The Coolest DIY Kit From Hometalk!

DIY Kits
by DIY Kits
1 Material
$19
25 Minutes
Easy

Hi Everyone! It’s Shawna B. here. I’m so excited to be the first person to try out this new Hometalk DIY kit. Have you heard about them yet? They are so cool! They come with everything you need in this cute little box to do a DIY project. This month's theme is Crafts, and it comes with everything you need to make lovely beach-themed solar lights for your porch. Some of the other kits are garden or home maintenance themed, but I wanted to show off this craft one, and give you the instructions for it.


Step 1: Open Your DIY Kit

I opened the box and was surprised to see it filled with all of these fun materials. I'm so excited about that big container of Mod Podge! I always use it on projects, and now I have extra. The box also comes with a card listing every material. Refer to the card that comes in your kit to see the complete list of materials.

The only thing I needed to use for this project that isn’t included is a pair of scissors, and, depending on how you want the finish on your glass to look, you might also need an oven.


Step 2: Tint Your Mason Jars

I took the items I needed for tinting the jar. I placed parchment paper on the table (this kit really thinks of all the details) and took out the Mod Podge, food coloring, 1 cup, and 1 spoon. This kit came with enough supplies for two jars, but I decided to only make one at a time. 


Step 3: Mix the Color

I wanted my jar to be pretty dark, but not so dark that you couldn't see the solar light. So I mixed about ⅓ of the Mod Podge with 10 drops of food coloring. If you want it lighter, use less food coloring. Then I made sure to evenly mix in the color with the Mod Podge.


Step 4: Spread and Set

Next, I made sure to evenly spread the color on the inside of the glass. At this point you have two options: you can either let the jar dry for about 4 hours, or you can bake it in the oven at 150° for 10-15 minutes. I chose to bake the glass, because I didn’t want to wait the 4 hours. I raised the temperature by a lot after a few minutes, and I got a really nice crackled effect. Feel free to copy this strategy with your kit, or try something else. I put the parchment paper under the glass, so it wouldn't drip. It also provided a place to let it dry and cool off.

This is what my glass looked like with my little temperature alteration. I love making little personal changes to the kits. That's what's so great about these kits: every single one could be different!


Step 5: Loop the Long Strings

The kit comes with strings in three lengths. There are 8 long pieces, 1 short piece, and 1 very short piece. If my instructions on this part are hard to follow, I encourage you to watch the video below. It's a lot clearer if you can see it while I do it. Set the very short piece aside for now, you won’t need this till later. Next, take the short piece and lay it across your work surface. Then take the eight long pieces (they are already folded in half) and tie them to the short string using a Lark’s Head Knot. (Check out the video to see how to do it.) Don’t worry about their spacing, you’ll fix that when you tie them onto the jar.


Step 6: Attach the Strings

Tie the short string around the neck of the bottle. Make sure not to tie this around the threads otherwise you won’t be able to screw on the solar light top.


Step 7: Make the Fish Net

Making a fishnet looks much harder than it actually is, which makes this project so great. All you have to do is tie square knots in the same height all the way around. Keep track of which strings you tie together. You don't want to tie the sames ones together twice in a row, you want to tie it to the string next to it.

Then I just made more levels of knots. The shorter you make the distance between each level, the more full your fishnet will look, but also the more work you’ll have to do.

I didn’t make mine very tight. If you want to see how long yours is, make sure to pull the strings tightly toward the bottom while you're checking. When you’re done, pick up that really short string we set aside and tie it into a circle.


Step 8: Finish the Bottom

I pulled all the bottom strings inside the circle, then I pulled out one string from each pair to knot them onto the circle and pull the fishnet tight. You could choose to only put one string in and then tie them. I just found it was easier for me to pull the whole bunch inside the circle and then pull out one string at a time to knot. I also found on my second jar that it was easier to knot opposite sides then it was to move around in a circle.


Step 9: Trim Excess and Decorate

Using your scissors, trim off the excess string left on the bottom. Then use the fishing wire and the numerous bead choices to decorate your lanterns however you want. This is where you can really get creative with this project, as there are so many beads to choose from.

The last step is to screw on the solar light lids and enjoy your handiwork.


Unfortunately, we no longer offer this kit for purchase, but we hope you were inspired by this tutorial to make these fun beach themed mason jar lanterns!

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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
3 of 29 questions
  • P.Mclemore P.Mclemore on Mar 02, 2017
    Hi, Oh I just love the idea of the kits. How do I get them ? Thanks, Patmc47@yahoo.com
  • Mlf12835654 Mlf12835654 on Mar 07, 2017
    How high did you raise the oven temp to in order to get the crackled look?
  • Shirley Shirley on Feb 18, 2018

    After my first two kits they just stopped coming...no notes, no email, just poof!...gone. What happened?

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