dried the appropriate amount of time, place them upside down on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
11. Place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
12. Remove the jars from the oven, and flip them over onto a cooling rack (so that they are right-side up). Let cool for 20 minutes.
13. If the jars still have streaks, place them back in the oven for 10 minute increments…until the streaks disappear. Make sure to cool the jars for at least 20 minutes, between each 10-minute stint in the oven. Note: We ended up doing 3-4 cycles in the oven to eliminate as many drips and streaks as possible. We still ended up with a few drips in each jar…but they are not very noticeable. 

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We loved creating our very own tinted mason jars, and we are thrilled with how they all turned out! I guess you could sat that we’re officially hooked! And if you’re anything like us…once you try this technique…you might find yourself surrounded by a bunch of colorful glass jars. 🙂 And you might start to wonder…what on earth am I going to do with all of these beautiful, tinted mason jars? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered!

Tinted mason jars can be used around the house in numerous ways. You can use them individually as flower vases – we love using them with our Kwik Stix Coffee Filter Flowers! You can use them to brighten up a backyard BBQ – filling them with straws, dining utensils, napkins, etc. If you made an array of rainbow-colored jars like us…use them all together to house various craft and/or art supplies. Our gorgeous rainbow jars now reside in our craft room – where they keep all of our paintbrushes, Washi tape, pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, cotton balls, pipettes, and markers nice and organized!

We also love using mason jars for bathroom organization! Tie a cute ribbon around the neck of the jars and use them as toothbrush holders, cotton swab holders, and more! They also make beautiful candle holders – just drop in a tealight candle (wax or LED). The possibilities are truly endless! The only important thing to remember is that once you tint a mason jar, it should never be used as drinkware – it should only be used for decorative purposes.

So…what are you waiting for?!? Grab some mason jars and some Mod Podge, and let the colorful creations begin!

I would like to point out that we were approached by a content marketing specialist, for Shutterfly, who asked if we would be interested in trying the tutorial for tinted mason jars, and sharing our experience on Capturing Parenthood. We were not compensated in any way for this post. The only reason that we decided to do it, was because the craft looked right up our alley…and because we love using mason jars for decorative purposes around our home! The opinions and photographs that appear in this blog post are purely our own.