Teams Win!!!

I get really excited when Amazing Boyfriend decides he wants to help out with one of my projects. I like it even more when he doesn't procrastinate (like with my birdhouses... one day it will happen). 
 

Awhile back on a link party, I found this post on Catch A Falling Star where Star turned sauce jars into beautiful luminaries with some glass paint and some wire. The results were beautiful and I added it to my Pinterest projects board (BTW, you can find me here). That same day, I found this post on The Modern Homemaker Files, where she used a garden solar light and made a very cute beachy solar light jar. Of course, I added this project as well, because it's adorable. 
 

I shared these projects with ABF and he got really excited about combining the two ideas to make some lights to sit outside on our little patio area. This idea gained momentum when my Aunt Barb sent home over 40 wide mouth mason jars, which would be perfect to use for this project (and free, you all should know how much I love free!) ABF would take care of the solar light portion of the project and leave the decorating of the jars to me. 

I headed to Michael's, 25% off coupon in hand, to find the glass paint that Star used on her painted luminaries. I found it in a variety of colors, but chose turquoise, orange and green. 

I took my clean mason jars and painted the outside. I dabbed the paint on instead of brushing it on so that I didn't leave streaks. I'm very pleased with the dabbing technique because it gave the jar a mottled effect. 

The hardest part was letting the jars dry for 24 hours. But I followed the directions on the label and waited 24 hours before I baked my jars. Bake for 40 minutes at 325 degrees.Make sure you turn your vent fan on, because they will smoke some while they are baking.

After letting them cool down, it was time to put them together with the solar light lids and ABF fashioned. I'd show you how he did it, but I was outside painting and not realizing that he was putting them together. Basically, he took the top with the solar panel off and glued it to the band of the mason jar. When the glue (I think he used JB Weld) was done setting, he reattached the light casing. 

Then it was just a case of screwing the lid onto the jars. 

Awesome, right? 


ABF was a little disappointed because the green jar didn't look as green lit up, and the turquoise one looked a much darker blue. I painted two coats when I painted them so maybe next time I'll only paint one. And yes, two of the solar lights have bronze metal and only one has the silver. ABF bought them without me and he grabbed two of the ones that he liked the best, not thinking that the mason jar bands are silver, not bronze. But I still think they turned out really cool. A nice little edition to our little patio. 






I'm sharing this project at the following link parties: