Adventures in How to Tint Glass Jars

Several methods for tinting glass jars can be found all over the internet which use everything from glue and food coloring to nail polish remover and glass paint. The writers of these tutorials tout how well their methods worked for them but for every one of those I can tell you there are many who have tried their techniques only to produce one glass tinting disaster after another. Thank gawd I wasn't alone!

left: tinted on the inside with acetone and glass paint
right: glass paint and thinner painted on the outside

Mod Podge and food coloring technique? Seriously? By the way, don't get that wet or it will come right off so why bother with it? Glass paint is going to be your best bet but the other problem with that is the heinous streaks it leaves behind when you paint it on. Sure it looks great if you get far enough away from it. Hell, I've got ex boyfriends who definitely look more attractive from a few thousand miles away so there ya go! There's nothing like a little distance to make your crap look good.

both tinted on the inside with paint and acetone
more paint used on the left jar for deeper color

Acetone and glass paint swirled around the inside of the jar had promise. The writer of that tutorial recommended nail polish remover with acetone to her readers which just turned the paint into a congealed mess that slid right off my jar. Great! That was helpful. She'd probably never even tried the nail polish remover. By the way, pure acetone will basically curdle the glass paint thereby rendering it useless so I mixed small amounts of the thinner to the paint before adding the acetone.

Pebeo Vitrea glass paint and alcohol ink - wonder if these people
could have spared a lager size container for the thinner?! 

I probably tried at least 15 different times to get the effect I wanted and while it still isn't perfect (rims are still a bit of a mess), at least I have results I can live with. I did use a touch of alcohol ink in my mixture. You may be able to use just the alcohol ink with the blending solution to produce the results you want but I have not tried it. Don't be afraid to make a mess because I guarantee that you will. Start with jars you don't mind ruining and be prepared to make this a learning experience. Good luck!

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