This weekend I am helping host a bridal shower for my soon to be sister-in-law. You may remember I shot their Engagement Pictures last month and now it’s time to shower the bride. Since my brother-in-law is also in the Air Force we are celebrating by doing the shower in red, white, and blue! I whipped up this Mason Jar Flag set and I’m sharing it just in time for Labor Day! I know I’ve seen these around blogland and I’ve wanted to make them for awhile! This was a perfect excuse to tackle the project and I wanted to share how I made them today! Let the tutorial begin…..

I started with some basic pint size mason jars. I happen to have a very large stash leftover from a baby shower that I hosted.

I decided to use Plaid’s Home Decor Chalk paint for this project. Chalk paint is just so easy to use for projects like this (in my opinion). I used White Adirondack to paint all three mason jars, this acted as the first layer of paint for each jar. Each jar got a couple coats.

Once the white was dry I took two of the jars to be the “stripes”. I used Frogtape to create the lines I wanted for the stripes. When the tape was on the way I wanted it, I painted over the tape with the white paint again to avoid bleeding paint.

For the jar with the stars I didn’t want to do any freehand or stamped stars, I am too much of a perfectionist for that. So I cut out a bunch of vinyl stars with my Silhouette.

I places the stars all over the “star” jar and them painted over the vinyl with white paint (again to avoid bleeding paint).

When the white paint was dry it was time to add the blue and red. I used Imperial and Nautical Chalk paint. It took a couple coats to get the coverage I wanted.

After the paint dried I removed the Frogtape and the vinyl stars. Overall both the tape and vinyl did a great job preventing paint bleeding, even in areas that were raised on the mason jars.

I used my sanding block to distress the jars, hitting the high and raised points mostly. One of the things that is so great about chalk paint is it distresses so wonderfully.

In the end, once all the jars were distressed, I sprayed on a clear protective coat.

I am so happy with the way these Mason jar Flags turned out! I was actually quite nervous about how these would turn out….with all the curves and raised spots I thought there was no way that all the lines would turn out well. However it all came out great!

These would be perfect holding your cutlery for a party or flowers in your home. My little beauties are off to the bridal shower this weekend!

I hope you love the Mason Jar Flag as much as I do and hopefully my tutorial will help you tackle the project yourself!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Looking for more ideas for your Labor Day decor? Check out all this patriotic goodness here……