Repurposed: Glass Jars make lovely lanterns.

[beldarin]

Easy as pie, don't chuck your jam/sauce/baby food jars in the recycling, wash em, dry em and paint em!
you can use specialist glass paints from an art & craft shop, you can use regular poster paint with some pva glue added (though these will need to be repainted next year), you can use left over gloss paint, yes, even white! Don't fancy paint? You can stick on stickers, get the kids to do it.
If your great at art, they'll look fantastic, if your not great at art, they may still look fantastic, if not, so what?!?!

When they are dry, hang them from the trees, sit them on the wall, arrange them artfully in groups on the patio! If you want to hang them, use fairly strong wire, round tightly round the neck and looped up for a handle ,use way more wire than you think u need, and curl the ends into springy spirals. I'm going to hang some from nails hammered into an ugly concrete wall. Add a tea light to each one, and sit back in the evening and bask in your friends admiration. ;-)

If you leave them out they may fill up with rainwater, so add a tiny drop of bleach so they don't grow too much algae,

Here are some I made with my daughter and her friends, aged 4 - 8

[Mickey]

Brilliant idea! So cute and such a fun activity for kids to be involved in - even a great activity for a birthday party ....

You get bottles of 'lead lining' (like the old stained glass windows) in silver, pewter, grey, black and even white and you also get stickers in the same colours which you fill in with glass paints, so for those of us with less than a lttle artistic bent can have a good go as well :oD. Definitely a fun group activity.

Maybe when all the kids are at school then the moms/dads/grans/guardians etc. can get together for a coffee morning and make a few of their own :o). Great little community activity as well :o). Suggest to our kids' schools as a fundraiser coffee morning activity ...?

Fabulous beldarin - well done!

[Narizota]

I love them hanging in the tree! I'll bet they look great at night when lit :)

Great idea,Beldarin!

[beldarin]

Yeah, they are lovely at night, like fireflies twinkling, not that we've had many evenings outside lately!

I forgot to add:

If you are concerned about burning your tree branches, make the wire handle quite long, and strip away any dry twigs, though if you light them and feel the branch after a while, you'll probably find they are not all that hot.

[Stuarty]

We have similar in our garden (scouts get the credit for ours) but be careful with the bleach sometimes the birds drink from ours and they might get poisoned. Maybe just keep the lids handy??

[Fries-With-That]

These are beyond brilliant, I've been looking at the jars that we send for recycling for ages and have been wondering what use I could put them to myself.

I save some of the smaller ones for screws and little bits and bobs in the tool shed but now I can make lanterns that can compete with anything available to buy.

Hi ho hi ho its off to the craft shop I go........ :):)

[Bettybooboopbedoop]

Great idea, i think i'll try some of these for next summer, i hope we're going to get one. They would look lovely.

[unapam]

I love them and am going to have a go. Thanks for the idea!

[Tootsie]

They are just lovely! I have been collecting glass jars for a while, I hate to throw them out. Will use this idea, thanks.

(Love the big tree, too!)

[Stuarty]

Here another idea for repurposing glass jars


http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/...org_2008_09_01

[unapam]

Jars also make neat button containers and no crafter should be without a stash of old buttons! I finished it off with a scrap of fabric and a hair elastic.

[beldarin]

So Cute! I love the jaunty little lid!
I never thought of doing that, and for years I've had a jar brimming with mixed beads, which is a nightmare if knocked over, doh!

[jenniferc]

Im always looking for something new to do with my daughter...she is going to love this. Brillant beyond brillant idea..well done

[Tootsie]

Same here, JenniferC

And won't they look lovely in the garden.

I have some very small glass yogurt pots which I hung off myRussian Vine last Summer (didn't bother this Summer, they would have filled with rain!)

I think I'll paint them with my 7 year old daughter. She'll be so proud of them!

[Tootsie]

Oops, thought you were talking about the painted glass jars!

Here are the little jars I hung on the trellis on my Russian Vine. I'll paint them before the Summer...