Sunday, July 18, 2010

Beachy Solar Apothecary Jar

I see mason jars repurposed into solar lanterns all the time, so when I looked at this cute apothecary jar in my stash, I knew it would be a cool project.

I put this beachy themed solar light together for my daughter in law's birthday this week. Love you lots, Tracy! I love the way it turned out and I'll be making more, that's for sure. I've been seeing different solar light projects in blogland and knew I had to do this.

Walmart has these CHEAP, 2 for $3 CHEAP, solar lights on sale. The post is cardboard and plastic and striped, as you can see, with stars around the solar unit at the top. Yeah, you know me, I could NOT leave well enough alone.

The solar unit fit into the lid of this apothecary jar with some judicious toothpick spacers. Classy, eh? Still, far from what I envisioned. But the solar unit gets plenty of charge through the glass lid, so that's what I was looking for.

Twine wrapped jar neck, baby! Hot glue ahoy! Already I like the way it looks. Dollar Store twine and hot glue sticks plus a $2 thrift store apothecary jar. Simple simple simple.


Using some of my go-to textured wallpaper, I tacky glued it around the solar unit. It looks soooo much better and fills in the space formerly taken by my toothpick spacers. Much better.


I painted the top of the unit and the wallpaper to closely match the twine color. I shopped the house for beachy filler and added shells, sea glass and half marbles in green and white. Also, for texture and interest I added sliced pieces of cork. I love the smooth texture of the shells and glass with the cork's roughness. I added some trim using string, beads, buttons and a cork slice embellished with a tiny metal skeleton key . This was so much fun as I tried different combos of items to fix this light up!



And this is a real bear to photograph but here's what it looks like in the semi dark. The welding man used his dremel tool to cut off the little protusion at the bottom of the light, so it looks much cleaner. This light out on the deck after dark is just GORGEOUS! Love the soft glow on the glass and shells !!


I love the way this came out! And so did Tracy! Score! I will be watching for more of these jars to make her a set and also some for me.

I will be posting this pretty little light on the fun parties on my sidebar. Come visit me there and check out all the wonderful projects. So much cleverness and creativity out there, don't miss out!

45 comments:

  1. You're a genius. I never would have thought to use a solar light like this! And it's gorgeous.

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  2. I'm obsessed with all things beachy lately and I'm in love with this! Thanks so much for shraing your creative idea!

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  3. Oh my gosh. This is just AWESOME!! It will definitely be a hit in blogland. LOVE it!!!

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  4. Love, Love, Love it!!! Too cute, Tracey is a fortunate DIL.

    Have a God Filled Day
    Shirley

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  5. I also bought some of those cheepie walmart solar lights..took some spray paint to them (white)after using them in the front yard for the 4th.... and have also seen them used in small jars, but yours is brilliant! So attractive!
    I'm going to find a large jar like this and set it up at my front door... nice!
    Sandy
    thewondersofdoing@blogspot.com

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  6. This is ingenious! They look fantastic. I love your personal touches. Definitely bookmarking this!

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  7. This is yet another reason why I stay up past midnight.....to read great ideas like this on the internet.
    Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog.
    I can tell I will be a regular visitor to yours.
    Marianne

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  8. Very cool! I love that idea. I will have to try it.

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  9. That's so fabulous. I keep seeing solar light jars etc and really want to try one. This was a great idea!

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  10. What a gorgeous solar light outstanding idea!
    Thank you so much for sharing it with us!

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  11. That is so clever!! I LOVE the beachy theme as well, well done!! Visiting from justsewsassy.com

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  12. FABULOUS! I love your idea of using an apothecary jar! It turned out just perfectly!!

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  13. This is a great idea! I love the coastal look. Thanks for sharing!

    http://mmtncrfts.blogspot.com

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  14. Love your apothecary jar!. I just bought a solar light to put in a jar a week ago but couldn't find a jar I liked. You have given me a solution. Thanks!

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  15. That is seriously cool! What a wonderful idea!!!

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  16. VERY NICE!!! I've been doing the same thing on my blog with old candle jars, but I never would have made the leap to apothecary jar! That's excellent!

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  17. That is so pretty!! I love that you wrapped the top

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  18. Brilliant! I wish I could find the right supplies for this project! I'd love it if you'd join my tuesday link party (tomorrow)! http://imtopsyturvy.com

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  19. Holy cow, Ann! Your genius continually amazes me. Brilliant, matey!

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  20. Beautiful idea--thank you for posting! I found similar solar lights at Dollar Tree that work great, and loaded up on them for garden paths, but now I know what I will be doing if I can get my hands on some more!

    Athena at Minerva's Garden
    http://www.minervasgarden.com

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  21. I will never pass up an inexpensive (ugly) solar light again. They can really be beautiful.

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  22. This turned out absolutely fabulous. I love the beachyness of it of course. I am going to have to think about making one of these for myself. TFS!

    Visiting by way of Get your craft on Tuesday.

    ~Makalani
    Makaz Home

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  23. This is a great idea! Thanks for sharing!

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  24. I absolutely love this idea, and I'm thinking about all of the other possibilities now! I have a collection of those apothecary jars, so all I need is the light. Walmart here I come!
    Happy White Wednesday!
    Carol

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  25. I have got to see about finding some of those lights!!What a neat idea!!!

    thanks for sharing!

    bee blessed
    mary

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  26. Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

    jen @ messhalltobistro.blogspot.com

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  27. oooooh - I love that idea. I have to try it out. It looks great. Thanks and Happy WW!

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  28. Gosh, you are so clever! Never in a million years would I have thought of this. I have to try it.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Your latest follower, Annette

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  29. Love this idea for the garden- so glad you shared it at the Tuesday Garden Party!

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  30. Wonderful! It is super pretty what a great light.

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  31. Just went to the beach not long ago, and this is a great idea for those shells we got. Thanks, and great job!

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  32. I love this project...really so cute and easy!!~ Thanks for sharing it at my party. Debbie

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  33. Must find a deal on solar lights! I love what you did!

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  34. Hi Ann


    I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I linked to this post today from the new Home & Garden channel at Craft Gossip. :) My hope is to share many of the fabulous projects I see everyday with the vast CG audience. I hope you will not only stop by and subscribe to CG, but will tell your friends about the new category! Hope you see some traffic from it!

    Your feature will appear in the main Craft Gossip RSS feed, on the main home page and can be found directly here
    http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/beachy-solar-apothecary-jar/

    If you would like a "featured by" button, let me know ;)

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  35. really one cool idea. My sister lives at the beach and would really love this.

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  36. This is so cool! I love it. I want to make one now too! Great idea!

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  37. What a fantastic idea...You have given me some ideas actually with the jars I collect...

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  38. Wow, love! What a great idea and so creative!

    I’m having a new link party “Cheap Thrills Thursday” starting the 29th. It’s for creative ideas that cost under $20. If you have a project you’d like to share, I’d love for you to stop by and join in!
    Kat
    www.BlackKatsDesign.blogspot.com

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  39. Great job!
    I love the cork tag!!!

    Thanks for linking up to Socialize with me Monday til Sunday! :)

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  40. Absolutely beautiful!

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  41. What a cool idea! I am going to have to try this.

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  42. That is so nice! You are so creative. Thanks for entering my nature contest.

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  43. You are the winner of my what can you do with nature project. Thanks so much.

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I love your comments and read every one. They let me know if I'm on a good track with my blog. Thanks for stopping by!

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