If you’re not so into preserving food or making jam, you may feel that you don’t have a use for any mason jars you have in your home. Not so! Mason jars have the ability to bring a number of personalized looks into your living space.
Exploring mason jar ideas can be a bit of a rabbit hole, if only because these tools are so versatile!
Try your hand at some of the projects outlined below and see just how far your creativity can get you – and your mason jars.
Contents
Mason Jar Craft Ideas
Night Lights and Lanterns
Want to change the way you light up a room? Make use of any mason jars you have around the house and bring a new kind of look into your living spaces.
Anxious kids can find themselves fascinated at night by mason jar night lights that will scare away the monsters that live under their beds, and your friends can ogle at your personalized lamp stands or deck lights when they come to visit.
This sort of DIY mason jar craft does require a little bit of wire work on your part. So long as you purchase the right sort of parts for your lamp (fairy lights, for example, or candelabra sockets along with a plug, clicker switch, and light bulb) you’ll be set to focus on the design of your individualized light in no time at all.
Candle Holders
If you know anything about candle making, then you’ll understand the popularity of mason jars with practitioners of the craft.
Mason jars make excellent candle holders, whether you’re placing a tea light in the center of a personalized jar or if you’re pouring the wax yourself.
Should you choose to make your own candle, you’ll want to experiment with your preferred type of wax, as well as its coloring, the length of your wick, and the essential oil you want to mix into your candle.
Beyond all of that, you’ll also want to ensure that your mason jar is sturdy enough to take on all of that hot wax.
The glass of your mason jar needs to be reasonably thick in order to stand up to all of that heat; glass that’s too thin won’t be sturdy enough to survive the initial pour of the wax, let alone sustained use of a candle and its flame.
Once you’ve checked and ensured that your mason jar has thick enough glass to serve as a proper candle holder, you can melt your wax and mix in the colors and smells that you prefer.
The real work of candle making is more complex than we want to get into here, but the opportunity is always available to you, should you find yourself in the mood to explore different mason jar crafting ideas.
Birdfeeders
Mason jar DIY projects can be good for more than decorating the inside of your home, though. With a little bit of elbow grease, you can use your mason jars to spruce up your yard, both by adding a pop of color and by drawing more birds to your windows!
The materials you’ll need to make your own mason jar bird feeder will vary on how rustic you want the feeder to look and how secure you want the feeder to be.
For a hanging mason jar bird feeder, you’ll want to wrap a firm length of twine or comparable string around the base and throat of your mason jar.
The bottom of the jar will end up facing skyward, whereas the throat of the jar will connect with the base of your feeder.
This base can be made of anything – a tray you don’t use anymore, an old kitchen plate, the base of a different bird feeder, or a chicken feeder – so long as you firmly secure it to the mason jar.
You want to leave enough space between the jar and its base to let a small amount of seed escape, but not enough that you lose the bird feeder’s purpose.
Once you have your jar tied up, flip it over so the base is on a table and fill the jar with bird seed. Then, either tie your tray, upside down, to the open throat of the bird feeder, or secure an equally-sized, attachable base to the jar’s opening.
Once you’ve ensured that your base is steady, carefully flip the jar over and give the mason jar a gentle twist.
If a small amount of birdseed escapes from the jar, then you’re all set to go outside and hang the feeder in perfect view of your front windows. If more seed escapes than you planned (or if no seed comes out at all) play with the set-up between your jar’s throat and your chosen base.
Don’t be afraid to fiddle with your work! DIY jar crafts are, after all, all about learning how to take on different projects on your own.
Cupcake Holders
Baking in mason jars isn’t especially advised, but you can still make use of your mason jars in order to present your baked goods in creative ways!
Mason jar cupcake holders, presented at an afternoon brunch or at your child’s birthday party, will enthrall your guests and make them question you enthusiastically about your inspiration.
These jars don’t come into play until the after you’ve baked yourself a batch of cupcakes – or, rather, sheets of lovely cake.
Once you’ve baked the type of cake you like best and have secured your favorite type of icing, you’ll want to make use of a mason jar lid in order to stamp out slices of cake that will fit perfectly into your waiting mason jars.
By alternating layers of cake and layers of icing within your mason jar, you’ll be able to present your visitors with a well measured and stylized dish from which they can indulge in a sweet (and pretty) treat.
Wedding Centerpieces
You can also take advantage of mason jar decoration ideas when preparing for your – or a friend’s – special day.
Weddings are exceptionally expensive, so being able to work on a project for the wedding solo is not only creative, but it can be a financial relief. As such, you can use any mason jars you have available to you in order to make reception table centerpieces!
These centerpieces can be as original or stylized as you like. You’ll want to have a hot glue gun on hand, though, no matter how you decide to decorate your centerpieces.
Consider some of your options. If you want a look that’s more elegant, you can hot glue small, faux pearls to the rim of your mason jar along with a gold-trimmed name card that contains your and your partner’s last name written in elegant script.
All you’ll have to do is place a tea light in the center, and your reception tables will be as lovely as you please.
If you want a look that’s a little more down to earth, take the simple route and wrap a bow of twine around the rim of your mason jar. Fill the jars with water and flowers you picked yourself, and you’ll be set for a relaxed and romantic reception.
The design of the centerpieces are entirely up to you and is limited, as such, only by your imagination!
Plant Pots
If you’re living in an apartment, then your space, in general, is going to be limited. Your counter space, unless you get especially lucky, is probably non-existent.
As such, if you’re the type of person who has a green thumb, you’ll want to take up as little room as possible with the herbs and plants that you want to use in the kitchen. That’s where your mason jar décor can come in handy!
The jar’s smaller sizes can still comfortably house a number of herbs that you can easily make use of in the kitchen.
Rosemary, thyme, and cilantro, among other herbs, can all be grown from seeds in mason jars, or they can be transplanted from the outdoors or the plastic containers provided by your local hardware store.
This aesthetic, indoor farm will not only bring fresh smells and tastes into your kitchen, but it will ensure that the look of your home is just a little bit greener.
Take care, though, to set up a drainage system for your herbs, or to at least monitor their watering carefully!
Mason jars without holes in their bottoms may retain a little too much water for your herbs’ comfort. Move forward carefully, though, and you and your plants should grow healthily together.
Here’s a video showing an example of a mason jar planter.
Soap Dispenser
Let’s say you want to change the style of your bathroom. The plastic soap containers you can find at Walmart or your local supermarket might not cut it when placed against your new style. So, obviously, you’ll have to design soap dispensers of your own!
The nice thing about mason jar crafts is that you can always integrate your personal design choices into the work as well as into any room.
Much like with the aforementioned wedding centerpieces, you’ll want to make use of a nearby hot glue gun to add any fun embellishments.
Alternatively, take your jar out into the backyard and cover it with paint primer, followed by your favorite color of paint. Once the jar has dried, you can take it back inside, fill it with soap, and then screw on a specialized mason jar lid, soap pump included.
Lids of this type can be found at any arts and crafts or fabric store, and they come in handy when you’re looking to make the style of your bathroom more unique to you.
Here’s a video showing an example of a mason jar soap dispenser.
Do you have any other mason jar craft ideas?
