Removing Labels from Glass Jars

I keep an eye out on Craigslist for mason jars, but they get snatched up before I can get to them. Since I'm not going to spend money on new ones, I have started hanging on to our empty food jars. I don't use all of them. Sometimes I don't care for the size/shape, or I am too lazy to really scrub the food bits off. I had amassed a few, so I decided it was time to actually do something with them.

I started with a variety of jars, some honey, brown rice syrup, jelly, salsa, even an empty extract bottle.

I tried two different methods for stripping the labels. One was boiling, soapy water. The other, straight vinegar in a bucket. I had heard of vinegar, and the soapy water one came from Mochatini via Pinterest. I tried a couple of different tools to scrape the labels off, but ultimately decided on a small putty knife. It worked best for both methods.

The vinegar was not my favorite method. It takes a good amount to immerse the entire label. It is wasteful, smelly, and not that successful. Plus, it takes a lot longer. I had to let it sit for several hours before I could scrape the labels off. It also seemed to work better on one label than the other. The small, brown bottle below scraped right off. The other bottle left residue behind. I  had to use a little more elbow grease to scrape it and some Goo Gone.

  

The boiling water went much faster, and I got better results. I recommend this method. Fill a large pot with water and a drop of soap. Let it come to a rolling boil. Gently add your glass. Wait...I know how hard it is. Trust me though, jumping the gun will only frustrate you. So wait. Once the labels start to just float off on their own, you can get to work. They should come right off with almost no effort. Just remember you are working with boiling water, so everything is H-O-T HOT! If you do happen to have any residue left, a little Goo Gone does the trick.

 

One more thing, don't remove the labels before hand. I know it is tempting to strip things down in the hopes of a faster result or easier effort. Sadly, it doesn't work out that way. I had peeled the label off of one jar (the first pic below). It came out of the pot about like it went in. It took a lot of scraping and Goo Gone to get all the gunk off. On the other hand, all of the jars that went in with the full label intact practically cleaned themselves (the second pic below). Like I said, the labels start to float right off on their own.

 Have fun making lots of fun things from your shiny new craft bottles! They make cute vases, storage jars for other foods or crafts, gift jars, the list is endless!

Winter Wreath

The little boy is at school this morning, so I decided to finish a project I started a couple of weeks ago. Like a lot of folks I know, I have a small Pinterest obsession. Around Halloween, I came across an elegant wreath from The Art of Doing Stuff. What I love about this Halloween wreath is that it is the perfect balance of elegant and creepy. I decided to make my own version for winter with white boas and snowflakes.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money, so I went to the dollar store for my two wreaths and snowflake ornaments. I used my husband's employee discount for feather boas from US Toy. You could also use 40% off coupons at a craft store. Joann and Michael's both take competitor coupons. Hobby Lobby always has a printable one on it's website.

2 wreaths to layer together, or one bigger one

6 - 6 ft white feather boas

snowflake ornaments

string

thread

scissors

First, I tied the two wreaths together to make one wreath. The smaller, inner wreath is sort of suspended within the larger, outer one. Alone, they would be too thin for the effect I wanted, but together they are perfect. This only cost me $2, but you could also just start out with a larger styrofoam one from the craft store. Next I started wrapping my boas. I used my white string (not thread)  to attach the end of each boa to the wreath, wrapped, then used another string on the other end. I'm not sure what part of my brain thought that two of these boas would be enough, but it only covered about a third of the wreath. That's why this project sat unfinished for a couple of weeks. You can imagine how long a trip becomes when you take a 3-year-old into a toy store...on top of the obvious chaos, add to it that he knows the store because Daddy works there. Well, I had to wait for a school day to make another trip. Alas, six boas was perfect.

Now to the ornaments. Two things came to mind while working on this part. First, I was reminded that I despise all things sparkle. Sparkles have a way of migrating into EVERYTHING. Just like the pooch nugget's dog hair, I find sparkles in places that haven't been touched for years. My worst nightmare is opening a card to find it covered in sparkles. The real dilemma will be when Bean starts coming home with sparkle covered art projects, but I digress. The second, and more important point, 3D ornaments! Mine were flat, and although they worked, I would have been more pleased with 3D snowflakes.

So once I arranged the ornaments in a manor that suited me, I tied them on with thread. Somehow I didn't have white, but cream worked just fine. The feathers have so much poof, that you really can't notice. Last, I tied one more piece of string (not thread) to the inner wreath. That way you don't see the loop as it hangs on the door.

   

As you can see, the snowflakes aren't very noticeable. Even standing in front of it, they don't stand out all that much. Maybe next year I will change them out. It works for now. My front door has a welcoming wreath with a wintery feel. That was my goal.

Now I'm off to vacuum flyaway feathers and...sigh...sparkles.