Summer Jar Light

This post is part of the monthly Silhouette Challenge. The theme this month was “summer” with an optional theme of “Jar”.

I up cycled an old mayo jar to make this cute jar light. I popped in a battery operated single string of lights but a tealight or small candle would work too.  I can imagine a row or grouping of these decorating a table on the patio – perfect for casual summer entertaining.  Or, forget the lights and use as a vase with some fresh summer flowers.

How I did it

First I etched the jar.  I did this in two steps: I covered the body of the jar with etching cream leaving the rim clear, which gave me something to hold on to.  When that was finished and cleaned off,  I covered the rim in etching cream to complete the etching.

As I finished etching, I scraped off as much excess etching cream as I could, and returned it to the bottle before washing the remainder off.  I used an old plastic card for this. I don’t think the etching cream companies encourage this nowadays  but  years ago when I purchased my first bottle of etching cream the company actually supplied a plastic card to do this.  An old gift card would do the job instead.  I get multiple uses from the same etching cream.

I tried a few methods for applying the vinyl. First I cut the words out and applied them individually to the jar using sticky tape as my transfer paper. The transfer went smoothly but my spacing and alignment left a bit to be desired and I wasn’t too happy with my results.

So, I opted to do all the alignment and spacing in Silhouette studio before cutting. I drew a rectangle in Studio. The  width equaled the measurement around the middle of the jar and the depth of the rectangle  corresponded with the depth of the straight sided area on the jar. I didn’t want my design to spill over onto the curved areas at the top and bottom of the jar. Then I moved the words and sun shapes around within the rectangle until I was happy with the results.

I’m sharing the file but I cant include the Sun as it’s a purchased file from the Silhouette online store. I’ve substituted a circle in place of the sun, which you  can easily replace with a sun design or something else and resize the design to fit the jar you have.

I cut the design from Blackboard vinyl as I like the matte finish.  With painter’s tape as my guide, I  placed the vinyl around the jar. I taped the short edge to the jar and lined  up the long edge against the painter’s tape, adhering it to the jar little by little, pulling the backing away from underneath as I went. Then I went back and cut away and weeded the excess vinyl. It was a bit fiddly – I’m pretty sure there’s probably an easier way to do it!

I’m halfway there in this pic…………and it was going on straight – Woo hoo!

Here’s a pic  from various views showing all the words.

Resources

Here are the translations I used for the word “Summer” (courtesy of Google Translate.)

Italian = estate | Croatian = ljeto | French = été | German = sommer | Swahili = majira | Czech  = léto | Spanish = verano | Portugese = verão | English = summer

I also used a Silhouette Studio File from the online store  Sunshine Design ID #56763″ although you may already have a sun design in your library that you can use.

The Files

Here’s the Silhouette Studio V3 File for the Summer Jar Light (tested in this)

Here’s the Silhouette Studio V2 File for the Summer Jar Light

The Silhouette Challenge.

Take a peek at the other Summer themed Silhouette projects that my online Challenge friends have come up with.

1. Home At Eight // 2. DIY Just Cuz {Sam} // 3. DailyDwelling // 4. Where The Smiles Have Been // 5. My Paper Craze // 6. Get Silvered // 7. DIYJustCuz {Brittany} // 8. Whatcha Workin’ On? // 9. The Stamp Doc // 10. Practically Functional // 11. Simply Kelly Designs // 12. Patina Paradise // 13. Architecture of a Mom // 14. Weekend Craft

 

 

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save