There is just something about a baby food jar that makes you want to prolong its usefulness. Its stout cuteness spurs the imagination. If you have children, there is a good chance you also have a stash of empty baby food jars hidden somewhere. Here are several fun craft ideas using empty baby food jars, so you can finally justify keeping them all this time.
Storage Containers
Makes a great storage containers for individual colors or types of beads, buttons, and other crafting tools. Make sure the jars are clean and dry and fill with craft tools of your choice. They are pretty enough to store on an open shelf.
Storage Toy Bins
Candle Holders
Makes a great candle holders for tea lights or votive candles. You can also make candles from hot beeswax, melted crayons, or melted candle wax scavenged from used candles by pouring it into a baby food jar over a suspended wick. Tie the wick to a heavy washer on one end and a toothpick on the other end. Rest the toothpick over the opening of the jar with the wick and washer dangling inside. The wick should be just long enough for the washer to lie flat and the wick to remain taut.
Jar Gardens
Make a jar garden with baby food jars. You'll need a small amount of clay or florist foam, silk flowers, glue, and a small swatch of fabric. Unscrew the cap from a clean, dry baby food jar. Glue the clay or florist foam to the lid. Arrange tiny silk flowers in a design on the foam. Screw the jar onto the cap, being careful to get all the flowers inside the jar. Glue or tie a square of fabric around the jar lid for a pretty presentation.
Shakers and Sound Makers
Empty baby jars make great baby toys. You can make shakers or sound makers by filling the baby food jars with different items. Try rice in one, nuts and washers in another, beads in another, and more with pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters. These toys are pretty enough to be displayed. Take care to always supervise children when they are using these toys. Baby food jars are made of glass and can break, and many of the fillers are choking hazards.
Dispensers
Can make a cute dispensers for salt, pepper, cinnamon-sugar, and homemade spice blends. With a drill press or awl, poke holes in the jar lid. Fill with desired spice, and screw lid and jar together tightly. Try garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper for a great steak seasoning. You can also use this kind of dispenser as a glitter shaker.
Air Freshener
Poke holes in the jar lid with a drill press or awl. Fill jar with potpourri, room freshener gel, or essential oil and water. Try lemon and grapefruit essential oils for the kitchen, lavender and lemon essential oils for the bedroom, and rose potpourri with rose oil instead of a sachet in your linen cabinet or clothes drawers.
Snow Globe
Here's how to make an innovative gift out of a baby food jar. You'll need a strong water-proof glue, large grain glitter, water, and a toy or object that is small enough to fit inside the baby food jar. It needs to have a flat surface that can sit flush with the baby food jar lid. Glue the object to the baby food jar lid and let dry for several hours. Add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of glitter to the baby food jar. Fill the baby food jar with water, leaving about 1/4 inch of space at the top. Put glue around the inside edge of the jar lid and screw lid on, carefully inserting the toy. Flip over the jar and you'll see glitter "snow" falling around your toy inside the globe.