At our last MOPS meeting, our craft coordinator issued us a challenge. We made jar cookies; that is, we put the dry ingredients for cookies into a Ball jar to take home. After we baked the cookies, Anggie told us we should reuse the jar and then send her pictures. I had no idea what to do with my jar. Make a fancy pen holder? Fill it with marbles? Drink lemonade from my jar? Hmm.
I finally thought of a project I wanted to try. Some people call it a calming jar, or a settle-down jar. The idea is that you fill it with water and glitter, shake, and watch the glitter settle to the bottom, which has a calming effect. What a great idea for tantrum-prone girls and their mommy! (This frazzled Mommy could also use a settle-down jar, especially now that school’s out for the summer!)
At first, I thought I added too much food coloring, but as I watched the jar, it reminded me of The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. Another use for this simple Ball jar…teaching great art!
How to make your own Starry Night Glitter Jar:
Fill your jar about halfway with hot water and add some blue glitter glue. (I bought a small bottle on sale, and squeezed the whole bottle into the jar.) Stir. Add silver glitter, blue glitter and blue food coloring. (If you can find some star-shaped glitter, that would add to the effect! I didn’t have any.) Stir, and fill the jar with water leaving about an inch at the top. Fill the jar to the top with vegetable oil. The oil is an unnecessary ingredient, but it did add some fun “bubbles” to the jar. Tighten the lid securely. Shake and whirl to make your own Starry Night!
I own a series of art books by Mike Venezia. The library also has a lot of kid friendly art books which you can use to introduce Van Gogh and The Starry Night to your own kids. Van Gogh was a very interesting character!
Speaking of Ball jars, I’ve also been the lucky recipient of a jar of strawberry jam from The Mayor of Crazyville. Yum! What other ideas for jars do you have? Leave a link in your comment if you’ve blogged about using jars. I’d love to see your ideas!
This is cute..and a great idea. I used the Van Gogh book this year with Benjamin. I never went to MOPS meetings, they started out when my first one was a baby, but I have always been in total support of that great organization.
Awesome! I will repost this on the m.o.p.s blog, thanks so much
One of my favorite paintings – I think we'll try this for my daughter. I don't know what I do with extra jars…usually I use them for vases or to store oats or chocolate chips or baking ingredients.
My recent post Ladies Only Blog Share Link Party: Dedicated to Dad.
What a fun project for the girls. Also those series of books sounds really nice and a great way for children to learn about art.
My recent post HERE'S WHAT I KNOW…..
That's a cute idea! With my luck, I wouldn't screw the lid on properly and it would get all over the place…
How cute! I need one of these for my desk at work 🙂
My recent post Words of wisdom
I LOVE this idea Ginny..you are so creative! It's so pretty and I bet your daughters loved it! and YOU too! LOL That would definitely something I would enjoy!_Blessings!
What a cute idea!! I am a non-glitter person (because it gets everywhere) but having it permanently in a jar would even be okay with me! It's like your personal calming snow globe of loveliness!! Perfect!! -Lisa
My recent post Hunger Doesn’t Take A Summer Vacation
Great Idea. My niece loves snow globes so a tantrum jar (shake it when you're mad, then sit until all the glitter settles) would be perfect for her.
I've used jars from a thrift shop for organizing. I mounted them on a board using metal hose clamps so it's like a little "jar caddy". You may have seen the idea on Pinterest before. Unfortunately I haven't posted it on my blog yet. Maybe this will inspire me to get it done 🙂
My recent post Vintage doorknob repurposed as a purse hook
What a great idea! My siblings would have loved doing something like this when they were younger.
That dark blue is beautiful!!! I've had the stuff to make one of these sitting around for over 6 months now. I keep joking that I need to make one for Adaline AND one for me, but I think that's more honest than it is funny. Maybe I should put that on my To Do List for this month…if I could only find my To Do List…
My recent post How to be socially awkward at blogging events