What to do with old baby food jars
50+ Fantastic Ways to Re-Use Baby Food Jars
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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 Last Updated / 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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options for using waste containers (120 photos + video)
All young mothers with the beginning of the introduction of complementary foods are faced with the question - where to put the small jars from the baby's food? They are usually used for further storage of food (very convenient, for example, to cover jam or jam in small portions) or as a container for spices.
To make them not banal and boring, you can decorate them.
Just look at the photo of crafts from jars and understand that such crafts cannot be boring.
Brief contents of the article:
- Write with bright colors
- Other options as you can use jars
- Developing games with jars
- photos of jars from jars from baby food
painting with bright colors
glasses can be painted using glasses stained glass paints or special paints that are used for painting on glass. They can be easily purchased in specialized stores for creativity.
In order to apply a beautiful design on a glass jar, you need to carefully work with paints so that they do not spread over the rounded shape of the workpiece.
If it became clear that the pattern is not to your liking, you can wash it off as soon as it is applied. To do this, use plain tap water and a cotton pad. If the paint has already hardened, then you will need a special solvent.
To give a background to the design, the glass surface can be painted in a single color. In the case of working with stained glass paints, the background can be omitted.
Special stencils can be used for beautiful painting on glass surfaces. Thus, you should get original crafts from jars.
Other ways to use jars
There are quite a few options where empty jars are used:
- Needle box. To do this, you need to make an additional pad with soft filling on the lid, where it will be convenient to insert needles.
- Fantasy houses for fairies. If you have a desire and imagination, you can make a wonderful house for a fairy. If desired, you can insert a small candle inside the jar and light it in the evenings. Your kid will be just delighted with this idea!
- Small aquarium for toy fish. If the baby wants to have fish, but the parents do not allow it, you can find a compromise and start such a cute aquarium for a toy fish.
- To do this, it will be necessary to pour some soil inside the glass jar, place algae there - the aquarium is ready! Fish can be made together with the baby from plasticine.
- Terrarium. To do this, you can use moss and plants that do not need care.
- Candlesticks or stands.
- Cans can be used to feed migratory birds in winter.
- Storage of various small items. If the metal covers that are unscrewed are screwed to the locker with screws, you can get excellent containers for storing various little things.
- Few people guess, but in such jars you can grow green onions! To do this, you need to pour some water into a glass jar, place the bulb there and wait just a few days!
- If there are a lot of pencils and pens in the house, you can store them in baby food jars.
- A wonderful craft - a snow globe! Instructions on how to make the craft are very simple. To do this, you need to glue a small figure on the lid, pour some glitter into the jar and add regular baby oil.
Close the lid very tightly and shake the jar! Your snow globe is ready. - Jelly molds. The capacity is just the right size for one person.
As you can see, there are so many options for making old baby food jars. The main thing is to connect your imagination.
Educational games with jars
If your baby is still very small, you can use his empty baby food jars for educational games. To do this, you need to stick a few multi-colored pieces of paper on a jar and arrange the necessary colors according to the colors of the pieces of paper.
You can stick pictures with letters on the jars. Use them instead of developing cubes. Then try to put simple syllables and words together with the child.
You can teach your baby to save money from childhood and make a little piggy bank together with him. To do this, you need to make a small slot in the lid of the jar.
You can play fishing - make a fishing rod (you will need a stick or pencil, a rope and a small magnet for this).
Caps from small baby food jars will serve as fish.
Photo of crafts made from baby food jars
- Making a diaper cake with our own hands
- DIY egg tray crafts
- DIY birch bark crafts
- What can be done from the constructor
- DIY matryoshka for kindergarten
- Beautiful colored paper applications
- Crafts from pumpkin and sunflower seeds
- What can be done with PVA glue
- DIY mushroom crafts
- Walnut Shell Crafts
- DIY paper angels
- Best DIY Styrofoam Crafts
- Balloon figurines
- How to make a paper frog
- Simple DIY straw crafts
- Do-it-yourself 3D paper appliqué
- Interesting DIY wood crafts
- DIY crafts from old things
- Interesting application ideas from circles
- Interesting plasticine crafts for children
- The best DIY wine cork crafts
- Beautiful fabric appliqué
- Application of colored paper Rooster
- Toilet paper roll crafts
- Application of geometric shapes for children
- What can be done with PVC pipes
- Hot Glue Craft Ideas Review
- DIY crafts from saw cuts of wood
- Funny felt toys
- Educational soft books made of felt
- Beautiful handmade crafts from socks
- Original garden crafts made of cement
- DIY light bulb crafts
- DIY coffee bean crafts
- We sew a phone case from felt
- What can be done with dried roses
- What can be done with old tires
- DIY original valentines
- Amazing towel figurines
- DIY felt crafts
- How to make DIY rattles
- DIY felt animals
- DIY felt letters
- DIY paper bunny
- DIY crafts from scraps of fabric
- Original can crafts
- Ideas for using old fur
- Epoxy jewelry
- DIY pumpkin crafts
- DIY wallet for paper money and coins
- Charming DIY felt flowers
Please repost
8 DIY ideas
If you have accumulated a critical number of milk formula cans, and you still don't dare to throw them away, it's time to give them a second life.
We've rounded up 15 cool baby food jar ideas for you!
Mix cans can be used in many different ways. Organizers for pens and pencils, vases for flowers and even holders for towels! All these crafts can be made from ordinary cans of infant formula.
As a reminder, earlier we published 10 ideas for reusing unnecessary plastic toys that will help save the environment.
There are several ways in which baby formula cans can be used. share ideas and life hacks.
Milk formula can holder
Baby formula cans can be used to organize your workplace. Simply decorate your mix tins with wrapping paper in your favorite color.
Another pencil and pen organizer that will give a second life to milk formula jars and decorate your interior.
And how do you like such a strict organizer. It can even be used in the office. It is unlikely that anyone will guess that this is a craft made from cans of infant formula.
Mixture jar organizer
Simple decor for mix jars: grease the jar with glue and tie it with coarse rope.
You will make a great accessory for the bathroom. You can also use this decorated mix jar as a flower vase.
Candlesticks from baby formula jars
Candlesticks can be made in several ways: you can pour melted paraffin into the jar. And you can knock out holes in the jar with a nail and a hammer (as shown in the pictures below) - you get an excellent candlestick for a tea candle.
Read also: 12 creative ways to use old things in a new way: a guide for children and parents
Flowerpot
Give a second life to your milk formula tin. This craft can be made from baby formula cans in a matter of minutes. Here's how: Cut out a paper card to the size you want and stick it on the outside of the jar with spray adhesive. Fill the jar with soil and plant a small succulent.
In the video, you can watch detailed instructions on how to beautifully arrange mixture jars and turn them into original flower pots.
Mobile from milk formula tins
An unusual use of a baby milk can is to make a musical pendant or a mobile for a baby by decorating it in bright colors.
Towel Holder
Another idea to use baby formula cans is to turn them into DIY towel holders. And if you also make decoupage of cans from under the mixture, then they will become not just a functional element of the interior, but also an element of bathroom decor.
Room decoration
Just look how stylish decoupage of cans from under the mixture looks, made over the rope, which was previously wrapped around the cans!
Gift Wrap
Paint a milk formula jar a bright color. Then wrap the gift in tissue paper and put it in a jar.
