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50+ Fantastic Ways to Re-Use Baby Food Jars

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Last updated on March 29, 2022

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50+ baby food jar crafts and creative ways to re-use baby food jars so you don’t have to put throw them in the trash.

If you’ve had a baby in recent years, there’s a good chance you’ve acquired quite a collection of baby food jars. Baby food jars ares so cute and chubby, and such a great size. If you’re like me, you find it hard to thrown them away. If that’s the case, your baby food jar collection could be growing at an alarming rate, and you’re probably looking for things to make with all of those jars.

Well, you’re in luck! One of my Facebook followers recently asked for ways that she could re-purpose her baby food jars, and the HH community responded with dozens of great crafts made with baby food jars along with practical ways to use baby food jars in and around the home.

I’ve gathered up their best suggestions and added a few of my own favourite uses for baby food jars, and I’ve come up with this long list of ideas for you.

From the craft room to the classroom to the bathroom and beyond, here are over 50 ways for you to use leftover baby food jars so you don’t have to toss them out.

50+ Baby Food Jar Crafts

Click on the links below to see project details.

Ways to use baby food jars in the classroom or craft room:

Crayon Caddy: Paint several baby food jars and store co-ordinating, coloured crayons in them.
Fill baby food jars with water, and set on the art table to rinse paint brushes in.
Give each student in the class a baby food jar filled with cream, and make homemade butter together.
Make a mini “ocean in a jar” in a baby food jar. Pretty on classroom window sill or fun to play with.
Soak dried out markers in baby food jars to make liquid watercolour paint.
Make and store homemade finger paint in baby food jars.
Baby food jars make great paint and glue pots at the easel. Lids keep them from drying out between uses.
Punch holes in the lids (with a nail) and use jars to store and dispense glitter.
Make I-Spy Jars in baby food jars.
Make collection jars for the preschool classroom.
Fill with small amounts of water for syringe transfer work trays in preschool or kindergarten
Paint tall baby food jars with food coloring, water and glue for a frosted look. Store pens, pencils and paintbrushes in them.

Things to make for kids with baby food jars:

Play dough jars: fill several baby food jars with different colours of homemade play dough for a kids’ gift basket.
Set some baby food jars out in the rain and make this scented rain paint.
In the play kitchen: fill baby food jars with flour, rice, lentils etc. Glue the lids on, and kids can pretend-cook with them.
Bug Jars – wrap a pipe cleaner handle around the top, and go exploring in the yard.
Make these cute and quirky emoji jars for a kid’s dresser or desk.
Glue painted toy animals on baby food jar lids, use as party favours.
Fill with homemade slime or silly putty to put in loot bags.
Make a tooth fairy jar.
Teach kids how to manage their allowance with 3 tall baby food jars labeled SPEND, SAVE, BANK.
Make an advent or countdown calendar.
Fill baby food jars with layers of “coloured sand” (ground sidewalk chalk mixed with salt).
Use baby food jars to make mini lava-lamps.

Ways to re-use baby food jars in the kitchen:

Make magnetic spice jars to store on the refrigerator door
Organize your spice drawer with baby food jars.
Make Smore’s treats in baby food jars. Hand them out around the campfire or at a party.
Make a window-sill herb garden with baby food jars.
Fill baby food jars with condiments for camping or a bbq.
Sterilize jars and lids, and reuse baby food jars for homemade baby food. The serving sizes are perfect.

Gifts and party favours to make with baby food jars:

Baby food jars make great wedding favours. Decorate and place at each table setting.
These baby food jar lanterns were hung in a tree at an outdoor wedding.
Make Lego Head Jars as party favours for a Lego party.
Make mini calming jars for kids or co-workers
Make a wish jars or dream jars for your family and friends.
Give a gift of homemade bath salts or sugar scrub in a baby food jar.
Make these cupcakes in a jar to give to teachers, neighbours and friends.
Make a craft kit for a child by filling jars with pom poms, sequins, foam stickers, and beads.
Hot Cocoa in a baby food jar: layer hot chocolate, shaved chocolate and mini marshmallows in a jar. Cover the lid with a swatch of fabric tied with a ribbon.

