DIY Mason Jar Nursery Lamp
I am so excited to share this project, it just turned out SO cute! Matching mason jars and one of them is a night light for your nursery. I love these little personal touches, made with love, that I can use in the nursery and it will grow with them too!
To get started, here's what you will need:
Mason Jars (I used 32 oz for the lantern and a 16 oz for the plaid, neither are wide mouth).
Mason Jar LED lid attachment and handle. The light has a little button on top so you can turn it on and off easily, what a great idea!
Vinyl and transfer paper for cutting your stencil. I used my Cricut. If you don't have access to a cutting machine, you can hand cut something simple or you can always use stickers from the craft store!
Chalk Paint (I LOVE the colors offered by FolkArt)
Tape (any kind about 1/2" - 3/4" thick, I used regular Scotch tape, painters tape would be best)
Sandpaper, any kind will do
Two 10" squares of fabric and twine if you want to add that to the top
Pine Cones to fill your light (depending on how much light you want to show through)
I've added the stencil file for your night light jar, a sweet camping scene with trees that wrap around. You can access the files in our FREE PRINTABLE LIBRARY:
Go ahead and cut that out, I used transfer paper to transfer it to my larger jar. Be sure to press all the edges down and peel out all the little details! Once it's smoothly around the jar, you can start painting.
I really wanted the rustic look of chalk paint, but this meant a TON of layers! I added the light to the lid and would check it in the dark after every layer. You want to get to the point where you are not seeing a lot of brush marks.
This will take awhile, be sure to let each coat dry thoroughly in between and DON'T take the stencil off until you are 100% on the paint (patience, my friend!).
In between coats of paint, let's get started with the plaid jar.
Start with painting the whole thing your b ase color (mine was the sage green). Since this jar will NOT have a light in it, you only need a couple coats.
Once the base coats are sufficiently dry (don't rush it or the tape you are about to apply will peel it off!), you will add vertical tape around the whole jar, once it's covered you can remove every other piece to paint in your contrast color. I did two or three coats and then let that dry.
Now you can remove all the vertical tape and you should have some vertical stripes! Go ahead and do the same thing, but this time running the tape horizontally. Again, remove every other strip and add the same color paint. You will be crossing over your vertical stripes for that sweet plaid look!
Your final step to giving them that rustic look is to use your sand paper and add some details. For the smaller plaid jar, I scuffed it up a lot along the top and bottom, along some of the words, and then on the dark blue where the stripes don't cross, just to make it look more plaid-ish!
Now for the lantern jar you will want to be more careful, since you did all the hard painting to make it opaque! I scuffed out some large patches along the top and bottom (where the paint was pretty solid) because I knew the light would shine through there and be really pretty. You can do more or less depending on how much light you want coming through. I did NOT do a lot of light scuffed patches, I didn't want to ruin the paint job!
Finally, I traced a circle on the fabric squares and cut them out with my pinking shears (for that country look!), place these under the rings before screwing them on and you are almost there! Final step is that sweet little twine bow and some pine cones inside:)
Well IĀ hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, tag me in some pics of your work! Also, if you are loving this project, don't forget to check out our entire Camping Nursery collectionš
P.S. Get tons of inspo for your Happy Camper nursery over on the Pinterest Board:)
