Quick & Easy Cute Lantern for Garden Parties or Dinner Decoration

I saw cute lanterns in a store which were super expensive, so I decided to be inspired by the idea to use glass containers with a wire to carry the lantern.

All you need is:

• Empty jars (from pasta sauce or jam)
• Glue remover (to remove the sticky glue from the paper labels on the jars)
• Galvanized steel wire with a diameter of of about 8 mm (0.3 inch)
• Pliers (I took one with round tips and one with flat ones with a wavy surface for better grip)
• Bolt cutter (it's much easier to cut the wire

---This instructable takes part in the HAND TOOLS ONLY CONTEST, PLEASE VOTE FOR ME if you like it!---

1. Cut two pieces of wire which are approx. 1.5x as long as half of the circumference (so you have enough wire to form the two rings for the handle of the lantern).
2. On each of the pieces bend one end of the wire to make a little ring
3. Twist the ring upright (third image: first wire) and then to the side (third image: second wire).

To connect the two wires do the following:

1. Take both wires, bend a little loop in that side of the wire where there's no ring.
2. Put one wire around the half of the neck and hold it
3. Take the other wire and connect its loop with the ring of the other wire
4. Do the same with the other wire

This might be a bit difficult at first, since it's hard to estimate the exact position for the loop in the wires. For me it was easier, when I just made the loop and then tightened it with the pliers after it was connected.

Once both wires are connected, cut off the rest of the wires with the bolt cutter. Almost there...

The last step is to attach a handle to your lantern. This is done by inserting one end of a longer piece of wire into one of the rings at the jar. Then, you can also bend a ring into that wire (see image 2). Do the same with the other side of the handle-wire. DONE! Yeyy.

All you need now is candles and , if you like decoration. See the next step to see how I decorated my lanterns.

First I let the lanterns empty and used them during warm summer nights in our garden. It gives a very nice and warm light for endless cosy summernights! Since fall is coming now, I decided to decorate my lanterns according to the season. For this fall, I collected some material from the forest and put it into the lanterns. Love it!

What is really cool about these lanterns is, that you can change the decoration whenever you like. My Ideas for future events/seasons:

• For wintertime I plan to fill the lanterns with white glitter sand, snowflakes and silver stars.
• For spring I might decorate it with margarite flowers and bees
• For summer one could fill it with sand and little surfboards
• ...

I am sure there are plenty of other options and it would be cool to see what others make.