Other ways to use baby food jars around the home and garden:

Store pony tail holders, Q-tips, and hair clips in baby food jars on the bathroom counter.
Make a spill proof nail-polish remover kit with a baby food jar.
Plant succulents in baby food jars to display on a porch or patio.
Hang these colourful baby food luminaries from a tree in your yard.
Baby food jars are great for storing seeds for the garden.
Make Photo Globes by placing your child’s photo inside a baby food jar.
Organize your spare change: each jar holds a different type of coin.
Use baby food jars to hold paper clips, thumb tacks etc. on a desk or in a drawer in an office.
Travel jewelry keeper for earrings and rings.
A Mini sewing kit in a baby food jar is great for travel or the office.
Fill baby food jars with Puffs, fishy crackers, Cheerios, nuts etc. Keep in the diaper bag for the kids.
Nail the lids of baby food jars to the underside of a shelf to store screws, nails and craft supplies.
Store several baby wipes in a baby food jar and keep in your purse or diaper bag.

Baby food jar Christmas crafts:

Turn a baby food jar into a snowman Christmas tree ornament.
Make festive holiday votive candle holders.
Make sparkly tea light luminaries in baby food jars.
Baby food jars make great miniature snow globes.
Make Reindeer food for Christmas Eve.

What if you STILL have leftover baby food jars?

If you have more baby food jars than you could possibly ever use, even after reviewing all of the ideas, please consider giving your collection to a teacher, a crafter or a daycare provider. Most will be happy to put your little glass jars to good use.

Looking for more crafts to make with your recyclables? Check out:

Re-purposed Denim Craft Aprons

Re-purposed Denim Bibs

25 Creative Ways to Re-use your Keurig’s K-Cups

22 Ways to Re-Use Cardboard Tubes

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Jackie Currie

Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.

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Amazing Baby Food Jar Crafts

Published April 29, 2020 Last Updated March 1, 2022 / By Sarah Leave a Comment

Have a bunch of baby food jars that you want to repurpose? We’ve looked all over to find the best baby food jar crafts so you can reuse the jars to make fun and beautiful things!

If you have babies or toddlers, you are probably going through a lot of jars of baby food! Maybe you have so many that you can start your own baby food company! Instead of throwing them out, why not make things with them? Since we are always looking for new crafts to make, we decided to look for all the best baby food jar crafts!

Our Easy Bath Paint for Kids fits perfectly into little jars, and DIY Candles is one of our favorite crafts we’ve done recently. Check out our crafts page for more inspiration!

Tips for Making Baby Food Jar Crafts

When using glass jars, make sure you clean out the jar and lid thoroughly.
Glass jars can be used in the oven if making a mini cake or pies in a jar just make sure you remove the labels.
Do not, however, put jars in the freezer, they may burst.

Baby Food Jar Crafts

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Vases for Flowers

Photo by Beth Liebetrau for Apples & Onions

I love this set of paint dipped jars from Apples & Onions! They are the perfect little vases for those white tulips.

Try making a Wood Vase and Candle holder like Make Life Lovely did! It’s totally gorgeous.

Plant some kitchen herbs in your jars! Herbs look beautiful on kitchen counter and you’ll never have to run to the store for some fresh rosemary or mint!

Baby food jars can also be used for Planting Wheat Berries – I love this idea from See Jane Blog!

Party Favors

My kids would go crazy for this Unicorn Slime by the Best Ideas for Kids
How cute are these DIY Bubble Party Favors from Chickabug
Crafts by Courtney made these perfect Minion Party Favors
Butterfly Sippers by Stay-at-Home-ista are perfect for a birthday party and you could personalize them to any party theme!

