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I mentioned a few days ago that I would be sharing some of the projects that I worked on for the vintage market last weekend. It was really interesting to see what was popular with customers and what wasn’t. For example, I was really surprised that I did not sell more than a few of my French Flower Pots… they had such a positive response on the blog and I didn’t feel like I had overpriced them, but they just didn’t sell.

My mason jar soap dispensers, on the other hand, were by far the hottest items around. They literally flew off the shelves – in fact I sold all of them except one (which is now in my bathroom). I had two different styles: some were painted in heirloom white with a gloss finish and black lid/pumps; and some were the same color, but I used sand paper to distress the paint in areas, especially around the wording on the front of the jars.

I personally liked the distressed ones myself, but was actually expecting the nice “shiny” ones to be the big sellers. NOPE. Everyone loved the distressed ones! In fact, I ended up borrowing some sand paper from Claudine over at Condensed Home Love when I ran out of the distressed ones, and went outside and quickly sanded the glossy ones and brought them back to my booth. I sold two more after this!

A few of you asked about making them so here’s a quick tutorial:

Materials You Will Need:

  • large or small mason jars
  • spray paint (colors of your choice – I like the contrast of the black and ivory).
  • Drill with small and large drill bits (I used 13/64 & 3/8).
  • Soap Pump Dispensers (from a used soap bottle, or you can buy individual ones at some craft stores). I wanted black ones and I found them at this adorable little store The Soap Dispensary on Main Street in Vancouver.
  • silicone sealant (I used )

First I spray painted the jars (upside down first) with Rustoleum Heirloom White (gloss). I used about 3 coats, turning them right side up after the second coat. I spray painted the lids using Rustoleum black (gloss).

When the paint was dry, I screwed the lids onto the jars and took a small drill bit and while holding the jar with one hand drilled a small hole into the center of each jar (prior to this I marked the center of the lid with a sharpie). After the small holes were drilled, I used the largest drill bit I had (3/8) and drilled through where the smaller hole was. Now, depending on the width of the base of your soap dispenser, you may need to use pliers to pull back some more of the lid to make the hole a little larger. I had to make mine a little larger, and this was not hard to do at all. Using needle nose pliers, I pulled back a little (from the inside) at a time and kept checking to see if it was JUST big enough to shove the pump through. You don’t want to make the whole too big, because you want a tight fit around the dispenser. Once it’s inserted you can use your silicone sealant around the inside base of the pump. Let it dry 24 hrs before use. The sealant I used is called RTV 108 – it’s a translucent high performance adhesive (silicone).

One last piece of advice is to trim your dispenser (tube) so that it almost touches the bottom of the jar when fully inserted.I think I’d like to try making some aqua ones next with black lids….

Sharing at the parties listed here as well as:

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