Recently, as part of the LifeBook art class I’m taking, we created a jar of celebration. I used an old peanut butter jar and collaged napkins and stamped it into a new life. It now holds my metallic water-colour pencils.

I like using jars to hold my supplies. For me, the quote, “Out of sight, out of mind”, is accurate. I love using different art media but those special papers and tags I have carefully organized by colour and pattern into labelled boxes are quickly forgotten, sometimes for months at a time.

I watched a great video by Lynn Whipple on painting jars and so I found a couple of more jars to re-purpose. It took a few coats of paint before I couldn’t see through. I tried chalkboard paint on one and plain white gesso on the other. I then used my pencil, markers and other acrylic paints to add simple decorations and lettering. I wouldn’t use them to hold food items but in addition to art supplies, they could sit in a bathroom to hold Q-tips and make-up brushes, on a table with small candies, or anywhere you want.

I liked how they turned out and after raiding my mother’s cupboard, I plan on making some more this weekend in new colours and designs. Hurray!