Desserts in Jars

We adore these Mini Cheesecakes. They look elegant but they are so easy to make!
Gimme Some Oven shared these Mini Fruit Crisps and I can’t think of a more perfect summer party dessert!
Make some Homemade Pumpkin Butter and give it to friends (or keep it all for yourself, I won’t tell!)
I love these no-bake Mini Grasshopper Pies from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

I love the idea of having Yogurt Parfaits in mini jars like they did over at Hilldale House. They would be perfect for a baby shower or a brunch party. We recommend having a Yogurt Toppings Bar to go along with little jars of yogurt!

As I mentioned you can bake with these jars, just remove the labels so it doesn’t burn. I love these Rainbow Mini Cakes by Make Life Lovely!

Organizing with Baby Food Jars

These mini pin cushions are from Seasoned Homemaker adorable. Perfect use for your baby food jars AND fabric scraps!

This under the shelf storage from Craftiness is Not Optional is, well, crafty! I love to see ways to use space that would otherwise be wasted.

This color coded crayon organizer from Monkey See, Monkey Do is awesome!

More Useful Things

These Gel Air Fresheners by Dream a Little Bigger are so cool! I had never thought of making my own.
I love this Nail Polish Remover Jar by the genius One Good Thing by Jillee
How cute are these Picture Magnets by Oh How Crafty
These Mason Jar Oil Lamps from A Piece of Rainbow are gorgeous and you could totally make miniature versions with baby jars!

Kids Bath Paint

Easy three ingredient bath paints you can DIY in a few minutes. Kids and toddlers will have a blast painting during bath time and they'll even get clean in the process!

SEE THE POST

Mini jars are the perfect size to make bath paint in and the best way to store it, too!

Holiday Crafts

These Halloween Pumpkin Jars from Make It – Love It are absolutely adorable. They can be decor or hold treats in them!

Valentines

I am impressed by these Turtle-y Awesome Valentines at Consumer Crafts. Clever and fun!

These Lego Valentines in Jars are genius. This idea could carry over for other holidays too! They’d make great Christmas gifts for friends or even be great for Easter!

Love these simple Valentines from So Festive!

Easter

We love these Easter Candy Jars by our friend Amber at Crazy Little Projects

These colorful Topiaries with Jelly Beans in them from Sugar Tot Designs make a fun decoration or Easter gift!

And these Bunny Jars from Making Life Lovely are so cute! All you need is paint and some white felt.

Baby Food Jar Christmas Crafts

Baby food jars are perfect for Christmas crafting because they are the perfect small size for DIY gifts! Try making some Christmas neighbor gifts or DIY ornaments with your little jars!

DIY Candles

How to make DIY candles in baby food jars with soy wax and essential oils. These candles make great Christmas neighbor gifts or party favors!

SEE THE POST

Making your own candles is easier than you think. We love these for neighbor gifts!

This Cranberry Body Scrub gift idea from Alicia Costa is so smart and I imagine it smells really good! I have this on my list of baby food jar Christmas crafts for this year. Watch the full tutorial on Youtube.

My kids would love decorating these Christmas Treat Jars from Amber at Crazy Little Projects.

These easy Mason Jar Lid Ornaments from Salvage Sister could easily be made with baby food lids!

This Luminary Advent Calendar from our friend Taryn Whitaker Designs is ALL THAT. So classy and creative!

This snow globe made out of a jar by Craftaholics Anonymous is so awesome! You could make a bunch of these and give them out as neighbor gifts.

Upcycled Home Decor

I cannot get over this Chandelier by Mother Earth Living.

Or make these Dyed Glass Luminaries from Inspired by Familia – how great would they be out on the patio for summer?

How creative are these Foam Lighthouses from Crafts by Courtney? They would be perfect in a beach house or if you have a nautical vibe going on in your home decor!

That’s it! All of these crafts are really clever. I’m feeling very inspired. You will probably be seeing more baby food jar crafts here at Pretty Providence. Happy eating to babies everywhere!

