Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Gifts In A Jar

Seasons Greetings LIFEers! Just in time for the holidays, Librarian Patsy Brautigam joined us to share her ideas for gifts in a jar. Easy, fun, inexpensive and homemade; these gifts in a jar make great gift ideas for any time of year. This project does require an investment of time to assemble the jars, so it is best to make several jars at a time.

Jars: you can go to any craft store and buy mason jars and lids, or you can use leftover (and washed) spaghetti sauce jars. Be mindful: the recipes in this blog call for 1 quart jars, and sauce jars are usually larger. You'll need to do your math to convert the recipes.

Decorating Jars: you can let the beautiful filling be the decoration, or you can paint your jars. If you paint the jars, be sure to use latex paint. Paint only the outside, especially if the contents are for consumption. You can cut decorative cloth circles to fit between the parts of the lid, and tie it off with ribbon or raffia. You can also cut out little notes to attach to the jar with the cooking instructions, if the contents are food.

Filling Jars: make sure your jar is packed tight. Once the jars are filled, tap jar on a counter top several times to settle the contents. Then fill any extra space with wadded wax paper. The lid fabric will hide the paper.

Fun Stuff: get creative! Instead of a jar, use a tulip-style ice-cream sundae glass for bath beads or bath salts, top off with a loofah and a red bath bead to look like an ice-cream sundae. See photo below.

Jar Contents/Recipes: see the slide show below for the recipes we discussed in class!













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