Make It For Mom: Flower Font Storage Jar

Flower font?  What concept is this?  Well, I'll tell ya.  Fancy monograms usually defeat me. They are just too fancy!  Like, furrealzies, what are those guest towels saying?  Is that a Q mixed with a W and an upside-down G?  Is it Klingon, Elvish or what?  I guess my brain just does not process.

So here's what I did with some fancy Martha Stewart Crafts monogram stencils.

Fancy font, flipped upside down = fancy flowers!  Now those I can process.

These were the stencils:

See the flowers?  Try squinting.  Tip your head upside down like one of those internet owls.  They're in there, I swear.

A sweet gift for storing mom's Q-Tips or cotton balls or something vanity-adjacent.

Read on for the easy, literally squeezy tutorial.



Start with any inexpensive glass jar.  I used one of these Parmesan cheese shakers from the dollar store:

Three great reasons to craft with a dollar store cheese shaker

1. Holes in the top, for embellishing!
2. Straight lines to follow when painting!
3. Costs a dollar!


I do love these Martha glass paints (as seen in a previous post here).  For this project, the tiny tips are great for squeezing out very fine lines.

After the stems and leaves were allowed to dry for about an hour, I placed the stencils.  Each letter was tipped sideways or upside down, whichever looked more flowerlike.

 Next I filled in with paint.

After peeling away the stencils (slowly, carefully), here was the immediate result:

Looked pretty good.  But!  I decided the flowers were a bit uneven, and not quite as dark as I'd wanted.

So I filled in a few of the lighter bits with paint squeezed right from the bottle.  It made the edges less crisp, not as stenciled-looking .  But still pretty, yes?  Maybe even gives them a hand-painted look.

I think next time I'll use a more opaque paint, and get the true sharp edges.  But I'm not mad at this one!  Oh, heavens, no.

I added a few mini-flower dots above the shorter stems, also squeezed directly from the bottle.

To cure the glass paint: bake in the oven for 30 minutes, according to the package directions. (Place in cool oven, heat to 350.  Bake 30 minutes, cool in oven, remove.)  I love this step!  The paint sets to a hard enamel finish, and your piece is washable and top-rack dishwasher safe.

To make the handle: just string leaf beads on craft wire.  Feed the wire ends down through two of the holes, and twist them together inside.


Wahlah, your flower font storage jar is done!

It can also be a votive lantern:

Note: the cheese shaker is a bit too deep for oxygen to reach a tealight in the bottom.  I recommend a battery-operated one.  OR place your real wax tealight up on top of something to give it height.  I used a little glass salt shaker:

So!  Today I made a Mother's Day gift, and defeated the fancy font!  How satisfying.

Thanks for taking a look - hope you check back soon!

*P.S.  Click right here for a special Michael's coupon, they'll hook you up with paints and stencils.*

Disclosure: Martha's paints and stencils provided as part of a paid campaign with Plaid Crafts and The Blueprint Social.  All projects and opinions are entirely my own.