usedtirewife

OK fro all you craft divas out there, I have a question:
What crafts do you have for used baby food jars? I have done the sorting of all my husbands screws and nuts and bolts. even used them at the tire shop we own to sort valve stems, cores, and caps. But I still have tons of jars due to the six month old baby girl I take care of. So, do you know of any neat crafts we could use them for. I have plenty of kids to do the crafts if they are easy. I have 2-3 yr olds, 2-5yr olds, 1-6 yr old, and a almost 2 yr old between my neighbors kids, my son and the girls I watch. And I am not scared of them making a mess with paints or whatever. I use the pcinic table outside for crafts. So any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

tiffany21

You can have them make spice jars that is what i did and they work great.

and if you live by a nurisng home you can have them make their own design and then fill them with some candy or mints take them to the nursing home and have the kids give them out they love that I have my kids do that all the time. my kids have 6 adopted grant parents now.

Kelsey1224

You can tear up tissue paper pieces (left over party napkins also work...)

Then these pieces are decoupaged to the outside of the jars. Slightly thinned white glue also works. It is also okay for the pieces to overlap over each other slightly. It just helps with the stained glass look. The paper should also wrap around the bottom of the jar.

After the entire surface has been covered, brush on another coat of white glue/decoupage medium over the entire outside surface.

Trim away any paper which may be sticking over the top edge.

Drop in a tea candle and voila - you have a lovely little votive holder.

On another note - but not for kids to make, necessarily...

This is something I make every year to sell when I participate in a holiday craft boutigue.

I make "friendship tea"...made out of instant ice tea, tang, cinnamon, sugar...

I then fill the sterilized baby food jars with this tea, put holiday fabric over the lid and tie the fabric on with raffia.

I attached a tag with a little poem inside and sell each jar for $1.00.

You would be amazed how many of these sell because they make great little gifts for fellow office workers, teachers, etc.

I can make a several hundred jars for around $60!

Nice little profit!

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Rockn_Angel

I saved all the baby jars my son ate and I gave them all to his pre-school. What they did with them was for their mothers day gift to us mommies was they planted a seed about a month before and they got to water it, at school, and when it came time for mothers day... well, I got a nice little marigold plant that I transplanted into my garden.

Even though *I* donated the jars... it was a GREAT gift cuz my son made it.

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enerjizr

I used mine for extra buttons and other small sewing supplies...

My daughter made small " sand art" in hers, then we used the lid to trace onto fabric, leaving a extra 1/4" space around the trace. She cut out the circle, added a small dab of glue on the lid and placed the fabric on it. She finished the lid with a piece of raffia or yarn we had to tie a bow around the lid.

DestinysGrandma

Here are some things you could do with the baby food jars.

Snow globes, Ocean scenes or California snowmen:

For the snow globes glue(there is a low temp hot glue you can use) small figurines to the lid add glitter and water. Use seasonal figurines for different holidays. I have heard of using mineral oil or baby oil in place of the water so the glitter falls slower. Also some glitter floats so be sure you check it first.

For the ocean scene put water and blue/green food coloring. Add a little glitter and a small rubber fish attached to the jar lid with fishing string.

Fill them almost half full of water, put in 5 small black beads a small plastic carrot, a small plastic black top hat. Paint the lid if you like, and put a tag on them that says California snowman.

Finger paints for the kids:

1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups cold water
food coloring

Mix ingredients (except food coloring) in saucepan.Boil until mixture thickens. Cool, pour into jars. Add the food coloring and mix well.

Fridge magnets with the lids:

Make bunny faces by glueing cotton balls inside the lid for the face, add wiggly eyes, pipecleaners for wiskers and paper nose and ears, glue a magnet strip on back.

Or glue pictures either their's or from old magazines to the inside of lid and add magnet strips to the back.

Tooth Fairy Jars:

Cover the top and side of the lid of a baby food jar with Sculpey clay. Trim the edges to allow the lid to sit back on the jar. Use one color of clay, multicolor or use cane slices. Use a white clay to make a large tooth. Press gently to make it stick to the clay on the lid. Label the inside of the lid with their name or initials using a permanent marker. Bake the lid. When the clay cools, glaze the cover. Using a permanent marker decorate the jar with the child's name.




[Edited by DestinysGrandma on 05-26-2001 at 12:58 PM]

Thamlet

My neighbor, not me,LOL, takes a minature poseable (sp) bear and takes it apart. (Removes the head, arms and legs from the body.) Then she hot glues the head to the top of the lid and the arms and legs on the side of the jar. So when the lid is screwed on, it looks the a bear sitting down. Then she fills the babyfood jar w/ candy, like peppermints and hot balls. (She did this at Christmas and used red and green colored candy). She also tied a ribbon to match around the lip of the jar, like a bowtie. Im not very creative, so i hope this makes sense, lol. But they were really cute. I guess for easter you could replace the bear for a bunny rabbit?? Hope this helps!! (Oh, btw, she said she found these bears at the dollar store)

SnowKitty

My mother used to hot glue about 4 jars on top of one another to make a tower (alternating between glueing lids or bottoms together)type thing, then she would glue a large square ashtray upside down on both ends, to make a candle holder, she would then paint or decorate them to make matching pairs.

mommyof2littlemisters

GLUE THE SIDE OF THE JARS TOGETHER TO FORM A CHRISTMAS TREE SHAPE. PUNCH OR DRILL HOLES IN THE LIDS TO FEED CHRISTMAS LIGHTS THROUGH. THE JARS CAN BE PAINTED WITH A VERY THIN LAYER OF TRANSLUCENT PAINT TO ADD A MORE NATURAL TREE LIKE APPEARANCE.

Sunee

mommyof2littlemisters, I did that a few years ago. Its really cute. On mine though I wrapped each jar in a wide red velvet ribbon for the first tree and wide white velvet ribbon on the second tree I made. Then I glued them all together in a large pyramid to look like a tree. Then inside the jars I put those iridescent icicles. Just enough to fill the bottom when its standing upright. Then I drilled holes in the lids of the jars (which are now the back of the tree) and put white lights in each hole, red on my other tree. I added a little clear tape to hold the lights in place. When its lit up in the window its gorgeous and the light bounces off the icicles for an added affect. Then I added a little holly around the edges for an added touch of christmas and big gold bow on the red tree at the top and a silver bow on the white tree.

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theresab1957

I make candles as gifts with my jars. Be careful, though, the jars get hot when you pour the melted wax into them! After they cool, I put the painted lids on them and add a bow, or small ribbon rose. I usually make extras around the holidays when unexpected guests drop by. Noone goes home empty-handed!!