Baby Food Jar Crafts

 

 If you are visiting from Great Day St. Louis, thanks and welcome!  I had a great time sharing these crafts this morning and I want to give you the full tutorials as well as links to where some of these great ideas started.

Seedling Jars

Click here for this "how-to" post on making seedling jars.

Tealight Holders

 The idea for making these baby food jar tea lights came from the wonderfully lovely blog, www.prudentbaby.com.  I used the same concept, but I secure and seal the fabric with mod podge. 

Tea Light Holders
Baby Food Jars
Fabric Strips
Ribbon/Twine/Contrasting Fabric/Embellishments/Etc
Pinking Sheers
Mod Podge
Tea lights

1. Cut strips of fabric to cover the flat part of each baby food jar using pinking sheers.
2. Using matte mod podge, adhere the fabric strips to the surface, let each jar dry, and then seal them with more podge.
3. After completely dry, place your tea light and enjoy!
 

4. For a hanging tea light, use strong, yet flexible wire, and wrap around the jar lid lip.  Then, wrap another piece of wire around the top of the jar to create a hanging loop. 

Memory Game 

This is my favorite idea! After using the jars for projects, I had a large stack of lids that I've been giving my kiddo to play with.  Then, it dawned put some pictures in there--not a genius idea, but fun nevertheless! I love the fact that you can interchange the pictures to suit your child's interests, I love that it is cheap and easy, and I love that it is transportable!

Memory Game with Baby Food Jar Lids
At least 10 Baby Food Jar Lids
A set of shapes, icons, etc. that are toddler-friendly
Scissors
Glue or Tape

1. Using clip art or photoshop, create pairs of shapes easily identifiable by toddlers
or use mine.

2. Cut out each circle inside the black line (you may have to do a little extra trimming) and glue to the underside of your baby food jar lids.
3. After drying, have fun playing! This game is compact and travels well and as your child tires of the same pictures you can replace them with new ones!

Pin Cushion

How adorable right?

You can also find this idea at Prudent Baby, but I used the method from My Nifty Needle to make mine. 

Pin Cushion
One Baby Food Jar and Lid
Ribbon
Poly-Fil
Hot Glue Gun/Glue
Fabric (cut into a 7in diameter circle)
Needle/Thread

1. Using a basic running stitch, stitch around the circle approximately .5-.75 inch from the edge.
2. Pull your threads to create a little sack then push in a small amount of filling to create a little cushion.  Pull the threads tight to create a ball and tie off the ends.  Push to flatten the edges so that the bottom of the puff can be hot glued to the top of the lid.

3. Using your hot glue gun, apply a generous amount of glue to the top of the lid and hold your cushion down until glue is dry.
4. Using your ribbon, glue it around the edge of the lid to hid the cushion bottom and lid edges.
5. Put your miscellaneous pins in the jar and a few on top for a functional pin cushion!

Well, now you have four great crafty reasons to save your baby food jars and re-purpose them into something fun and functional!

*Don't forget to enter this week's giveaway from the Book Bound Bindery!*

Today I'm Linking up at Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple