I really wanted to use lots of candles for my Moroccan diner and therefore I was in need of beautiful votives for my decor.
As I love a good craft project combined with some Goodwill finds (!) I decided to transform small little clear glass jars into Oriental Lanterns !!!
I followed this very easy
tutorial from
LilyShop using food coloring mixed with Mod Podge (which was perfect because of course I already had those on my craft shelves !!).
But here is was the tutorial doesn't say:
- It really takes FOREVER to dry ! After a whole day in the warm California weather, most of the jars were still a horrible opaque color. Please be patient, because the result is worth it and it won't look good until it is completely dry (it took well over two days in the end).
- Place the upside down jars over a rack so the Mod Podge can run out and air can flow in and start drying the inside of the jars. (Mod Podge is easily removed with hot water so don't worry about the rack, you'll be able to clean it!)
- Let your jars upside down for as long as possible. I turned some of them up after a couple of hours but you can see some of the top edges are not fully covered. The colored Mod Podge ran back down leaving some top edges uncovered.
- For the gold designs, I used some Gold Puffy Paint meant for fabric (Tulip Metallics, found at Michaels) which worked just fine and holds perfectly on glass. However, be warned that the tip end is quite big and I wasn't able to create the fine designs I was aiming for.
These are just a few things I learned through trial and error. I hope these few comments will help you through this project, it is well worth trying :)
I love my little jars and the colors are so bright I could never have found an equivalent in a store.
