Upcycled Glass Jar Jack o’lanterns

Hello Sweet Friends,

Are you the kind of person who saves glass jars? Me, too. I just can’t stand throwing a good glass jar into the trash. I will clean them, soak and scrape the labels, and stash them out of sight. Sometimes in kitchen cabinets, other times the garage or the craft room, or maybe a closet, or anywhere else I can think of. Needless to say, I’ve ended up with glass jars of all shapes and sizes; pickle jars, spaghetti sauce jars, olive jars, cheese dip jars, etc. So I decided it was time for a fall craft and made a plan to upcycle some of those jars into jack o’lanterns. Just like pumpkins come in all different sizes, I used jars of differing sizes. Add some orange spray paint and a black Sharpie, and you’ve just about have all you need for this project. Follow along for all the details.

Supply list

glass jars of various sizes, cleaned and labels removed
orange spray paint
black Sharpie
drawer pull knobs or other type of stem
ribbon and small embellishment, optional

Gather up glass jars of various sizes for this project. Make sure the labels have been removed and jars thoroughly cleaned.

Take the jars outside or in a well-ventilated area. Give the jars two to three coats of orange paint, or any color you choose, letting dry between coats. The lids can remain on the jars for this step. (I used Rustoleum rustic orange satin spray paint + primer.)

When the jars are completely covered and the paint has dried, bring them inside to finish.
Using a Sharpie, draw jack o’lantern face onto each jar. Make happy faces, spooky faces, even goofy faces. Have fun with it!

Now it’s time to add the final embellishments. Glue stems, fall leaves, and ribbons to the tops of the jars. I used drawer pull knobs for the stems; small leaves and small buffalo check bows for embellishment. The drawer pulls were a bargain find at a thrift shop. If I had to purchase the knobs at full price, I probably would have used something else for the stems.