Pro Tips

When cleaning out the jars, make sure you remove the baby food labels while they’re wet. It’s much easier to remove then.
Glass jars can be put in the oven, just make sure the labels are already removed.
Do not put jars in the freezer, glass can break when frozen.
Acrylic paint works best when painting glass.

Which baby food jar crafts are your favorite? If you make one, share your creations by tagging us on Instagram!

This post was originally published in August 2013 and has been updated with new ideas, photos, a video and more detailed information.

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Do-it-yourself candlestick from a jar from baby food

Today, there is electricity in every home and there is no need to constantly use candles. But they remain popular in various countries and the manufacturing industry is constantly evolving. Today, candles symbolize the holiday, help create a romantic atmosphere, aroma candles soothe, are used as decorative elements, and most importantly, they bring coziness and comfort to the house. Candlesticks can now be seen in a wide variety of materials, sizes and colors. Sometimes such creations cost a lot of money, and if you want to make something fabulous and unusual on your own, then today we will tell you how to make a candlestick from a jar with your own hands.

Consider several options

If you have several glass jars in stock, then you will definitely choose several options for yourself. Jars of baby food or spices look very good, you can make a whole series of candlesticks of the same size. You can use a candle holder or pour wax inside and add various ingredients for fragrance and decoration.

Here, for example, is a chandelier made from such small jars. For manufacturing, the most common materials are required, you can see an example of manufacturing in the photo.

Or these lanterns, they will be a good decoration for the restaurant.

For the stability of the candle inside the candlestick, you need to add sand, grains to the bottom, with the addition of small gravel and salt it will also look good.

These lamps will fit well into the interior of the gazebo.

Winter version of the candlestick. Salt was poured tightly at the bottom, the top was decorated with twine, and you're done.

Just color illustrations can be added.

Small glass cups instead of jars are also a good option.

And to make such a magic candle with your own hands, you will need:

wax;
wax heating container;
wooden stick;
aroma oils;
dye;
wick;
jar.

Cut the wax into small pieces and set to warm up in a water bath.

Stir the wax well until all the pieces are completely dissolved and add various aroma oils and dyes. You can add spices, such as cinnamon or star anise.

Various decorative elements can be added to the sides of the jar.

The wax hardens very quickly, so pour it into the mold immediately.

We fix the wick with a stick and hold it carefully. All details can also be fixed with wax. When the wax has completely cooled, you can remove the top mount and cut off the excess thread.

To make multi-colored layers, you need to wait until each filled layer hardens, only then pour the next one.

Small jars do not need much decoration, their shape gives an unusual look anyway.

It all depends on your mood, you can come up with different decorations on different topics.

Here, for example, the beauty of the sea with the help of an ordinary semolina.

Jars decorated with glitter.

If the jar is wrapped with rope or threads, and then covered with paint of one tone or several, then such a structural candlestick will turn out.

Fantasy will always tell you the best. The main thing is to have the desire and mood, then you get such wonderful works.

Decorative pebbles are sold in every craft store. They can also be used to create mesmerizing beauty.

You can't take your eyes off this beauty.

Cans can also be used, they can also be beautifully decorated. Video on the topic of the article

26 ideas how to use baby food jars

The child has grown up, eats with everyone at the same table, and there is no longer a need to buy baby food in jars for him. During the time while you accustomed him to various tastes, a huge amount of containers for juices and purees accumulated. Where to put jars of baby food? InterestsPortal invites you to take advantage of our ideas.

Candlesticks from jars

The simplest idea that most often comes to mind is to make candlesticks. Place colored sand, beautiful pebbles, decorative glass pebbles on the bottom and light tea candles.

DIY candle holders

Baby food jars can be decorated to suit any theme. In this photo, the candlestick is made in a marine style. Paint the jar with paint. Apply colorless varnish around the bottom and, while the varnish is still wet, sprinkle sand on it. Tie the neck of the baby food jar with pretty ribbon or twine. Glue decorative glass pebbles, shells, starfish.

