Do you need a spooky lantern for your Halloween decorations or a costume prop but only have a Mason jar? Well, here's one option for you: a Mason jar lantern. I think in all, it only took me a few bucks to make. I'll be using this particular lantern as part of my Halloween costume (coming soon!) but it would also look nice on a bookshelf along with other spooky decor.

Step 1: Supplies & Tools

Supplies:

Mason jar
Black and gray cording
Ring mount for cellphone
Battery-operated string/fairy lights with power switch
Halloween gauze-cloth
Black acrylic paint
Mod Podge (not pictured)

Tools:

Hot glue gun
Hot glue sticks
Scissors
Paintbrush
X-acto knife (not pictured)

Step 2: Glue the Cording

To make it appear more lantern-like, I decided to make four "beams" around the Mason jar. To do that, all I did was hot glue eight 7-inch black cords, two coupled at each "corner" of the jar. Then I glued a 10-inch string of cord around the mouth of the jar (as you can see in the next step). Optional: carefully slice off excess dried hot glue with an X-acto knife.

Step 3: Add the Lights

Tousle the lights and the Halloween gauze-cloth together and loosely tuck them into the jar. The gauze-cloth spaces out the lights and gives the lantern a spookier aesthetic.

Hot glue the wire discreetly between two of the "beam" cords, all the way to the bottom. Hot glue the power switch to the bottom of the jar as well. I also hot glued some extra cording in a spiral on the bottom to keep the jar level.

Step 4: Paint the Beams

I painted a couple of coats of black acrylic paint in between the coupled black cording. After that dried, I covered it in a coat of Mod Podge.

Then I hot glued more cording around the bottom of the jar.

Step 5: Make the Top

The carrying loop I used for the lid of my Mason jar was actually a phone mount I found at the dollar store for a few dollars. It had a really strong and sticky 3M backing, so it was perfect for this project. I removed the paper backing and pressed it on the lid, holding it for about 20 seconds. Then I painted the lid and the rim black and tied a short gray carrying handle to the loop.

Step 6: Finished!

After you screw on the lid (which should be easy to do, despite the string light going outside of the jar), switch on the lights on the bottom of the jar and you're all finished. Like I said in the introduction, I'll be using this for my Halloween costume. So if you don't need to carry it around, you obviously don't need a carrying handle. But I do think it adds to the whole lantern look and feel.