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Perfectly Imperfect Life..........

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Knocking-off Some Chimes


I have the best daughter-in-law!
Whenever she sees something different/cute she sends me a photo and says "You can make that!!" In this photo she meant the mason jar chimes.

Then I proceed to figure it out.
It usually doesn't come out exactly as what she saw because I always add my own twist by using what I have in my Treasure Pile.

I had just came across how to tint jars on Pinterest. There are several examples of how to do it. I combined Its Over Flowing and Creative Little Daisy.

I gathered my ingredients:
Jars
Mod Podge ~ 1/4 cup
water ~ 1 Tablespoon hot  
gel food coloring ~ to your liking
 (I didn't have gel food coloring, so I used what I had on hand) 
Mix all well.
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Pour some of the Mod Podge mixture into your bottle. Swirl it around to cover the entire glass on the inside Keep swirling and pouring to your hearts content or until you run out of jars or you need to mix more- which ever comes first  
Place a piece of aluminum foil on a plate then cover with
several paper towels and allow the bottles to drain for five to 10 minutes. I used newspaper and it worked just fine.

Set them on the counter, upright and wait about 5 more minutes, allowing the extra paint that did not drip out to settle on the bottom. Jars and bottles with a flat edge along the bottom will work the best for this technique. The bottom of my bottles have a little excess Mod Podge. If you try to tilt the jar again and pour it out, you’ll end up with streaks along the sides of the bottle.

I placed them up side down on wax paper 
Set the oven to it’s lowest temperature.
I checked on them about 20 minutes later or 
more until dry—transparent.

 Be sure the excess on the bottom has fully dried, too, before tilting the bottle.
Caution! These will be hot, be sure to use a pot holder. 
Remove from the oven and cool. Remove the gummy texture from the top of the bottles. If you prefer a darker color, do it again in the same jar…just be sure to cool the bottle first. 
This is exactly what I did because they came out to light the first time. Much better second time around.
I new I need lids for the tops and bottoms, so I E600'd used lids to some rings that needed to be replaced 



In hindsight I should have made the holes in the lids prior to gluing them. I ended up picking from the inside out because I didn't want to put pressure down on the lid that was glued and possibly popping it out. I just used and ice pick to make the holes.  I ended up painting them black. I used the heaviest fishing line I could find to add the copper tubes (which were also in my Treasure Pile) they were left over from when I made Solar Lanterns for the garden.  I used clear silicone to adhere lids to bottles. Silicone can handle the fluctuating temperatures outside better than anything else. Let cure for a couple days to be sure it's nice and stuck.
I made mine as the prototype first. That's why you see rusty tubing ;)  
I found a handle from a petite fore dish and used that for the clapper. I have it pulled to the side so you can see what I'm talking about. 
A Dragonfly catches the breeze to make it chime. 
Then I made some for gifts.

I found a few cheese shaker tops in my Treasures, so I painted them black and used them for the clappers on these.
I came across some metal filigree pieces that had a hole in them.
I dug through my beads only to find crystals that fit pretty good inside that hole. SO when the Sun shines I;'m hoping they get some prism effects going.


 Not as good as the ones she saw but I like the way they turned out...and that's all that matters anyway, right?
Hoping the recipients like them


*hugs*


Update

HomeBNC featured my chimes in their
50+ Ways to Repurpose Your Old Mason Jars
Other posts you may be interested in:

6 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas Deb, You are so creative and I think I could even do that. I need to get my baby quilt done because Miss Chelsey arrived early. I am not sure that I am spelling her name right. She is a month early, but weighed 5 lbs 13 ounces. Baby and mommy are doing fine. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Hugs and Prayers from Your Missouri Friend.

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  2. I love this idea! I have already saved in a file! Thank you for sharing this with us at TTF. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!

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  3. My dad always made wind chimes out of oddball, unexpected things. I have been looking for a different chime to put at his grave. I think I found it! Thank you so much for posting the tutorial.

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  4. Hi Deb, I just love these and your directons were awesome. Great project and looks wonderful hanging with the dragon fly.
    Thank you for sharing.
    Hugs, Celestina Marie

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I'd love for you to leave me a comment. Helps me to know I'm not totally crazy...like my family thinks I am!
*hugs*deb

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