A Happy Green (and blue) Wedding

We have been hard at work planning the wedding for Kristins baby brother Jason and his wonderful fiance Jen! In the last month the couple has graduated from college, purchased a house, will be getting married and then running off to Hawaii to celebrate it all. Needless to day the couple wanted something easy, inexpensive and fun for their big day.
We are really excited about the results! The Bride and Groom will be celebrating their nuptials with 80 of their closest friends and family with  a picnic wedding. Over the next few days we will share with you some of the DIY projects that we have been doing to make their special day extra great! The first project is going to be our mason jars!

Hanging Mason Jars

WE LOVE MASON JARS! So much so that we have hundreds stored at our two homes, so we knew this was going to be the perfect wedding accessories (and in our case the perfectly free decoration!). The couple will be hosting their reception at the park under a giant roof. We have suspended mason jar vases and tea light holders in front of each of the pillars. For the tables we have made vases, candle holders, and even some adorable crayon holders to keep the kiddos occupied!

In order to make the hanging mason jars we wound twine around the bottom lip of the mason jar twice, then secured it with a tight knot. We then attached a long strand of twine on opposite sides of the mason jar. We staggered the night of the three jars that we hung together to give it more of a chandelier look.
The best part of this is that after the wedding all of the twine can be re used and so can all of the jars!

coloring mason jars

We love mason jars here at A Happy Green Life. We use them for decorations, canning, we even use them in our chicken feeders!My favorite mason jars are the vintage blue ones, I am always looking for them at flea markets or on etsy. Recently I found out that I could color them myself. The project was really simple, my three year old even helped!
All you need is:
Mason Jar (clean and dry)
Clear Clue
Food Coloring
Paint brush

I started out by selecting my color, I chose red because we are having a lady bug party for our little one.

 I added a tablespoon of glue (this did three mason jars) and four drops of red food coloring.

You can experiment with the amount of drops you want, (or which colors, I heard its best to mix blue and green to make that vintage blue color).

I then mixed and painted. I used long strokes from top to bottom. There were little bubbles but these disappeared as they dried.

I ended up with some awesome pink/red mason jars.
The only down side to this project is that water makes these jars loose color (though the longer the glue is on the better it stays)

-Amanda