Celebrate Earth Day by Upcycling a Glass Jar Into a DIY Candle

I celebrated Earth Day with this fun upcycling project, but you could obviously make this at any time of the year: recycle a glass jar to make this DIY candle.

Upcycling a Glass Jar Into a DIY Candle

All you need are these supplies:

DIY Glass Jar Candle Supplies:

• glass jar (a tomato sauce jar or similar without raised letters works best)
• a postcard or picture
• a key or similar charm
• lace or ribbon, T-shirt or fabric remnant
• marbles, glass stones, sand, or Epsom salt
• glass cleaner
• tealight candle with a battery

Tutorial:

My glass jar had a lot of water stains on it, so I cleaned it with biodegradable Green Works All-Purpose Cleaner to get it squeaky clean.

I’ve had this postcard of the Queen Anne in front of the New York City skyline for years, and it was the perfect fit for this upcycling project.

I bent it a little bit to get it into the jar, and then I added the green marbles as the “water.” You could also use Epsom salt, sand, or pebbles.

To hide the top of the jar, I tied a piece of lace around it. You could also tie a strip from an old T-shirt around it, or a fabric remnant. As a last little detail I added an ornate key to the glass.

This is what it looks like on our mantel!

It adds a charming conversation piece, and it fits my theme of New York postcards on my mantel right now.

In the evening, it looks like this with the tealight candle turned on.

Here is another idea of how to display the candle, under a cloche.

 

 

You don’t have to compromise on clean to be green. Green Works provides naturally-derived cleaning power.

If you don’t have a postcard for this project, you could simply cut out a pretty picture from a magazine and display it in the jar.

Have fun upcycling a glass jar into a little work of art for your home!