Upcycled Moisturizer Jar

This is a huge day for me. I am blogging on my own. Well, with my IT guy/husband's help. My daughter set up this blog for me almost two months ago.You know how it is. You sit and watch someone create this new and different thing. You get asked lots of questions and give the answers, you watch as she clicks the mouse and types on the keyboard and the next thing you know, you have a BLOG. WOW! I have a BLOG! Well, during that whole process, I neglected to take notes thinking I can remember how to do it. How hard can this be? Actually pretty hard when I can't remember how to do any steps past typing the title. I know I will need LOTS of help. I am a sort-of photographer and a very limited writer. I am hoping to improve both skills as time goes on with LOTS of help.

Anyway, here we are creating a new blog post. I have just learned to upload pictures from my camera to the computer. Put them in folders, arrange the folders in different categories, open the pictures in Photoshop Elements and re-size the photos. WOW! I'm tired... But I did take notes this time...

After all of that, I chose to show pictures of my upcycled moisturizer jar. I absolutely love this moisturizer. It is my favorite. I used every molecule before I was going to recycle it. Then I thought I could use it to store do-dads on my craft desk. You know bits and pieces of things for projects that didn't get used. So I cleaned it out and put it on my desk.

After looking at it for a few weeks and being inspired by Ten Seconds Studio Taco Tuesday videos, I decided to metalize the jar. I started with plain aluminum 40 gauge metal. I cut a circle with one of my Spellbinders circle dies. Then measured the circumference and cut a strip of the same metal for the side of the jar. Next I chose the Ten Seconds Studio molds I wanted to use. That took a while as I have lots of them. Finally I chose two. One for the top of the jar and one for the side. The top was easy. I used my personal die cutting machine to emboss the metal with the mold. The side strip had to be hand embossed with metal tools because it was a more involved pattern and needed to be repeated. That was a fun learning experience and not to hard to do at all.

Next I painted the metal with black acrylic paint. When it was dry I took a damp paper towel and wiped off most of the paint. Next, I used three different alcohol ink colors and applied them over the paint. Then I sanded the high parts.

I spackled the back of the embossing to keep it from collapsing. When the spackle was dry, I applied red liner double stick tape. Great Stuff!! Then I applied the metal top and side to the jar. I really like how it turned out. I have a smaller jar that I just emptied yesterday, maybe I'll metalize it too...