DIY Wildflower Garden With Fairy Silhouette Nightlight Jar

Today’s DIY for kids décor is a tiny Wildflower Garden with a fanciful Fairy Silhouette Nightlight Jar. Makes a sweet nightlight that matches our Secret Garden Stationery Suite.

I feel a little guilty using mason jars these days when they are in short supply for the people who have gardens and want to can their produce.

So even though we used mason jars you could use pickle jars or any upcycled jars. Ours were my mother’s antique jars with the milky-glass usage surfaces from years and years of preserving. This way they’ll be front and center for my glittles instead of hiding in my storage room. (With instructions to give them back to me when they’re ready to discard them!)

We did this project with my city girl glittles and they loved it as much as I did. It’s so much fun having their ideas come forward and noting the differences in their imaginations.

Here’s the how-to.

DIY Fairy Nightlight Jar

Supplies:

• quart jars with lids, new* or upcycled
• white tissue paper*
• Mod Podge* and brush*
• fairy silhouettes (use this form to ask for “fairy silhouette Cricut design”)
• faux moss* (we used paper Easter grass)
• upcycled corrugated cardboard box
• green and black cardstock
• tiny silk flowers and leaves*, vines*
• florist pebbles*
• battery operated tea lights* or fairy lights*
• scissors, glue (hot glue and tacky glue), large hole punch

Items with *s are affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Using them does not affect your price. They do help Amazon keep track of where they get their free advertising! And if enough links are clicked, they’d give us a little cash.

Directions:

1. The first step is covering the jar with tissue. Brush Mod Podge all over the jar. We thinned ours down with a little water. Take a half sheet of tissue paper and lay it on the wet Mod Podge. It’s okay to have a few wrinkles. Let the glue dry, then pull off the loose overlapped edges of tissue.
2. In the tutorial we found, this was where you added the fairy silhouettes and garden elements. We didn’t think the tea light showed the silhouette well enough through the tissue. We drew an oval on what we decided was the front of the jar, then removed the tissue from that oval. We held the jars under running water to soften the Mod Podge, then worked it off with our fingernails. It will only come off where you scrape. Then set the jar aside to dry once more. At this point the glittles needed to play with the dog a little, so by the time they came back the jars were dry and ready for the next step.
3. Cut out the fairy silhouettes from black cardstock.

Make the Mini Fairy Garden in the jar and on the lid:

1. Trace the lid onto corrugated cardboard and cut the circle. This is the base for the fairy silhouette and mini garden inside the jar. Cut a circle the same size from green cardstock and glue together. Fold the “stem” of the fairy and glue to the green cardstock. Decorate the circle around the fairy with flowers and moss. NOTE: We ended up snipping into our circles about 1/2″ all around, then bending the cut tabs down. There’s a bump in the bottom of our jars, and the circle didn’t sit straight without making a “shelf” for the fairy.
2. We used 2 piece lids. Instead of using the metal lid, we used it as a pattern to cut a corrugated cardboard circle and a green cardstock circle. We glued the two circles together, then punched a hole about an inch from the edge. This hole lets you reach inside to switch the tea light on and off. Then we glued the circles into the ring. If you use a one piece lid, punch a hole with an awl. Line the inside of the metal lid with a cardboard circle. Glue the tea light to the cardboard. Punch a hole in the cardboard circle to match the one in the metal lid. Hot glue the tea light to the inside of the lid. Line up the switch for the tea light to the punched hole. (My glittles didn’t use the hot glue gun. They saw me burn myself so they weren’t even tempted.)
3. Screw the lid onto the jar and make your lid garden. We covered the whole lid, top and sides, with faux moss. When this dried we rubbed and crunched it a little, because it breaks off and we didn’t want it to be messy later while using the nightlight. We glued a little “river” of rocks across the top of the lid, then added faux vines and silk flowers and leaves. Notice the difference between the full garden and the more minimalist one. I tend to go overboard with flowers.

That’s it. Turn on the fairy lights 

and then enjoy your DIY wildflower garden and fairy silhouette nightlight jar!

If you can’t make it today, pin this project for later. It would make an awesome new baby gift, also.