Faux beach glass mason jar lanterns

This is the second installment in my Brand Ambassador role for Apartments.com. I don't know about you, but I love a good challenge. Sometimes with crafting I find myself overwhelmed with all of the possibilities, especially with my ginormous craft stash with never ending supplies. So having guidelines can be good!

This month we're focusing on budget friendly items with a summer theme. I'm not quite ready for summer to be over – are you? The good news about this project is that you'll be able to customize it beyond summer. You'll see. But before I show you how I made it, I'm wondering if you like beach glass too:

Photo by Sarah Gerke

I've seen it on the beach many times. If you didn't know (because I didn't), beach glass comes from discarded bottles, plates and other items thrown into the ocean. The sea naturally breaks, tumbles and smoothes the glass – and then it washes onto the shore. It's pretty cool and I've seen it in tons of colors; I particularly love the blues and greens.

For my project this month, I decided to mimic the look of beach glass on two mason jars and make decorative mason jar lanterns for my place. As with all of my projects for this challenge, these can be made easily inside of your home or apartment. I made mine on the kitchen counter. Here's how I made these mason jar lanterns. And I want to note that with any of the supplies, you can make some substitutions that can save you money – and will make this project practically free!

Beach Glass Mason Jar Lanterns

Gather These Supplies

• Glass jars
• Glass paint – I used Martha Stewart translucent glass paint in Surf and Beach Glass
• Acrylic paint in coordinating colors
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
• Spouncers
• Wood circles
• Doilies or other embellishments
• Ribbon
• Scissors
• Craft glue
• Paintbrushes

The first thing I did was take my jars and dab the glass paint directly on there – meaning, I put paint on the sponge and just moved the sponge up and down on the surface. It looks like there is a lot of texture, but it dries with less texture that you can see. You also might want to consider using a paper towel if you don't have spouncers. You would likely get more texture to your painting, but it would be cool!

Tip – also don't be afraid to use any recycled jars you have around the house. In any sizes!

Paint the wood circles with complimentary colors of acrylic paint. Give several coats and let dry.

Paint Dimensional Magic on top of the wood circles (Yes, you can paint it!) and let dry. I did this just to add a glossy sheen.

Add the doilies or other embellishments (definitely raid your stash for this one) to the top with craft glue and let dry.

Pick ribbon to go around the middle of your jars and trim to fit. I got this ribbon from the $1 bins of my craft store!

Glue the ribbon to the jar in the middle, and then glue the Dimensional Magic wood circles on top where the ribbon meets. Let dry.

Here are the finished jars. They are so beautiful and the texture is so cool. I just love them!

And finally, the lantern portion so that you can see how they look in the evening. Add LED lights if you are going to keep the lids on. You can use real tea lights with the lids off.

This project was inexpensive and I already had a lot of the supplies – and any budget friendly decorating project is a-okay by me. They make great gifts, too!

My friend Amanda has another method for frosting luminaries, and hers are beaded! Check them out here.

Disclosure: This post brought to you by Apartments.com. All opinions are 100% mine.