DIY Halloween Luminaries – Cheap and Easy To Make

   Aren’t these DIY Halloween luminaries great?  Well, they are made using recycled jars, cheap, and easy, too!  Before Halloween, I plan to make enough of these to line the serpentine sidewalk to our front door, but they would look neat inside the house, too!  You can use tealight candles inside the jars, but I use the battery-operated tealight candles you find at the dollar store.

 

   If you remember, I made some of these luminaries with a patriotic theme, earlier this year.  I save emptied jelly and condiment jars for this purpose.  At the end of the Halloween season each year, I buy some marked-down Halloween napkins.  These are made with those napkins!

Supplies

(We are an Amazon affiliate and may receive a small percentage of any sales through the links on this page at no cost to you.  Thanks for supporting this website!)

   The only supplies you need for this are napkins, empty glass jars, scissors, Mod Podge, and a paintbrush.  Also, if you wish to make a bow around the top of the jar as I did, you will need some twine or jute string.  The addition of the twine bow is a nice touch, isn’t it?  

 DIY Halloween Luminaries Instructions

  The instructions are simple.  Choose a clean glass jar and the napkin you would like to use for the project.  Napkins usually have layers of thin paper.  Peel off the layer with the graphic printed on it.  Throw away the other layers unless you can think of something else to do with them!

 

Plan The Napkin Placement

   Decide how you want the napkin to fit on the jar.  A quarter of the napkin with the skeleton fit nicely on the large jar.  Then, paint on the Mod Podge and adhere that section to the jar.  I cut around the skeleton arm and hand bones of another, so when those elements overlap the skeleton already on the jar, it does not completely cover it.  

 

   You can see where I cut into the design, indicated by the arrows, in the picture.  The broken arrow on the right side of the jar indicates where the backgrounds overlap.

 

    You can redesign the images and lettering by cutting out elements, flipping, repositioning, and gluing to the jar with the Mod Podge.  The design on this napkin is extended onto the rim by cutting out the black border, turning it sideways, and adhering to the rim of the jar.  I like the rims covered, too.  

 

    The salsa jar I used needed a little bit of a different technique.  For this technique, Mod Podge the top layer of the napkin to the lower portion of the jar first.  Cut slits in the middle section to fit the contour of the jar.  Turning the jar upside down, slip the brush with Mod Podge under the napkin.  Then, brush Mod Podge on top of the napkin on top of the jar.  Gently brush the cut sections down onto the jar from the topside of the napkin.

 

   I love the way they look, especially when they are illuminated in the dark.   It’s a great way to recycle old jars and the design ideas are limitless!  I can’t wait to see them en masse along the walk!  Maybe this will inspire you to make some of these DIY Halloween luminaries, too.