Sun Jars
I know. These have been a little over-done as of late online, but I couldn't resist. Sun jars are little more than the innards of solar lawn lamps hacked into frosted jars to sit on your patio. Lifehacker posted a step by step guide, and for $8 a piece, it was hard to disagree that they'd look pretty sweet on my window sill or patio. The lamps are $5 at Lowes, and I got the jars for $3 at Cost Plus. The jars were the only size Cost Plus had, and according to the sheet the smallest size, marked "1/2L." I'd say smaller is definitely better for the jars; they're totally cute.
The one thing I did change from their guide was in the method of frosting the glass. They have you buy a can of glass frosting (like for Christmas), and spray it on, but I just so happen to have a mother-loving sandblaster, so I unleashed a pneumatic can of awesome instead. Getting an even coat was a little tedious, but it's a very stable frosting, so the effort was worth it. Other options would be to acid etch it, or fill the jar with marbles, broken glass, etc.
I also happen to have access to theater gels, so I've been debating whether to change the colors, but I've been *very* happy with white. My family loves them, and we're almost temped to just put larger rechargeable batteries in them, because we enjoy them inside in the dinning room.
The one thing I did change from their guide was in the method of frosting the glass. They have you buy a can of glass frosting (like for Christmas), and spray it on, but I just so happen to have a mother-loving sandblaster, so I unleashed a pneumatic can of awesome instead. Getting an even coat was a little tedious, but it's a very stable frosting, so the effort was worth it. Other options would be to acid etch it, or fill the jar with marbles, broken glass, etc.
I also happen to have access to theater gels, so I've been debating whether to change the colors, but I've been *very* happy with white. My family loves them, and we're almost temped to just put larger rechargeable batteries in them, because we enjoy them inside in the dinning room.