DIY Faux Stained Glass Jar Lanterns

As much as I'd like to deny it, I'm a total hoarder.

In fact, I have a box in my garage that is totally full of packaging materials. I have this idea that if there's a possibility that I can turn something into some type of creative masterpiece, then I definitely shouldn't get rid of it. AND, if its something that would normally be thrown away, I get awesome triple points for saving its life and transforming it.

You all get it, right?

I know I can't be the only trash hoarding weirdo 🤪.

In this tutorial, I'm using these little glass jars that are the packaging of a regular purchase of my husband. And they kept multiplying. But I can't throw them out! They're little cute glass jars!

So here's my project on what you can do with little glass jars...or big ones should you like, but please, please give me ideas for the 50 more I have in the comments.

So, what do you need to make stained glass jars?

The materials list:

• Liquid leading or puffy paint

• Alcohol markers

• Gallery Glass medium

• Tea light

• A pattern, if needed.

• And little glass jars!...(or big ones)

Step 1:

Find or draw a pattern.

This proved to be a little tricky, for me. I ended up finding a few patterns I thought would work perfect on Pinterest. They came from this book.

1. I copied the photo from Pinterest and put it in a Goodnotes notebook page that was gridded to measure an inch when printed.

2. I measured the circumference (around) my jar.

3. I adjusted the size and cropped the pattern that I pasted in my Goodnotes notebook so it would match up at the ends for the amount of inches I had measured.

You could also just draw or wing it for your pattern.

Step 2:

Print your pattern(s) and cut them out.

Step 3:

Roll it loosely so you can put it in your jar to trace.

Step 4:

Use your fingers to loosen the pattern Ito lay flat along the sides of the jar.

You can notice in the photo below where the ends meet up and the reason for all the effort in photo manipulation.

Step 5:

Trace over the pattern with the liquid leading or puffy paint on to your jar.

I used the tea light candles to prop it so it wouldn’t roll away if my kids nudged the table while drying.

I made a few...

Step 6:

Fill in the spaces between the “leading” on your jar with alcohol markers.

Step 7:

Dab on Gallery Glass window medium over the colored glass.

Be careful to just dab it on. The color will come off with the medium so swirling it around might cause the color to be uneven.

Below, I had just done the big yellow areas to test, before I covered the whole thing.

And viola!

My little jars came with screw-on lids, but some were white and I wanted them to match, so I spray painted them:

Here are all four:

But the real cool thing about them is if you put a tea light candle in….

If it’s dark, it will cast colorful shadows in every direction!

Ooh Aah, so pretty 🥰.

Have fun making them!

And don't forget to leave a comment with more mini jar ideas!

Get the supplies on Amazon:

And if you liked this project, check out these:

Please share!