What do you think? I am gearing up for the Arizona reception tomorrow and thought I would make a pretty, little DIY mason lantern to light the path up to our house. It was so easy, cost me next to nothing to make and looks fantastic!
I seem to be the beneficiary of old mason jars because of my love of canning food and decorating projects. Because of this I had plenty of pint size jars hanging around (lol no pun intended!) I gathered 12 of them together and filled them with sand from the outside sand box. I dropped some fresh flowers on top and added a flickering battery candle. I am sure that I could have used a flame candle, but I want to be able to clean the jars and use them again. I had the candles left over from many church activities and other receptions. They are cheap and work extremely well for most events.
So.. these little beauties ended up costing me .. $.00. Yep, thats right, absolutely NOTHING! I am a firm believer of looking around your house and using what you have. If I hadn't of had mason jars, I am sure a nice glass cup would have looked fine. No glass cup? how about a glass soda bottle? It doesn't matter. Just make do. Of course, it never hurts to go and buy some jars that can be used for free in future projects. Here is the "recipe" for these beauties:
Glass Containers
Sand or dirt or small pebbles - bottom filler
Greenery - store bought or from your garden, the neighbors garden, or an almost gone bouquet that your sweetie bought you last week, like mine:)
A real or a battery operated candle
Wire - I used beading wire, but I am sure that greenery wire or your husbands bailing wire would work fine too. Use what you have
Wire Cutters
**Fill the bottom of the jar with your sand or filler. Put the candle and the pretty stuff on top. It looks so pretty! Cut a piece of wire to about 18" and wrap it around the mouth of the jar having one end with only about 3" and the rest being about 15". Twist the 3" around the longer piece until it is good and secure. Probably 8 or 9 times.
Now here is the only even somewhat tricky part- Insert the long wire back in the circle part of the wire between the jar and the wire and then slide it around to the opposite side and twist it like the other side to make a handle for hanging.
Here is a picture of me placing the wire in the circle part of the wire so I can pull it around. It is really very very easy.
Now don't these look fantastic?! I just love how they look on the shepherds hooks:) I am so ready for tomorrow night!
Until then, Life is too too SWEET! -- Tracy
As I looked at the pattern, I noticed that it called for 8 charm packs or 280 5″ squares. From one 10″ layer cake you can get 4 -5″ squares. That would give me only 168 squares. Soooo…. I was 140 short or so. With the price of layer cakes at around $40.00, I did not want to order another stack, so I sorted through my stash and picked out some that I think work really well. (I wish I was one of those famous quilt 
bloggers who get their fabric for free, but I’m not, so I will definitely use what I have!)
I woke up ready to go again and this time just sliced the strawberries instead of adding them to a cream. The rest of the cake went along as smooth as silk. I had made the gum paste roses ahead of time which really helped. I have a few hours before the wedding so I am going to relax a few moments before I head out. I know the happy couple is going to love cutting in to this delicious white cake with strawberry filling and buttercream frosting:)
