Monday, April 19, 2010

Recycled Painted Jar Lanterns


Theres nothing like a softly lit up patio in the evening for me! I love the ambiance of a flickering candle in the corner of my eye. Candle just induce a relaxing atmosphere! In an outside space, I absolutely love the look of little lanterns and votives floating around everywhere. Like the inspiration picture below.

Hanging jar lanterns by Martha Stewart

So as I'm preparing to up the cozy feel in my courtyard...I decided to take on a lil project, and recycle while I'm at it. Ready?
Like everyone else reading this(probably) I save jars. Who knows what you can do with them later, right?! So first step is to collect some jars.

Now we are going to paint them...snazzy them up a bit. So get together your supplies, Mod Podge, food coloring and, or paint. Oh and some paint brushes, and we're ready to roll.

All you do is mix some mod podge with a mixture of your choice, be it paint or food coloring, and paint, you can even water it down a bit...I think that will make the end result more translucent. ( I didn't water mine down) Check out this other tutorial at Gingerbread Snowflakes. Hers turned out very pretty!

My son and I did these together. They were fun, and quick! We just painted on like normal then tried a few different techniques to add some texture, instead of seeing just the brush strokes. We dabbed the surface with a paper towel, stippled with the brush, oooh and on one I did a swirl effect with the brush...they all turned out great.

Here they are all painted, now to wait until they dry, and I'll add some wire hangers to it for extra spunk :)


Here are some of them all lit up. eh hem please pay no attention to the candles inside... I couldn't find my stash of tealights anywhere! So I cut down some birthday candles to get the effect in the pics :)


Now for some wire play... I purchased some stainless steel 16 gauge wire ($3).


I first cut a long piece (lengths will vary depending on how wide of a mouth the jar has). And I began to wrap it around, manipulating it with needle nose pliers as I went along...

And the result.



For the handle I started with a long piece again, approx 8 inches long worked it into a "U" shape then took the pliers to the ends and and made some loops to hook onto the wire around the mouth.


And here is the finished result. How cute huh? *Beware of picture overload*


This one was inside...the lighting was all wrong, and my camera (the operator) was not working well... So I waited til morning, and did a little shoot outside :)




I have decided...you have to try this! The result is awesome...even if you don't put candles in them, place a few on your window sill and let the sun shine through them. Do a vase, to place some pretty bright white flowers in! So yeah try it and let me know how they turn out...k :)

14 comments:

Dawn said...

Oh boy do I love those jars you made! Great job!They look so pretty hanging in the garden! I will have to make me some for my shade garden! TFS

Angie said...

I LOVE that you had your son help out!!!!!! These turned out great and couldn't agree more- there is nothing better than an evening outside by candle light!!

Karen said...

yep, i do have a few (maybe 5 or 6) jars stashed for future unknown creative projects....so this will work well! i will have to try it!

Christy said...

Swinging by from Reinvented link party, and I have to stop and say...these are sooo beautiful!! I'm so glad you linked up, and shared. ;o) Now I have to go finish off about 10 jars of jelly so I can make my own. ;o)

mommy2luke2008 said...

I can not wait to try this!! They are beautiful!! I plan to put mine on top of my kitchen cabinets!!

Bobbie said...

I love it! I have a link party on saturdays that I would love for you to join
www.iamonly1woman.blogspot.com

Alicia@Thrifty And Chic said...

Those turned out great! I'm totally going to have to make some. I would never have thought to add food coloring to modpodge..who knew?

Home for 6 said...

Awesome. Thanks for sharing how you painted on the glass. I did not know how to do that.

Angie @ The Country Chic Cottage said...

I love these!! I did some but used glue instead of mod podge. Blogged them last week -- I still love em!! They are on my kitchen table right now!

Allison @ House of Hepworths said...

These are really purdy. I'm in love.

Debilou ~ Mississippi Mama said...

I have lots of huge pickle jars and just saved a few smaller jars the other night,, I knew I'd find something to do with them. Yours look great.. Cant wait to try it myself. Thanks for sharing with us.

Its So Very Cheri said...

This is going on my favs list

Cheri

⚜ ↁℯℬℬᴵℰ⚜ said...

Now those are super cool too!~ You have some great ideas Niki!

Colleen @ MuralMaker&More said...

You're absolutely right - I do have to try this. But until then, I included them in my post today on Painting Glass.

Love the colors you chose too. So soft and inviting!

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