Apothecary Jars {Tutorial}

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Have you ever seen decorative apothecary jars? I have and I have coveted them. They look so pretty and make such a nice decoration, but alas, they are usually out of my price range. Today, I'm going to show you how to make your own apothecary jars for a fraction of the cost of purchasing them. It was surprisingly easy, too. Yippee! These are things I love...cheap, attractive and easy! It doesn't take much people, it doesn't take much! :-)

I've got my jars all ready for Valentine's Day. First, I'm going to show you how to make your own. I'm also going to show you a tip on how to fill the jars without breaking the bank. They take a surprising amount of 'stuff' to fill up.

Supplies:

• 3 different sized wood candlestick holders, mine are 6", 7" and 9". (I got them from 3 different stores)
• 3 wood finials (I got mine at Hobby Lobby)
• 3 - 5" circle wooden 'plaques'
• 3 - 4" circle wooden 'plaques'
• 3 glass jars with screw type lids (I got mine at Hobby Lobby. They are about 5" tall. I think they are some of the smaller of this type of jar. I had larger jars initially, but then started thinking about how much 'stuff' I would need to fill them and went smaller. You can use any size you prefer)
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• E6000 Glue

Before we get started on the tutorial, I want to give a shout out to Trish and Bonnie over at Uncommon Designs. They are the brains behind this operation. OK, not really, but I first saw these apothecary jars on their blog. I used their idea to make my jars. Thank you ladies for the inspiration!

Start by painting your wood pieces. I used a Martha Stewart Acrylic paint in a Satin finish. I don't like to use spray paint as it is terrible for the environment...so that means I get to paint things. I kind of like it and find it a bit soothing. It took 3 coats to get the coverage I wanted on most of the pieces. Two of the candlesticks were darker and required a 4th coat. Had I started with primer, it would have been less. 

Once your paint is dry and has had some time to cure (maybe overnight). Use the E6000 glue to adhere the bottom of the candlestick to the 5" wooden circle plaque. Try your best to center it. It probably would be a really good idea to mark the center point with a pencil on both the plaque and the candlestick and do your best to match them up. 

You can see above top left, the candlestick glued to the 5" wooden plaque. Above top right, now that I have done this, I would recommend removing the brass insert in the top of the candlestick as it will make it more likely that your jars will be level when you are done. Mine are not level and I think this piece is the cause. Either which way, use your glue to adhere the top of the candlestick to the 4" wooden plaque. I liked the look of using the plaque with the decorative edge facing down and the flat side facing up. Once again, marking the center of the plaque probably would have been a good idea to make it easier to center the pieces. 

Give that piece time to dry.

While you are waiting, use your glue to adhere the finial to the top of the glass jar trying to get it centered. 

Once the glue on the candlestick part has dried, use your glue one last time to adhere the glass jar to the 'stand.' As you can see above lower right, you only need glue at the edges (if you are using jars similar to mine) as the jars are slightly raised in the center. 

Now you have beautiful decorative apothecary jars to fill and have fun decorating.

Wanna see what I did with mine for their maiden voyage?

Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I added some ribbon in Valentine's colors to the finials on my jars.

Next up was filling the jars. They sure do take a LOT of candy to fill! I started with 2 bags of M&M's thinking that would be enough for all three jars...ummm totally off. Let me show you a trick to help fill the jars without breaking the bank.

This is an old Tupperware kid's cup from when my girls were little. I keep them around for when other little kiddos come to visit. 

Turn it upside down and place it in the center of your jar. You could also use an empty toilet paper roll (though it doesn't take up as much space) or an empty clean soup can. I added Valentine wrapping paper around one of my cups, thinking that as the candy got eaten it may look better than the plain cups. I think this paper I chose looks rather dorky and busy as the candy is getting lower. I think a solid color would be better. 

To fill my jars, I used 2 bags of M&M's and 1 bag of conversation hearts. The conversation hearts filled way better than the M&M's, but M&M's are much more yummy, so we have more of those! I didn't want to buy more candy, so I got out my pom pom makers and made more pom poms....I know those of you who have been reading my blog for a while are totally shocked by this turn in the tale. Hehe!

There you have my new apothecary jars. They are on the table runner I showed you how to make last week and are part of our Valentine's table that I will show you next week. 

I'm sure I will show you other ideas of how I fill these jars throughout the year. I think they are going to be a lot of fun. Do you have any jars like this that you use to decorate? Any filler tips for me/us? Can't wait to hear them!

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