How gorgeous are these Mason jar lanterns! I’m seriously in LOVE with this summer DIY project! (Which is basically when I do all my DIY projects)
Summer… Ahhh yes, picnics, pools, lakes, farmer’s markets, BBQ’s ect. It’s Summer! One of my favorite things about summer is spending time with family and friends. I love having BBQ’s in my backyard. Mmmmm, the smell of the delicious food on the grill, the sound of the birds, the kids playing games, and a cold beverage in my hand while enjoying the company of special people. It puts such a big smile on my face!
I love when the sun goes down and you have the smell and sound of a fire crackling while being surrounded by the relaxing glimmer of light from Mason jar lanterns. Mason Jar Lanterns really add an ambiance to your get together and are always a good conversation piece! You can buy Mason jar lanterns many places, but when they are so easy and cheap to make, why not make them yourself?! You save some money and get to put your own creativity into it. 🙂
How to Make Mason Jar Lanterns
Supplies Needed
- Mason Jars
- Wire
- Filler
- Candles
- Wire Cutters
- Needle Nose Pliers
Mason Jars
- Garage sales and thrift shops are always good places to find them.
- You can also find them at craft stores, but you might pay a little more.
Wire
- Choose the wire you want to use for hanging your lantern.
- You can use stainless steel wire, copper wire, floral wire or to add a different look you can use twine floral wire .
- I like to use a little bit of a thicker wire to keep the lanterns sturdy, and I think it looks better.
- For the Mason Jars I am showing you today, I will be using a 5 ft/4 gauge braided copper wire. Each individual piece of copper wire in the braid is 12 gauge. It’s perfect for mason jar lanterns! I found it at a Hardware store for about $7.00.
Filler around candle
- You can use glass pebbles, river rock pebbles, sand, beads, or whatever you would like!
Candles
- You can use tea light candles, long thin candles or LED flameless candles. Iwill share this tip with you….the first time I made Mason Jar Lanterns, I just used small short candles that I had on hand. They looked really cute in my lanterns, however they had no glass surrounding them, so all of the wax melted into my rocks making a mess. This time I am using glass surround candles!
Wire Cutters and Needle Nose Pliers
Instructions
Alright, you are set! Let’s do this!
I am going to demonstrate with the smaller blue jar which is 9 inches in circumference, so I will be using 13 inch wire pieces. The larger jars are 11 inches in circumference, so I used 16 inch wire pieces for them.
1. Grab your needle nose pliers and make a loop on one end of the wire.
2. Wrap it halfway around the lip at the mouth of the jar and have the rest of the wire sticking straight out. Cut the wire a half inch from the jar and them make another loop.
You will be repeating what you just did on the other half of the jar. Make sure when you make your loop, you leave a little bit of an opening to connect to the other loop, then close it up with the needle nose pliers.
Now that it is all connected, we are going to connect our hanging piece.
3. Use another 13 inch piece of wire (16 if using the bigger jar) and make another loop again leaving some room to connect it to the other loop on the base. Repeat on the other side and also stretch the wire to give it a nice shape.
4. Now you just need to fill it! Pour rocks (or whatever you chose to use) in first, and then place the candle in.
There you go! Your own Mason Jar Lanterns!
One more thing I wanted to share with you!
You can also make a mason jar lantern without the hanging part. Here is one I made to sit on my mantle using an LED flameless candle. I love it!
Okay….there you go. Run with your ideas or use mine and create some mason jar lanterns!
By contributing writer Jordon
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Ede says
For those of you who have A Dollar Tree store in your area, you can find those exact river rocks in a bag for $1. And it’s a pretty generous sized bag!