Vase for your interior

It is always a pleasure to keep fresh flowers in different parts of the house. You can decorate small vases with your own hands to match the style of your interior.

A group of vases for an original interior

We are used to having a bouquet of 5-7 flowers in vases. Try using several juice bottles. Put one flower in each jar, and you will get a bouquet of vases. Is it really original?

For table setting

Use the idea of table setting. Place cutlery and napkins in each bottle. If you also write the names of the guests on the jar with a permanent marker, then you will also get cards for seating guests at the table.

For bathroom utensils

Place ear buds, cotton pads and other small things that are needed for daily hygiene in glass jars and you will see the contents. By screwing beautiful handles to the lids, you will no longer need to unscrew the lid of the jar every day - just cover it. Brilliant idea for organizing space in the bathroom.

DIY napkin holder

Paint your favorite baby bottle color. Make a slit on the lid of the jar, twist the napkins and place inside. Pull the center napkin through the slot. Such a napkin holder can be used both for table setting and placed on an office desktop.

Lunch to go

Use the food jar as a food container. Our idea is to prepare a healthy cheesecake and put it to the children at school. Place crumbled shortbread cookies on the bottom, then curd cheese, decorate with berries from cherry jam on top. We think your kids will definitely like this dessert to take away.

Healthy food to go

It's always nice to start every morning with a healthy breakfast, like this smoothie. Can't have breakfast? Close the lid and take it with you.

Here are some more healthy smoothie recipes.

Baby food jars as glasses

Why buy glasses or glasses for drinks when you have a huge number of bottles? Pour cold lemonade into them, insert a straw and treat your friends.

Spice jars

Another idea for using baby food jars is to use them as spice containers.

Storage container for buttons, needles and threads

Organizer for all sewing accessories in one jar. Use this idea to lose nothing and find quickly.

Nails, screws, bolts container

Screw the jar lid to the bottom of the shelf in your shed. Now you don't have to look for anything, all content will be immediately visible. Why not a paradise for a perfectionist?

Garden Lanterns

Twist the handles for the candlestick out of the wire. Place a tea candle in a jar - the lantern for your garden is ready.

Romantic garden

Do you want to create a romantic atmosphere in your garden? Hang these lanterns over your resting place.

Here are some more ideas for creating garden seating areas.

Garden Party

By combining the two previous ideas, create a blooming fragrant garden. Use bottles as vases.

Pencil holder

Colored jars are the perfect solution for storing stationery. These glasses can hold pens, pencils, crayons, scissors and more.

DIY small terrarium

You can make this terrarium together with your children on vacation.

More ideas on what to do with your child during the holidays read here.

New Year's decor

Preparations for the celebration of the new year always begin with decorating your home with themed decor. Glass jars provide an incredible amount of ideas.

DIY gift for the New Year

Every year we spend a lot of money buying souvenirs for loved ones. Make a New Year's gift with your own hands from a baby bottle. Place artificial snow, a spruce twig, a snowman toy, glass beads inside - an original gift is ready!

Girl's birthday

Rinse bottles that used to contain juice. Fill them with a milkshake or other drinks for a girl's birthday party. Insert tubes. Your princess's guests will be delighted.

Boy's birthday party

Have you already decided that the boy's party will be pirate-style? Then this idea is for you. You can place these candy bottles in a candy bar, or distribute them to little guests as birthday gifts.

Healthy dessert

What's a party without dessert? Place the berries in portions in baby food jars, add curd cheese or natural yogurt. No one will refuse such a dessert.

A gift for Valentine's Day with your own hands

On Valentine's Day, it is customary to give sweets in the form of a heart. Pack your gift in a glass jar and tie a crochet heart. It's so cute.

Small present for a colleague

It is said that succulents relieve static energy accumulated on the desktop. Give a colleague such a plant in a glass jar pot. Tie with a pretty ribbon.