At first I saw these cute glow jars made with glo-sticks and wanted to make one for Zoë, but then, after trying to find DIY steps/tips and whatnot, I stumbled upon a better version. You can use Glow-in-the-Dark paint instead of glo-sticks. Which meant, the glow aspect just needs a sun recharge instead of buying new glo-sticks. Plus, Zoë could sorta help me out since it didn't involve the glass shards or the toxic chemicals from glo-sticks. I also saw another jar, which was just glitter. I decided it would be really cute to combine the two. That way, even when uncharged, Zoë can still have fun shaking the glitter around. I also bought these gem stickers and decided to stick them back to back so they're shiny gem stones that can swirl around too.
Here's the DIY!
Supplies:
1 Mini Mason Jar (the tutorials say to use larger ones, but since Zoë's so small, I wanted something she can easily hold in her hands)
2+ Tubes of Fabric Glow-in-the-Dark Paint (I stuck to two colors, pink and purple. There were also green, blue and white at Joanns)
Glitter (So many options and colors to choose from, but I wanted it to theme together without going overboard, so I just stuck with a very fine baby pink with touches of ivory)
Gem Stickers (Optional. I just wanted something with a bit more dimension to add in and saw these stickers. You could also actually find cute little plastic gem stones if you want)
Elmers Clear Glue (MUST be clear)
Water (not pictured here)
Steps:
1. Start off by adding dots of paints in any design to your jar. I've seen a few ways this is done. Either squeezing the paint out onto a palette and then using a fine brush and dotting along the jar or using the tubes directly as the tip is very fine allowing for you to slightly squeeze and dab directly against the jar. Using the paint tubes directly seems to be more preferable to one youtuber as it gives off a better dot than a brush. I think that could be due to lack of brush skills though. I did opt to use the paint tubes directly though. Just thought it would be much easier with Zoë around. Hahaha. she'd totally try and touch the paint on the palette or even pick-up the brush. Haha.
It was a bit of a struggle since the jar was so tiny and my hands couldn't maneuver easily (no wonder youtubers suggested the bigger mason jars), but after the 2nd go at it (we bought 4 jars, haha, so I had room for major hiccups), I got a bit better. I thought it was decent enough and decided to leave the last two jars for other non-related things.
Here are the jars...
Cute, right? Even of the glow aspect doesn't work or isn't charged, she'll still love it!
2. Let the paint dry. The tube says it takes 5 hours to dry. Ugh. Looks like we'll have to take a break before finishing these off.
3. If you have the sticker jewels like I do, then while waiting for jars to dry, you can work on piecing these together. The sticker backing was actually a little puffy, so sticking them back to back wasn't going to work. I had to remove the sticker adhesive off of one side and then stick them together. That way we can get them as flat as possible. I'm not even sure how long these will last. I'm sure the water might cause the adhesives to wear out eventually. Hopefully not for a very long time though.
Once the paint dries, these would be the next steps. I'll probably have to add photos later as there's no way we're finishing these off tonight.
4. Fill water in to about 1/3 of the way up the jar.
5. Fill the clear blue in to about another 1/3 up the jar.
6. Add in glitter and jewels, if you have them, and stir it gently so that it's spacially distributed.
7. Seal (I might opt to glue the lid shut since Zoë's good at opening lids these days).
8. Charge, Shake and Enjoy! I'll post after shots when this project is complete.
