When I first started planning our wedding this past May, I knew I wanted blue mason jars for our Country Chic theme. I figured it would be easy enough to find since they seem to be so popular – WRONG!

I searched on Ebay, Etsy, etc. and while I was able to find random assorted lots of ball jars in blue, it was hard to find some in the size I needed (2 gallon) and they also we SO much more expensive than a plain, clear glass ball jar.

I set out to find a tutorial on staining the glass jars and after much research and a few trial and errors, I was thrilled to find a tutorial that worked on Something Turquoise. The tutorial is actually for a mason jar candle favor, but I just followed the directions for tinting the glass for our 2 gallon mason jars.

Since the florist needed 2 gallon mason jars – and the tutorial from Something Blue called for smaller jelly jars, we had to figure out an alternative way to setup the jars while we painted them so they didn’t tip over when wet!

My husband (fiancé at the time) came up with an ingenious idea to balance the jars on a flipped over styrofoam bowl, that was on top of a large paper plate to collect the paint as it dripped down.

 
I lined the dining room table with paper grocery bags.

I started pouring from the top of the jar, all the way around and down. The color looks dark and not translucent, but it will dry much more clear.

Here is a video from Michaels.com that I thought was helpful in showing the application technique.

I used about 1 1/4 bottle of Martha Stewart ‘Liquid Fill’ Glass Paint (Bright Sky) per jar. Ready to dry!

After about 4-6 hours (or overnight) the paint is dry and ready to go in the oven! I made sure there was no tackiness on the bottom since the paint is a little thicker there from dripping down.

We were so thrilled with how it all turned out! It was a very special DIY that we totally worked on together and it was so cute how excited my husband was in making sure they turned out perfect!

…and just a few weeks before our wedding we couldn’t believe when Ball came out with their heritage collection featuring a reissue of the blue ball jar- Ahhhhhh! But, they didn’t make it in the 2 gallon, which we would have needed no matter what.

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