Grungy Pantry Jars Tutorial

Dig some glass jars out of your recycle bin and follow this Grungy Pantry Jars Tutorial to create your own primitive kitchen canning display.

These antique looking jars are easy to DIY and have a great old fashioned look. You could set them on a shelf in your pie safe or other prim kitchen display.

Watch the Video:

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Supplies for Grungy Jars:

Age the Labels & Cheesecloth:

You can get the primitive canning jar labels I made here or you could design your own labels.

Cut or tear the printed labels to a good size for your jars. I tore mine to give the jars a more aged look.

Learn from my mistakes and let the ink on the labels completely dry so they don’t smudge.

Scrunch up each of the labels and then lay them flat in a shallow pan.

Sprinkle some instant coffee granules onto each of the labels.

Make some instant coffee following the label’s directions.

Use a spoon to drizzle the liquid coffee over the labels until each label is saturated.

Set aside.

While the labels are soaking up the coffee’s grunginess, unfold the cheesecloth.

Submerge the cheesecloth into the leftover liquid coffee.

Let the cheesecloth soak while you work on the labels again.

Use paper towels to soak up all of the extra liquid in the pan holding the labels.

Remove the cheesecloth from the coffee and wring out the excess liquid – be careful in case the coffee is still hot!

Set the cheesecloth and labels aside to dry.

Prepare the Jars:

If the jars still have labels, remove them.

Remove any sticky label residue that won’t be covered by the primitive canning jar labels.

In order to make the jars look like they are holding apple butter, molasses, and honey, I painted the inside of the jars with acrylic craft paint.

If you are going to use these jars for food, skip this step!!

After painting, the jars will no longer be food safe!

I used folk art #2936 Cocoa Bean for the molasses and apple butter jars.

I used Anita’s Earth brown for the honey jar.

Squeeze a dollop of paint into the inside of the jar.

Roll the jar around to move the paint around the inside of the jar.

You can use a paintbrush to help move the paint faster.

Keep rolling and painting until the entire inside of the jar is coated with paint.

If you end up with too much paint in the jar, pour the extra back into the paint container.

Set the jars aside to dry.

Apply Labels to the Jars:

Spread a thin layer of craft glue onto the back of each label and affix it to the corresponding jar.

If there was a leftover sticky spot from the original label, be sure to cover that area.

Press down around the edges of the label to make sure it is stuck everywhere.

Let dry.

Add Cheesecloth Lids:

Measure your jar top to determine how big you want the cheesecloth ‘lids’.

I made mine about 6-1/2″ x 8″.

Cut two pieces of cheesecloth for each jar.

Place the cheesecloth on top of the jar.

Stagger each layer of cheesecloth so the corners are in different locations.

Use a piece of jute to tie the cheesecloth to the jar. Tie the jute into a bow.

Pull the edges of the cheesecloth to tighten it on the top of the jar, if needed.

At this point, you could be finished, or you can add a bit more grunge to the jars with some cinnamon.

Add Cinnamon Grunge:

Use a toothpick or popsicle stick to apply glue randomly to the jar.

Don’t put any glue on the writing on the labels because the cinnamon will obscure the words.

Be sure you are using a glue that will dry clear!

Sprinkle cinnamon over the spots of glue.

Tap the jar to remove excess cinnamon and let completely dry.

To help you decide if you want to do this extra grunge step, below is a photo of two jars. The honey jar on the left has added cinnamon and the apple butter jar on the right does not have any added grunginess.

The cinnamon will flake off. If that bothers you, you can finish by using a matte spray sealer.

I hope you enjoyed this Grungy Pantry Jars Tutorial. I’d love to see what you are creating!

Be sure to check out our other primitive craft tutorials.

Blessings~
Amy

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