Mason Jar Lantern Tutorial

This super simple mason jar lantern was made for my daughters birthday party.  There will be more on the party later, but for now, I wanted to show you how to make these adorable lanterns!  They are actually really simple and it took Cyan and I about a half hour to make 6 of them. 

What you need:

• Metal Awl
• Metal wire (I just used thick craft wire)
• hot glue gun (with glue)
• wire cutters
• Wide mouth mason jars (I used pints, but any wide mouth jar will do.)
• Wide mouth mason jar rings
• rice (for candle stabilizer)
• burlap fabric
• ribbon
• Extra large tea lights

How to:

1. First I punched two holes in the mason jar ring with the metal awl.

2. You don’t need to use a hammer for this bit…. just the pressure of your hand works just fine.  I punched one through one side and then eyeballed the other side and punched it through as close to directly across as I could.

3. Then I measured out 10.5 inches of craft wire and cut that with my wire cutters. 

4. I bent the very ends of the wire and stuck that through the holes in the jar ring.  Then I put a dab of hot glue on the inside of the ring and pressed the wire into it until it was hard.

5. Then I screwed the ring back onto the jar.  That was it!

To decorate:

I measured out a piece of burlap fabric 2.5 inches by 10.5 inches.  I cut it so that it was going with the grain of the fabric.  I pulled a few of the threads out to make a frilled edge on the top and bottom and wrapped the burlap around the jar, securing with a touch of hot glue (which will come right off the jar so the only sacrifice for this craft is the rings).

I tied a piece of pretty ribbon around the outside, filled the jar with 1/2 cup of rice, added a extra large tea light and was done!

Happy Crafting!