I LOVE date nights, but sometimes we have a really hard time deciding what to do. So when I stumbled upon this Date Night Mason Jar DIY on Pinterest, originally crafted by Life in the Green House, I thought this was an absolutely brilliant idea for us. Daniel and I tend to be pretty indecisive when it comes to activities, sometimes wasting hours of time trying to decide on a variety of options. I loved the idea of committing to just pulling a stick out of the jar and boom, there’s our date night with no decision making required! I also thought it would be a good opportunity to think of more creative or unique dates, so we don’t fall into the same dinner and a movie pattern. I’ve had this DIY on my list of to dos forever, and I finally finished it! See below for my modifications and instructions:
Here’s what you need:
- 1 mason jar
- Jumbo popsicle sticks
- Ultra Fine Point Sharpie in black
- Red acrylic paint
- White acrylic paint
- Chalkboard paint
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Red food coloring (optional)
- Mod Podge (optional)
Here’s what you do:
The first thing you want to do is decide on your categories and colors, and then come up with some date ideas! I chose red, dark pink, light pink, and white. One thing I changed from the original DIY was how the sticks are colored. Instead of spray painting the entire popsicle stick, I decided to just paint the tips, creating a paint dipped effect. To do this, I simply measure about an inch and a half below the tip and made a pencil marking on both sides. I used the first completed stick as a template for the rest.
They turned out exactly how I pictured. I love how clean and modern they look!
Here’s what I did for color coding and some of my date ideas for inspiration!
Red sticks are mostly nighttime dates out on the town, and they are a little more expensive and take some planning.
- Sushi dinner
- Downtown “food hop” (appetizer at one restaurant, dinner at another, and dessert at a different one)
- Dinner and a movie (a little cliche, but we rarely go out to movies, so I still love this one!)
- Dinner and drinks on Mississippi Ave.
- Weekend away
- A night at the theatre
- Concert or sports game
Dark pink sticks are also nighttime dates out, but are less expensive.
- High school mall date (go see a movie and eat at the food court, haha!)
- Bowling
- Ice skating
- Drinks and dessert at a fancy restaurant (great way to try a more expensive restaurant without breaking the bank!)
- Afternoon matinee and dinner at home
- 4th Friday free museum night (check out your local museums, many have free nights!)
- Happy hour and bar games
- Dinner and beer sampling at a brewery
Light pink sticks are date nights at home.
- Homemade sushi and movie rentals
- Matinee out and dinner at home
- Homemade pizza and board games
- Fondue dinner and dessert
- At home wine bar and cheese plates (grab a few different bottles of wine and do your own tastings!)
- Strip games and drink champagne while taking a bubble bath (this is a great one to spice things up!)
- Hot oil massages (another spicy date night, great way to connect and a free massage never hurt!)
White sticks are daytime dates.
- Oregon zoo
- Wine tasting at vineyards
- Lunch and beer sampling at a brewery
- Museum and food carts
- Rock climbing gym
- Aquarium
- Matinee
- Brunch and a hike or a game of tennis
- Dim sum and a walk at the nature preserve
- Baking and puzzle making
- Ice skating
- Movie or TV marathon with delivery
I chose to repeat a few of the dates, because a couple of them fit into more than one category. This was a really fast and easy DIY, I think the longest step was coming up with the date ideas. Take a look at the finished project!
While I don’t think I’ll have a problem remembering the color coding, I did like the idea of a color code key just in case. The original DIY had a printed label attached to the jar with a ribbon. I had wanted to paint the lid in chalkboard paint and create a key that way, but the jumbo sticks were a little taller than I initially realized. So instead, I painted a popsicle stick in chalkboard paint and created a key that way!
I abbreviated some things to make it easy. N is for night, D for day, In means at home dates, and the $ signs are for expensive and less expensive.
Bonus: As you can tell from my pictures, my mason jar is red. I had seen a lot of pins about mason jar tinting around the same time I saw this DIY, and I really loved that look. So I decided I might as well stick to my red tone theme! I followed instructions on Momtastic, and I believe I used roughly 20-30 drops of food coloring to get this deep red color.
This was such a fun DIY, I don’t know why I waited so long! This will be great for our indecisiveness and give us the chance to be more spontaneous! I’ve even left some room to add new dates as I think of them and when the seasons changed. What are some of your favorite date nights?
