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faux beach glass mason jars
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4.67 from 6 votes

Faux Sea Glass Jars

Learn how to make glass look like sea glass in this easy project.
Prep Time15 minutes
Active Time1 hour 30 minutes
Dry Time6 hours
Total Time7 hours 45 minutes
Yield: 2 lanterns
Cost: $12

Equipment

Materials

Instructions

  • Wash the jars with mild soap and water or use rubbing alcohol; let dry.
  • Dab glass paint directly onto the mason jars with a sponge or spouncer. You're going to put a little bit of paint on the sponge end, press it to the glass, and pull up.
    Repeat this motion up and down. Work your way around the jars until they are completely covered. Let dry.
    Spouncing blue frosted glass paint on to the outside of a mason jar
  • Paint the wood circles with complimentary colors of acrylic paint. Give several coats and let dry.
    Painting wood circles in light blue and light green
  • Add the doilies or other embellishments to the tops with Mod Podge and let dry.
    Placing small lace doilies on top of wood circles
  • Pick ribbon to go around the middle of the jars and trim to fit.
    Variety of blue ribbon
  • Glue the ribbon to the jar in the middle, and then glue the wood circles on top where the ribbon meets. Let dry.
    Add LED lights if you are going to keep the lids on. You can use real tea lights with the lids off.
    Gluing a wood circle to a jar frosted with glass paint

Notes

You have a few options for paint - mixing Mod Podge and paint is NOT one of them. You need a frosted paint to make the beach glass effect. Jars painted with paint and Mod Podge or food coloring and Mod Podge look like this. They don't look frosted.
The options you have for paint are as follows:
  • Find a frosted glass paint in the color of your choice (which is sometimes hard to find)
  • Add paint or food coloring to frosted top coat glass paint
  • Add paint or food coloring to frosted Gallery Glass
  • Frosted glass spray paint (but you can't dye it!)
When you add paint or food coloring to the frosted paint, you'll use about 4 - 6 drops. Do a small test on a piece of glass (you can scrape it off before it completely seals). You can always add more color but you can't take it away.