palm trees optional

many challenge sites invite you to think outside the box, but this week at shopping our stash we're thinking "out of the jar!" what does that mean? let's consult the official SOS blurbage for clarification, shall we?

Challenge 190: Out of the Jar 

Use any product that came in a jar 

(flower soft, glitter, perfect pearls, embossing powder, etc) 

OR 

Use a jar image 

(stamped, drawn, cut from patterned paper, etc)  

OR

Decorate an actual jar

there's a lot of scope here, right? yeah, you can definitely come up with something fab and i can't wait to see it! meanwhile, having withstood an especially wintery week here in the northeastern united states, this is what i made:

aloha jar painted on strathmore paper with artist loft watercolors, outline in black XS faber castell pitt pen; sunglasses constructed by printing out a clipart image, stapling it to several layers of patterned paper and handcutting the parts; patterned papers: basic grey, american crafts, my mind's eye, echo park; glossy white and black cardstock: paper accents; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

when i saw this week's theme, my first idea was to use one of the uber-cute mason jars from american crafts' dear lizzy neapolitan line, which i still totally love. unfortunately, none of the ones i had left were quite right for the card i wanted to make for my father-in-law's birthday. eventually, looking at the shape and style of the jars, with their sort of naive watercolor goodness, i started wondering if i could possibly draw or paint something that might work? i fiddled around in my sketchbook, drawing mason jar shapes and potential contents for them, and actually managed to come up with two ideas* i liked enough to make a "real" version of:

the thing that bothered me about the first few jars i drew was the fact that they weren't symmetrical enough; because whereas i think you can get away with the contents being a bit wonky and cute, the jar kinda needs to look right. so here's a shocking true confession for you: to get a good solid foundation for the rest of the drawing, i cut out one of the jars from the dear lizzy paper and traced around it in pencil on my watercolor paper. cheating?? sure! but then, so is using a compass to make the center of the sun a perfect circle, and printing out a clipart image to use as a template for the sunglasses. why not use the right tools to make a job easier and more fun? then you can move more quickly to the "good parts"... like painting palm trees and choosing papers! :)

speaking of fun, i happen to know there are some awesome "out of the jar" cards awaiting you at SOS... why not hop on over and check those out right now?!

*yes, the other finished jar, containing "lots of love" will definitely get used on something in future, not to worry, you'll be seeing that again for sure! :)