Decorating honey pots by Karen

We are in jam making season and, for beekeepers, August is also the time to collect the summer honey. With a busy month ahead, I harvested early this year as the bees have already produced more than I need for family and friends and I like to leave plenty for the bees to enjoy and to ensure healthy colonies going in to winter. Of course, jars need labels and decorating! This month on the blog we are celebrating autumn colours, which also makes me think of harvesting from nature, so I combined these to decorate my pots.

I used quite delicate papers - sheets of printed sticky back labels and tissue paper - so I didn't want to use too much water on them. To avoid spraying these papers with water, I mixed the Brusho Crystal Colours Sandstone, Gamboge and Burnt Sienna with water on a craft mat and used a wide brush to paint them in rough diagonal stripes on to the label sheets.

I sprinkled and sprayed the same colours on the craft mat and then spread the tissue paper across it, mopping up the colours randomly and repeating until the paper was well covered and then I hung it over a chair to dry.

To add a touch of luxury I printed a texture stamp randomly across the tissue paper and around the text on my labels using the Aztec gold paint.

 Little bees were then stamped all over the tissue paper with brown ink.

I traced round a bowl to then cut out circles to top the jars, tied with a length of raffia.

Do you like the finished handmade look? It would be easy to repeat these effects in different colours and with fruit or flower stamps for jars of jam or other pots. I think deep reds with the gold paint would be gorgeous too.

Golden haired nylon brushes

15g brusho

Aztec Metallic paints

UPDATE: The metallic paints and several other great products are in the overstock promotion this month, ending on 31st August: You'll find the promotions here:   https://www.colourcraftltd.com/specialoffers