100 Layer Cake

Another suuuuper easy project that barely needs any explanation, but has a high cuteness factor. We love mason jars, hands down. But like anything, when you see them constantly, you start to wonder when something new will come along. We don’t have anything new per se, but we do have an update that takes the mason jar, or whatever glass container you want to use, to a new level of cuteness.

And the magic tool? SPRAY PAINT!!! It’s become one of our very very favorite craft supplies as of late. (Pls ignore environmental and health impact of aerosol).

Supplies:

Mason jars or other glass containers
Spray paint
Masking tap (if you want to get serious about keeping the edges of the jars clean)

Again, this really doesn’t need detailed instructions. You just set your jars outside on some newspaper and spray the inside of each jar until it’s well coated.

The only thing we want to make sure to point out is that some colors aren’t completely opaque. Which means when you fill them with water and flowers (and florist foam if you’re using it) the color will be darker than you planned, since you’ll be able to see the stems and water through the paint.

BUT, we have a solution that we only figured out once we were in the middle of arranging our flowers. If you choose a semi-transparent color (like the hot pink we’re showing), add a second coat of opaque white spray paint to the inside after the color coat is dry. We tested it after the fact and it works perfectly. Yay for solutions!

And one final tip… when you’re arranging your flowers, be careful not to scrape the inside of the jars with the stems. The paint will come off!

Happy spraying, crafters.

Top two photos by Scott Clark.

Okay all. Here we go with our projects. It’s so satisfying to have fun DIY things to post. We’ve been focusing so much spare time on our site, we haven’t had many of these as of late. You forgive us, don’t you?

Because Carrie requested the chandelier first, we’ll start there.

Isn’t it pretty? It’s so easy that it really doesn’t need much in the way of tutorial. But we’ll explain some of the key points.

Supplies

Wooden dowel (you could even paint it first, if you plan ahead)
Fabric, ripped into long pieces (make sure you rip with the grain of the fabric)
Ribbon
Lace and/or anything else you want to include

First you need to choose your colors, your fabric, your ribbon and whatever else you want to include. We used fabric, ribbon, lace, and even little strips of neon leather.

We started with the fabric, because it’s the least expensive and you will most likely have the most of it. Which means you can set up the shape of your chandelier before you add the pretty details. We decided to give ours a slight triangluar shape, but you could easily just have all your pieces hang straight across.

Before you start adding the fabric, find a way to hang the dowel so you can accurately gauge the length of your pieces. We hung ours between the kitchen counter and the stove. Next tie your fabric strips to the dowel in whatever order you like.

Once you have all of your fabric attached, give your fabric strips a haircut! Trim the lower ends so they make whatever shape you choose. And give the upper ends a little snip so they look nice and neat, but still a bit loose.

And now you can add the pretty details. We added each type of ribbon and lace (we had at least three different styles of each), one at a time so we could space each style out across the length of the chandelier. With these, you can trim as you go, since the shape has already been determined by the fabric.

And voilá!

See? Easy! Creating the shape is the hardest part and it’s not that hard. To hang ours, we just tied together a bunch of our extra fabric strips to make long fabric strands. You can just tie the ends to whatever you’re hanging it from.

This would make such a great bit of decor over your dessert table, over the bar, maybe even to mark the ceremony space. If you decide to make one, let us know how it turns out!

(PS. you could of course use all ribbon or all lace, but that would be WAY more expensive.)

Photos by Scott Clark. Thanks Scotty!