Ideas For Decorating Glass Jars

I've gathered all my glass bottle decoration ideas here in this post along with the free templates and tutorials for each project.

I don't know about everyone else but I have a small collection of jar and bottles just piling up on my kitchen counter.

It seems like such a waste even to just recycle them. I've started to use them for various craft and decor projects around the house and it has worked out great.

Not only are empty glass bottles and jars super versatile to work with, they also work with different looks around the house and even better…they are free!

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Glass bottle art ideas

People love to decorate wine bottles but I seem to collect all sorts of bottles beyond wine bottles. Between different beverage bottles, salad dressing, condiments, the possibilities are endless.

How to remove labels for decorating glass jars and bottles

The hardest part of these projects is getting the labels off the bottles. I like to soak them in a washing soda solution for an hour. Most food labels fall straight off. It's really the more expensive wine bottles that take forever to scrape off. If this initial soak doesn't get all the adhesive off, try sprinkling a little baking soda on and scrubbing with either a paper towel or sponge.

Simple bottle decoration ideas

I love doing a vinyl decal on a glass bottle. It is super easy and looks super cute as a stand alone objet or as a flower vase.

I made these layered vinyl decals using my Cricut cutting machine and the whole project took about 10 minutes.

I layered the vinyl colors using transfer tape. The only thing I would watch out for is the layering the colors. Some people like to place all the vinyl on the transfer tape and layer all at once. I find this confusing so I do the base layer first and then work each layer seperately.

In this example, I place the stems first and then layer the color flower heads.

Depending on the shape of your jar, you may want to break up the design and work in pieces or just transfer all at once.

Regardless, even if you make a mistake, vinyl is super easy to remove from glass. Here a quick tutorial on how to remove vinyl.

If you are interested in the templates for all the glass jar decorating ideas featured in this post, they are available for free in both SVG and printable formats in my resource library.

Creative ideas for glass jars

Beyond bottles, I have a lot of jam jars too and general small little stored jars from mustard and other random food products.

The are also super easy to work with and make for perfect seasonal decor. You don't have to feel bad about changing out something you made from materials that you were going to get rid of anyways.

Decorating jam jars

I love painting smaller jars. There is less surface area and you can do so much more with just a little bit of acrylic paint.

Here, I took a little trio of yogurt jars and painted the inside of them with some acrylic paint I got in an assorted set.

Instead of wasting an entire bottle of paint, I just squeezed a little into the jar and painted it from the inside with a brush.

Because of the wide mouth, not only is it each to reach with any paint brush, it also dries really fast and you can add another layer of paint to make the whole jar more opaque.

I love working with acrylic paint, I just rinse the brush while the paint is still wet and then dry it with a paper towel and move on to the next color.

I added a cute gold vinyl decal to the outside and now I've turn 3 jars I was going to recycle anyways into something cute for my window sill.

My daughter is super curious about plants and flowers these days so I think I will use these to sprout some chamomile seeds for her.

If you are willing to use a little more paint, this same method could be applied to wine bottles. However, because of the narrow spout, you will just need to pour the paint in (in excess) and wait for it to coat. Here is a more detailed tutorial on painting wine bottles.