It’s autumn! Garden harvests mean dusting off the canning jars. If you have excess or jars with nicks in them, repurpose them into cute candle holders. Here’s a very easy DIY Jar Lantern tutorial for you:
I used three different sized jars: pint, quart, and gallon. The gallon jar has a nick in the rim and once lived a life as a chicken waterer. I just knew it would come in handy sometime!
For supplies I used a curtain, pieces of lace, silk flowers, ribbon, beads, and baubles. Just collect whatever you have on hand. Remember you want candlelight to filter through whatever medium you use for covering your glass. Buttons would be super cool as would burlap, pinecones, or cinnamon sticks! Pick a theme and collect.
At first I used Elmer’s glue smeared on the jar. This sort of worked but when dry will be blurry. I wanted this project to be quick as Chris said recently “we are short on T-I-M-E!” Use a hot glue gun if you have one. Super fast! Just be mindful of your fingers getting burned.
I measured and cut the lace curtain to fit the height of the gallon jar. I put a line of hot glue down the jar and wrapped the curtain around. CAREFULLY I tamped the edges to meet being cautious of my finger.
Next I measured and cut a piece of ribbon for the mouth of the jar. I secured it with a knot knowing I would be putting the silk flowers on top of my knot. You could tie a pretty bow and call it done. Because jars are tapered, there is excess lace at the top, or mouth, of my jar. (See photo below.) Tying the ribbon takes in the excess.
After cutting apart a couple plastic leaves and gluing them on, I took apart the silk flower. Here’s a photo of the pieces:
The centers are plastic and consist of the two white pieces and one yellow piece in the photo. If you picture a snap-type contraption, you’re pretty close to how these layers of silk petals are held in place. Taking the center out makes the flower lie flat, and it will adhere better. Possibly with the glue gun it won’t matter if the flower is bulky, but I wanted a more secure hold for my flower. Once the flower was glued over the knot, I WAS DONE! I’m excited to pop a candle in it tonight and see how the lace pattern filters the candle glow.
The other two jars were done in a similar fashion. The ribbon in the photo below was placed to cover where two rounds of lace overlap horizontally. Think of ribbon as your concealer!
I wanted to do a red and green jar to trigger your imagination towards holidays (Christmas).
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You could do red, white, and blue for July 4th, browns for Thanksgiving, pink and white for Easter – hey! blue for baby boy births! See? Go crazy and enjoy the process!!
