Sometimes you see an image, fall in love with it and know that you need it in your life. When you’re a crafter the good news is that you can usually always make it happen. That’s what happened with these buffalo check painted mason jars. This is an easy fall decor project that you’re also going to fall in love with. Plus, it’s really fun to make. 

I was scrollin’ online the other day, as I do when I’m avoiding the laundry, and I found these adorable Buffalo Check painted mason jars on the Hobby Lobby Blog.   Many people have steered me wrong in my life. Someone once told me that hammer pants were a good fashion choice, let’s just leave it at that. But Hobby Lobby has never steered me wrong. I go in, get what I need plus 30 other items and I leave a happy crafty camper. 

So I knew that I needed to make these buffalo print mason jars because if Hobby Lobby tells you to do something, you do it. 

How to Make Buffalo Print Painted Mason Jars

The first step, of course, is to paint a base color coat on mason jar. 

Because I knew I was going to lightly sand these, I wanted to use chalk paint but I didn’t have any white chalk paint or the ingredients to make chalk paint. 

However I did have baking soda. You can add a very small amount of baking soda to paint to give it a chalky finish. Baking soda will also give the paint a little bit of a gritty finish unless you stir it really well. I really liked the grittier surface so I added about half a teaspoon of baking soda to my paint before painting the jars.

Once my base coat was dry, I stuck my hand way up in that jar (because it makes it easier to hold), and started to paint the stripes. If you want perfect strips, use washi tape or painter’s tape to make stripes before you start to paint. 

I am not a precise person and for me, I usually prefer a whimsical, slightly off-kilter look. It matches my life. So I just free handed lines and I think it worked out well for my own personal tastes. 

If you want perfectly straight lines, tape off your stripes first. 

Once the vertical stripes were dry, I made horizontal stripes using the same color of blue paint. Then you let those stripes dry. 

Once your horizontal and vertical stripes in the same color are dry, you go back and make squares where the two lines cross of a slightly darker color. 

The darker square is what changes the jar from just regular plaid to a buffalo check. 

Once both jars are dry, it’s time to go back and lightly sand the jars to bring out some details. I found that if you follow the directions of the lines with the sand paper it really gives it a fabric texture appearance. 

Tip : I used extra fine sand paper but it was a new sheet and was still taking off more paint than I wanted. To make the sand paper more gentle, use scissors to scrape some of the gritty sand texture off of the sand paper .

Once the jars were lightly sanded, I topped each one with a little jute twine and one leaf I made using terracotta air dry clay. 

The reddish color of the leaf goes really well next to the blue buffalo check.

If you didn’t know, one of my favorite colors is mustard yellow. So of course what goes better with blue buffalo check and an orangy-red leaf than mustard yellow? 

I love how they turned out. It’s a great pop of color that brings out the traditional red and yellows of fall decor. 

What do you think? Will you be making these buffalo check mason jars? 

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