This is one of those simple, brilliant ideas where you smack yourself in the forehead and wonder why you’d never thought of it before. Over at Kootoyoo, Kirsty has a super-easy tutorial for making pretty “lanterns” out of jars, a recycled lace tablecloth, and some LED tea lights.

These would be great as centerpieces for an evening wedding reception, or just to add a little ambience to a room.

The tea lights she mentions seem a little on the pricey side ($10 AU = about $9 US), which may just be the brand she’s using; these appear to be about the same price. If they’re really long-lasting the price might be worth it if you plan to use the lanterns often, but for a one-off event like a reception you could probably get away with the much-cheaper (around $1 apiece) flickering tea lights often sold at craft stores. (If you don’t like flickering, there are also these, which are slightly more expensive but have the advantage of being submersible.) I really do love the idea of using electric lights rather than something that gets hot; it definitely expands the number of ways you could display the lanterns.

Kirsty’s tutorial also involves sewing the lace into a tube and slipping it over the jar. If you’re really hopeless with sewing (or if you use an oddly-shaped jar), you could also hot-glue the lace in position. Glue a pretty piece of ribbon or other decoration over the seam to conceal it.

A whole bunch of these massed together would be a very striking decorative focal point, particularly if you varied the jar size and the lace pattern.

(via CRAFT)