Baby Food Jars & Formula Cans

As you all know I love re-purposing! Since Jack has started eating baby food, I now have a ton of baby food jars every where. It really bothered me to throw them away at first, so I finally decided to start washing them out and saving them until I could find a new purpose for them.

So now that my shelf is over flowing with baby food jars, (Jack is a hungry little hippo after all!) I finally got the motivation to figure out what to do with them!

I grabbed a few jars and my handy dandy glue gun and got to work....and the picture to the left is what I ended up with...tea light candle stick holders!

I simply took off the lids and hot glued the jars end to end. You could definitely see the hot glue -it was not so pretty- so I hot glued some green ribbon on to hide the ugliness put a tea light in the top...and called it good :-)
I was even thinking if you didn't like the glass look of it (which I love right now) you could always spray paint them...not sure how it would work out...I have never tried to spray paint glass before...just a thought.

I have a bunch of lids left over from the jars I used for the candle sticks...so I am going to make them into a memory matching game for when Jack gets a little older. (more on this idea at a later date)

Now most of my crafting supplies have been stored in ziploc baggies...my bobbins, buttons, needles, etc. Not the cutest way to store and organize my supplies but it worked for a time.

I finally decided that the baggie thing was becoming a little annoying and that I would really like to be able to look at my craft shelf and just see what I needed, instead of having to sift through baggies to find the right one.

So here was my solution to that little problem...


I am now using the baby food jars to store most of my craft/sewing supplies. I also decided to save a couple of the formula cans to use as pencil and scissor holders. For the formula cans I simply took the label off and modge podged whatever paper I liked best to the outside to make it prettier :-)

This project has really got me thinking...
What else can I do with baby food jars???

So I got online and found quite a few awesome ideas...so here are some of
the creative things you can do to re-purpose your baby food jars...

-A few places I found the ideas below...here.... and here

• Great for storing buttons, nails, screws or beads.
• Fill halfway with water with a few drops of food colouring, fill the rest of the way with baby oil and add a few sparkles if you want. This amazes kids!
• Punch holes in the top. Instant house for a bug or other critter! Kids can look at them and learn, without hurting their new friends.
• Punch holes in the top and fill with cornstarch or powder for baby’s bum.
• Good for holding finger paints and glues!
• Paint the lid or cross stitch a cover with the words “first tooth” or “first haircut” on it. Makes a great keep sake.
• Paint for the holidays! You can make a Santa, Jack-o’-lantern or Easter basket!
• Use for starting seedlings indoors.
• Make into a musical instrument. Just put some coins, rice or beans in them. Glue the lid on!
• Make into a pin cushion...cute idea found here
• Use them to store home made play dough
• Here is where you can find some great ideas to re-purpose formula cans...such as jack-o-lanterns, play house, and holiday storage.
  

It seems like you can do just about anything with these jars! So get to thinking and creating and never throw away another baby food jar again!!!