My sister is getting married this weekend. The bartenders’ gratuity is already figured into the cost of the reception, so she thought it would be fun to collect donations to her honeymoon trip (in Australia!) at the bar. So I made her this jar … I was, of course, finishing it at the last minute, so I just took quick pics with my phone, but it was a fun project filled with tecniques and I wanted to share them with you …
I started with a Gordon Food Services’ pickle jar … I threw out the lid, cleaned the jar and got ready to etch the glass.
I wanted the jar to last beyond the reception. Since my sister is always traveling, I thought it would be nice for her to be able to remove the wedding stuff and keep it as a change jar for whatever trip she is planning in the future. So, I decided to etch a monogrammed heart on the front.
I cut out both a heart and a monogrammed S from etchall® etchmask using my Cricut. etchmask is a sticky vinyl … personally, I find it works much better for etching than a traditional vinyl since it is thicker, sticks better and doesn’t stretch as easily as vinyl does.
My sister likes things simple, so after I applied both the heart and the monogram, I trimmed off the fancy swirlies on the letter with a craft knife.
After making sure all of the edges were tight, I added my leftover pieces of etchmask to the edges of the design to make sure I didn’t etch anything I didn’t mean to.
Then, I applied a thick, even layer of etchall® etching crème to the design and let it sit for 15 minutes. I scraped the crème off and put it back in the bottle (it’s reusable) and then washed the jar with soap and water, removed the stencil and washed it again.
The metal tags are from Art C. My husband used sandpaper to remove the sharp edges and then stamped the words Honeymoon Fund into one of them (they are a pretty thick steel and I wasn’t hammering hard enough). I then used a fine-pointed Sharpie to make the letters dark and prominent.
Since the wedding colors are University of Michigan blue and gold, I used the chipped sapphire Distress Crayon to color the heart and the word love. I used my finger to smooth out the color on the heart … I love the streaking effect it gave.
I used a sticker and label set from Tim Holtz to add their wedding date. I tied gold ribbon to the top of the jar and used jump rings to adhere each of the tags.
Since the banquet hall is pretty dark, I figured the tags can sort of layer over each other and the etching on the jar during the reception and then she can remove the tags and ribbon and just have the jar with her new last initial monogrammed for later.
The entire project, because I already had most of the supplies on hand, was® inexpensive. The only thing I purchased were the tags, which were on sale at JoAnn Fabric and Crafts for $2.39 each — and they come three to a pack, so I have quite a few left for additional projects. Oh, and I figured it was bad luck to give a tip jar without any money in it, so I threw in a few $1 bills to get them started.
candy scraps 