Adventures With Baby Food Jars!

So, before I even began to dabble into my new hobby, I already had a friend that wanted me to make something for her.

She wanted cute little containers of bath salt for her baby shower. I was going to home make the bath salt. I read it was fairly easy. I agreed to do it even though I hadn't had experience with anything yet.

Buying empty containers is pretty expensive. My sister in law's mom was saving baby food jars for me since they are made out of glass. I decided, well, it's a baby shower..Why don't I put those baby food jars to good use?

These are the two sizes I had, for comparison. We figured the bigger ones would be better for party favors, because the amount of bath salt you can put in there would basically be the amount you would use in one bath.

My plan to use the color scheme she wanted (Pink, Lime, and Aqua) consisted of dying the salts and layering them inside the jar, and also painting the lids (Which I have no experience doing). She needed 15 containers, so I decided I would paint 5 aqua, 5 lime, and 5 pink lids. To be honest, I didn't own any paint since I haven't painted since the 11th grade and I didn't know exactly how to go about painting these lids. I researched it a little, and I read that you can use a primer and then an acrylic over the top. So That's what I decided to try...

Those are the shades I decided to buy. The blue I got was kind of a sky blue so I ended up mixing it with the green to get the aqua color I knew she wanted.

 I laid out the lids on some newspaper and got to work...

I ended up spraying two coats of primer and allowed it to dry for the rest of the night. What made me sad about the primer is that it didn't seem to spray evenly so some of the lids have small cracks or rough areas. I tried to sand them down just a bit, but I couldn't do it too hard without removing the primer (as shown by the metal rings poking through the whiteness)

Notice how you can still see the expiration date of the baby food seeping through the primer. Don't worry about this, I noticed that when I began to paint them, it didn't come through the acrylic.

While waiting for the lids to dry, I decided to tackle removing the adhesive from the jars themselves. They had been ran through a dishwasher and everything, but the adhesive was still in tact. My sister-in-law and I tried using acetone nail polish remover first, since I didn't have any specific adhesive remover and I didn't want to go back to Wal Mart (again)...That didn't seem to do anything but make the adhesive spread around, so I decided to try my favorite weapon, vinegar and baking soda...

 I filled the sink with water and just put some vinegar and baking soda in it, I didn't bother trying to measure it. I let it soak for a while and it really helped break the adhesive down so it was easier to scrub off. I decided to drain the sink and call it a night, so the next morning I decided to tackle the jars again and since they were dry the adhesive was back to being an asshole. So, I took a brillo pad and hoped for the best...

I'd like to say it worked for the most part, so I washed the jars again in the dishwasher and then plan on boiling them to sterilize them closer to the time I make the salt itself.

Alright so here is the interesting part...painting the lids...

That was after only one coat each. I decided to just make a couple of them start to finish, so just in case she didn't like the colors it would be easier to fix. I put two more coats each on them. After you paint over the primer like that, it gives the lid kind of a rough, matte finish. I had bought some spraypaint gloss overcoat that I was going to spray on them to make them smooth and shiny..

So I put those bitches in a box and took them outside for ventilation and went to town...

Look at that disgusting yellowing of the paint. This was after allowing them a couple hours to dry. I don't know if the paint had a reaction with the gloss, or what. Either way I was very discouraged and upset at this point.

Because I didn't want to ruin the rest of the lids, I had an idea.

I decided to paint some top coat for nails on some of the other lids to see how it fared...

I enlarged this picture so the texture is easier to see. The left side is paint only, it's very rough and matte. The right side has the nail gloss on it. it makes it kind of smooth, and I feel like it looks better on the jars than the matte colors.

Too sad to even bear to look at the mess I had made in the box, I decided to continue what I was doing over here.

After a while I decided to face my fear and look back into the box again. Nope, still fucked up. So I picked up those lids and painted over them to see if it would even work. I didn't know if the spray gloss was paint-over-able...but I figured if I had to toss those messed up lids anyways I'd rather try it than start over with four new lids pre-primed. Behold, I was able to paint over them and re-gloss them with the nail topcoat.

Here's what one of each color looks like finished:

I was kind of proud of myself at this point, which was a good contrast from the way I felt earlier after I thought my whole plan was in the shitter. I sent her that picture to make sure that the colors would be alright. She said she liked them so I decided to go ahead and finish painting them.

You get the idea. I used big and small jars to hold the lids on while I painted them, incase you are confused on why there is two sizes there.. The last 3 pink and lime ones are still drying but they are almost done. So yay, the lids are done! I assumed it would be the hardest part of this project, but I haven't even made the actual bath salt yet. I am waiting on a shipment from Mountain Rose Herbs that contains an essential oil kit and some other raw materials and so I decided to wait until then to even think about the bath salt. I bought some soap colorant from Michael's (a craft store) to match the aqua, pink and lime color scheme so it should be easy to get the colors I need without having to mix the primary colors to get what I want. I read you can also use regular old food coloring for this, but I haven't tried it.

Alright so that is done, but I did try one more thing for shits and giggles...

That uncolored and unprimed lid (an extra one) just screamed for me to do something to it.

I had an idea to try. No primer, no acrylic, I decided to use fingernail polish straight up. I don't even know why I own fingernail polish since I lack fingernails. So anyway...

That was after one coat. It is still fairly transparent but overall the coverage is pretty cool...Here is what it looked like after three coats...

Sorry, it was kind of hard to see due to the lighting, but I think you can still tell the coverage is good. I think I will try using just fingernail polish in the future. Overall, the acrylic came out alright, but it was such a huge pain in the ass that I feel like the fingernail polish would be more convenient if I can get a shade I want. The primer made the lids look bulky and the texture, though smooth from the gloss isn't completely flat feeling. 

Anyways, hope you might have learned something tonight! I am tired. I am not sure I want to paint any lids again for a while. I will stick to buying jars meant for crafts or mason jars! It may be more expensive but is it worth it?? So far I would say yes, even though keeping other glass containers out of landfills is a pretty good idea.

Do you have any experiences like this? Do share them in the comments!!