DIY Date Night Mason Jar

DIY Date Night Mason Jar

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:

Date Night SuppliesHere’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)

Paint MeasurementsHere’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!

Date Night Color Categories

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!

Date Night Ideas

Date Night Mason Jar

Date Night Jar Close Up

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!

Color Code Key

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.

Date Night JarBonus:  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?