How to Make Pretty Lids for Old Jars

Here’s how to make pretty lids for old jars, so you can upcycle them for homemade food gifts, craft organizing, and office storage.

In my office space, I have lots of different ways that I store office and craft supplies. I have inexpensive clear plastic boxes for some things. I have a wire basket that holds neatly folded fabric remnants and I have flower pots that hold everything from glue guns to hole punches. One of my other favorite storage solutions is recycling glass jars that might normally be thrown away – particularly those with designs in them, like Mason jars.

I like to make the lids of these recycled jars a bit prettier before using them. Two common ways I do this is by either spray painting them or by covering them with fabric. But there is another method I have started using that has become my new favorite way: decorating jar lids with digital scrapbooking paper. I was inspired by this post at Design Sponge and I figured it could probably be done with digital scrapbooking paper — and it can!

Here’s how to do it:

First, you’ll want a clean and dry jar. I’m using a small mason jar that used to hold Classico Pesto Sauce.

Measure the diameter of your lid. Add an extra 1.5 – 2 inches to your measurement  to accommodate the side of the lid and enough so that it will fold over inside of the lid. My lid was 2.5″, so mentally I added 1.5″ and knew that my paper needed to be at least a 4″ square. If your lid has a “taller” edge, you might need to add more than 2″.

In Photoshop or your favorite photo editing software (even PicMonkey), open a digital scrapbooking paper that you want to use (you could also use regular scrapbooking paper) and resize the paper close to your final measurement. I resized my scrapbook paper to 4×4″.

Printed out your resized digital scrapbook paper and collect the rest of your supplies: your clean glass jar, a pencil, scissors, Mod Podge and a brush to apply the Mod Podge.

Flip your scrapbook paper over so that the back is facing upwards. With a pencil, trace the lid. Then, find another round object in my home that is just slightly larger than your lid (I used a small bowl) and trace that to make a second larger ring around your tracing of your lid. The key here is to make sure that the space between the smaller ring and the larger ring is large enough so that you will be able to cover the edge of the lid, plus have a bit extra to fold down inside of the lid.

Cut along the outer/larger circle shape. I actually cut around this circle a bit larger as you can see in my photo below because I wanted to make sure I have enough to cover. Then, cut slits from the outside edge just to the inside circle, spacing them about 1/4″ apart.

Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to the very top of the jar lid and place the glued lid top directly down onto the backside of the scrapbook paper you just cut out, directly in the center of that inside circle. Carefully smooth the paper. Then, with your brush, apply a small amount of Mod Podge to several of the strips.  Working clockwise, begin covering the edge of the jar lid with each individual strip – one by one. As you work, each strip is slightly overlapping the previous one so that there is no gaps.

TIP: while you are doing this, keep a clean cloth nearby to wipe your fingers as often as possible to keep them clean and free of Mod Podge. You have to do a lot of smoothing of the paper and it’s important that your fingers are clean.

The underside of your lid should look something like this after you have finished gluing all the strips.

And the top of your lide will look something like this.

If you wish, you can give your lid a final coat of Mod Podge to seal it and make it more durable.

When the lid is completely dry, it can be used for anything that needs a container.

 My favorite ways to use my recycled jars is for homemade food gifts, craft organizing, and office storage…how will you use yours??

(I used a digital scrapbooking paper from RSVP Maxi Kit by Erica Hite)