mason jar lamps! crafty friday, 7.12

Try to contain your disappointment, but instead of Link Friday this week, I'm giving you something a little different!

When doing dishes the other morning, I recognized the need for a light over my kitchen sink. Inspired by the approximately 4,000 DIY mason jar lamp pins on Pinterest, I decided to make my own. I followed the guide from Everyday Family to make mine, since it doesn't require the use of cutting tools. 


The entire project took maybe an hour to complete, from getting the idea in the morning while loading the dishwasher, to spray painting at lunch and completing the rest of the assembly after work. And I'm completely satisfied with how the light turned out! In full disclosure, I always have grand craft ideas, fueled even further these days by Pinterest. The problem is that my execution rarely ever lives up to my ideas, and I'm left with kind of mediocre crafts. (At least I don't have this problem in my cooking!) But this project actually may be one of my best Pinterest craft successes.

So, if you want to make your own, here's how I did it!



My first step was to grab a mason jar (given to me by my boss) that was sitting in a cabinet in my kitchen, and my can of spray paint from previous random craft projects. 



I set down some junk mail on my patio and spray spray sprayed the rim and lid of the mason jar, leaving the jar itself alone. Then I went back to work and let the paint dry in the amazing Louisiana humidity.



After work, I grabbed a pendant light kit and light bulb I was using for another crafted lamp over my desk (sorry desk, I'll replace it all soon!) and placed the screw part on the lid to find the (almost) middle. Then I traced the circle. I also grabbed a hammer and a nail.


And then I just hammered the nail on my circle line, one dot at a time. Here's a hint, don't use a tiny nail, just for annoyance purposes. This was probably the most time-consuming step in the entire project, and my hand started to hurt from holding the tiny nail in place for all the holes.


939284 nail holes later...


Once I had all the holes done in step 5, I had to figure out how to punch the circle out. The tutorial from Everyday Family used scissors to cut it out, and also suggested pliers. Well, this girl didn't get that fancy. Instead, I took the nail and either punched more holes, or put the nail in the existing holes and wiggled back and forth until the spaces between snapped apart. Wiggle wiggle wiggle! Once I had most of the circle separated, I took the hammer and finished the job. It was fun!

You are going to have super rough edges. I attempted to file them down with a handsaw. And by attempted, I tried once and it didn't work well so I left it alone. It'll be fine...enough.


After that, I decided to wrap jute around the rim part, totally covering up my spray paint job. Some jute and some superglue, and five minutes later, you have a covered rim. Totally optional of course, or you could use other kinds of ribbon or little jewels or magazine pages, etc. GO NUTS! Or don't. I mean, you don't have to. It's cool.


PUT IT ALL TOGETHER 'CAUSE YOU ARE DONE! Place the light socket kit in the hole of the mason jar lid, and put the rim on top. Then screw in your lightbulb and screw the whole shebang to the mason jar. And then hang it up wherever you wish! Oh and by the way, somewhere in this process, I ended up spray painting the light kit top to match the lid. It looks way nicer like that.

And because I already had every piece of this, this project was free dollars. The best kind!


The one thing I failed to do from the tutorial I followed is punch holes for air to escape through the lid to avoid overheating. Though I'm using a 9-watt CFL light bulb and the light is only for when I'm working at the sink, I will go back to add the holes for extra safety.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have dishes to wash. Have a great weekend and see you back here next week!

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