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10 April 2012

Make Glow-in-the-Dark Jar Lanterns


When I spotted glow-in-the-dark jar lanterns on Pinterest, I knew I just had to make some for Scrag's Peter Pan party.

I investigated all options... splattering glow sticks inside a jar (would last only one night); buying a tiny tube of paint for $15 (not enough to make the number of lanterns I needed)... and finally I found Glow Powder online, which promised: "Our Glow in the dark Products are up to 10 times brighter then other Zinc based Products..."


I was after a spattered effect, so figured I could achieve this by mixing the pigment with craft glue and then spattering it inside the jars... BIG MISTAKE!
The pigment solidified the glue and I was left with a useless (though glowing) lump...




I felt just awful to have wasted my precious pigment ($15 for 50g) and contacted the nice lady from the website and told her my predicament. Sometimes it pays to be a blogger... she supplied me with another lot of pigment at cost so I could finish my jars and write this post. Phew.


So here's How to Successfully Make Easy Glow in the Dark Jar Lanterns...


WHAT YOU NEED:
  • Glow in the dark pigment/powder from Glow Solutions (available in green or aqua)
  • Clean jars with lids (I made ten and still have plenty of powder left)
  • White craft glue*
  • Spray glue
  • silver and blue glitter



  1. Apply the craft glue with a brush in a pattern, leaving spaces without any glue if you want glitter to show through during daylight (* If you want the jar solid with glowy-ness, apply a layer of spray glue instead of craft glue.
  2. Spoon a small amount of glow powder into the jar
  3. Put the lid on and shake (the pigment will stick to the glue which will dry clear, leaving the glow to show through)
  4. To seal the powder layer, apply a thin coat of spray glue inside the jar.

5. Shake some blue and silver glitter into the jar
6. Put the lid on and shake again. The glitter will stick to the spray glue and show through the pattern
7. Paint the lids using a testpot of metallic paint (I used Resene Lucifer, a metallic blue)


Then leave your jars somewhere sunny and wait til dark... turn off the lights and enjoy the glow!




The glow powder from Glow Solutions  keeps glowing nearly all night, night after night (as long as you leave it somewhere bright to absorb light during the day). It's also waterproof.


My glow-jar photography might suck (please no nasty comments) but the actual jars look pretty and THEY WORK! They will make a perfect take-home gift for our Peter Pan party... you know... Tinkerbell in a jar?


Get Glow in the Dark powder from HERE

15 comments:

  1. They are so cool!!! I want do make something glow now! maybe the hand rail outside :)

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  2. i love these! i would love to do something similar to create beautiful little night lights in my kids' room. so creative. what a great little take home pressie too!

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  3. They turned out really great! Glad I could help and I'm inspired to try and do one with several different colour glow powders (just got red, orange and white too).

    We have an old coffee jar of the Glow Stones next to the light in the bathroom. I thought that looked good until I saw your jars - so much more magical!

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  4. So cool. I love that you are not shy to post the bits that didn't work out so well first time too - keeping it real, and I love that about you! :-)

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  5. yeah I agree with Meghan re: posting the "things that didn't work" as well... (makes me feel HUMAN!). haha.

    Gotta say that the "didn't work out right" blob of stuff looks like a decomposing spring roll... hahahaha.. (cool that it still glows though!).

    The tinkerbell jars are C.O.O.L!!!

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  6. Awesome! I love that it keeps working night after night! I am sure the party is going to be a hit!

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  7. Ohhh that looks like fun, great tutorial.

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  8. How much pigment did you buy for the 10 jars? Was it 50g or 100g?? I am having a peter pan and tinkerbell party for my twins 1st birthday party and LOVE this idea! But don't know how much pigment to get.

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  9. Hi Anonymous... (hope you check back here for your answer): 50g would have easily been enough for 10 jars. I got the 100g second time round just to be safe, but have at least half of it left.
    Also, I figured out later that I would have gotten a sparklier effect by mixing pigment in with the glitter and then just applying one coat of spray glue before shaking in the pigment/glitter mix.
    xxx

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  10. Thanks so much! I've just ordered 100g of green and 50 of aqua, or was it the other way around?? I have 20 jars that I am going to do, and they are only small jars, like spice type jars. Will let you know how it goes! So mix the glow powder with glitter, then spray glue and shake?? Almost sounds too easy? Thanks so much for your blog too, I have stolen a few things.. hope you don't mind! (Katrina - I can't figure out this whole blogging/making a comment thing, sorry.)

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  11. That is a brillient idea! I'm off to buy some glow powder... thank you so much for sharing *hugs*

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  12. I'm thinking halloween! What a great decoration that will glow night after night.

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  13. Have you considered _intentionally_ mixing the powder with glue, and then making the resulting blob into paperweights, statuettes, panels, and things of that sort?

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