Swamp Jars

I’ve seen so many horror movies that were filmed in a swamp and I’d love to go on a swamp tour at night. I’d happily skip the whole ‘being hacked up into tiny little pieces’ thing. I’m sure the characters in the movies would’ve wanted to skip that, too, but they’re fictional so they just do what they’re told to.

The swamp jars were easy and fun to make and they look absolutely gorgeous lit up at night. These are not going to be packed away for next Halloween. They’ll be used inside during the winter and on my deck when the weather is nice.

• Dig through your glass recycling bin and find jars. Use jars of different shapes and sizes to achieve the look you want. The look I wanted was of old, slimy, mossy and moldy jars that have been dredged from the bottom of a New Orleans swamp.
• Remove the labels and any label residue from the jars.
• Lightly spray orange spray paint inside the jar. It’s not going to be perfect. You’ll want a few runs and spotty areas to give it character.
• Add Umber colored acrylic crafting paint to a small bowl and add just a little bit of water. You don’t want to thin it too much but you also want a few “mud” drips inside the jar. Use a paint brush and load it up with the paint. Put the brush halfway down inside the jar and use your finger to flick the bristles so that the paint splatters inside the jar. Turn the jar and continue to “mud” it up on all sides.

• Cut your creepy cloth to wrap around the threads of the mouth opening. Hot glue a few dabs under the cloth just to hold it in place about halfway up the threaded lip. You can leave a gap in fabric so that it looks like moss only grew on one side of the jar. You’ll cut pieces out of it later to get the dripping moss look you want.
• Hot glue an end of the jute just at the base of the threads and wind the jute around the threads as tightly together as possible. The jute will slip over the threads and leave gaps but just continue until you get to the rim. On the edge of the rim, hot glue the edge, running the jute around to finish the whole top edge. Do not cut the jute! Start winding the jute back down the threads until all gaps are filled in. Cut the jute and glue it down.

 

• Go back to the creepy fabric. Cut out random pieces to make it uneven and leave some long pieces on a few of the jars for trailing moss, if you want.
• Let dry completely and light it up!

~C. Dolly~