While browsing through gardening ideas on Pinterest one day, I found this adorable post on making your own garden treasure jars from the Empress of Dirt. “That looks easy enough, I can do that” I thought to myself. I had mason jars, lids (I do believe any used jar with a lid will work though) and dowels on hand. All I was missing were the flat marbles and some clear silicone sealant. So off I went to Lowe’s to get the sealant and the Dollar Tree for the marbles. Once I got back I was ready to do some crafting. My kids were eager to help too.

My BIG mistake: I didn’t read the Empress’ post well enough. She specifically says to get the GE II Silicone Sealant, clear, waterproof. I didn’t do that. I got a (cheaper) brand called Loctite, but hey, it was clear, so there was that.

What happened next could have easily turned this experiment into a Pinterest fail. I liberally slathered the sealant on the jar, just like in the picture on the other post. Then we added marbles one by one. This is where the wrong sealant played a huge factor. The marbles were not sticking well at all. They were sliding off and falling off, one by one. It looked disastrous. I was trying to catch them and put them back on, meanwhile, another would fall off, then another. Plop, drop, plop went the marbles. Not to mention the sealant was getting on my fingers and the marbles and my kids fingers. Ack! I wasn’t even thinking of taking a picture of this part, but you can imagine the awful mess. I didn’t give up though. I patiently kept re-adding them on, until the jar was full of marbles and set it aside. This did not stop the marbles from plopping off. I just stuck them back on as needed and proceeded to try my second jar.

This time, I decided to place a droplet of the sealant on the marble instead of slathering it on the jar. WRONG! This was worse than the first experiment. The marbles slid down the jar immediately. So I did another sticky, marble juggling act to get them all on and set it aside. Needless to say I had to keep checking on it often to reposition the marbles. Luckily, it took a full day to dry, so I was able to kind of move everything into position in the end. Once they were dry, I washed the sealant goo that was left on the marbles from my sticky fingers to give it a nice appearance. I now think that if I had slathered the jar with the sealant and left it alone for a couple of hours, then added the marbles, that might have worked better. I cannot be sure though, since I haven’t tried it.

Once the jars were dry, I took the lids and the dowels and drilled holes in them. I connected the lids to the dowels with a screw. Then I placed the dowels in the garden where I wanted them (I had to use a hammer to really get it in the dirt) and add the glass jars on to the top. Don’t forget to add some treasure to yours first.

That’s it. Woo hoo! I now have home made garden art. My kids have really loved having these in the garden too. They love checking them for goodies. So what do you think? Did I nail it or fail it? Will you be trying this craft? Or have you done it already? Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear about it.

If you want to make these yourself, I highly recommend following the Empress of Dirt’s tutorial.