The Reclaim series is all about turning discarded old things into beautiful new things. It’s about making treasure from trash, reducing our waste and saving a little money along the way. Each episode features an everyday object and a variety of inspiring ways that object can be reclaimed.
Today, glass jars!
(All images were found on Pinterest. If one of these images belongs to you, please let us know so that we can give you credit.)
- Use jars as vases.
- Turn jars into tiny terrariums.
- Use jars to store yarn. Simply punch a hole in jar lids to feed the yarn through.
- Pack your meals in jars, store your leftovers in jars and store your dry cooking ingredients in jars!
- Make these amazing animal jars.
- Turn jars into cute lampshades and lanterns.
- Use jars as drinking glasses. Add striped drinking straws for extra sweetness.
- Store crafty bits and pieces and office supplies in jars.
- Use jars as little planters.
- Cover jars in pretty fabrics or crochet them little covers and decorate the lids with vintage transfers, a la Dottie Angel.
- Pop photos into jars to display them. Add trinkets to make cute little dioramas.
- Make a hole in a jar lid and add a pump to create a cute liquid soap dispenser.
- Bake portion sized cakes and puddings in small jars. This rainbow cake is especially magical.
- Paint jar lids with blackboard paint and use chalk to label them.
Have you got any other great ideas for reclaiming glass jars? We’d love to hear them!
I love the idea of using jars for baking in. I’ll be trying the rainbow cake.
my beautiful nanna used to ALWAYS serve me chocolate quik in a glass jar with a curly straw.
she was good at keeping jars for things. she also had many glass jars of buttons.
I love this feature. Im collecting all my jars for ourwedding to have flovers in them. And i use alot of the to keep stuff for baking etc. Now i plan to make christmas decoration. I dont know what they are called in english; but like a snowglobe? Glue a figurin to the in side of the top, add water, glitter and glycerol ( in english?). Its so fun, you can make it whit all sorts of plastic figurines.
Have a nice weekend:)
I was thinking of making DIY snowglobes out of jars, just the other day! I’m definitely going to have to try it!
Love all the ideas apart from the Rainbow Cake mix which sounds full of chemicals..yuck, yuck. My glass jars never seem to stay empty for long as they soon get filled up with marmalade, chutneys or pickles. Am always short of jars as they get given away (full) and don’t come back
Why don’t you set up a ‘loyalty’ program where your friends give you their glass jars, and for each one they give you, they get a ‘loyalty token’ and when they have 5 (or whatever number you choose) they get a free jar of marmalade, chutneys or pickle. A bit of fun, recycling/reusing, and you’ll always have jars for your preserves.
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I love each and every one of those idea! I use them to hold paint brushes.
This post reminded me of my own DIY project a few years ago when I transformed 2 empty bottles into these… http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt24/cherry_antigua/bottle.jpg
They look fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing Cherry!
I love this post ♥ The rainbow cake in a jar is kind of incredible.
It’s amazing what you can do with jars.
I love this round-up of projects! Glass jars are just so timeless- I love the never ending ideas for crafts with them.
Hi, I’m from Portugal and found your blog today. It’s lovely, full of good ideas and inspirations for living day to day full of sweetness and simplicity.
I will take a lot of ideas.
One Love!
Oh, thank you Ana! That really means a lot to us <3
SO lovely. x hivenn
super lovely idea!! I love decorating jars and fill them with sweets or homemade cookies (sometimes even cake) and give them to special friends to show I’m thankful for them!
Well, you sound like the sweetest friend ever! What a lovely idea!
Wonderful! Inspired me to make a terrarium!
I did a little post on this recently… I have an underlying obsession with jars… love them stuffed full of lemon slices with flowers in them!
http://shinypigeon.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/repurposing-jars/
I don’t think I come across enough jars in my life. Maybe I’ll start noticing them more now that I know they hold such possibilities. Thanks so much! I completely love the idea of using jars to bake with. GENIUS!
Maria xx
http://www.cheekypinktulip.blogspot.com
Katie and Reubs – I adore this post! Ollie and I are looking for a new place and I’m so exited about using some of your great jar ideas to decorate!
I love this post. I already have a whole set of jars in my pantry with lentils, rice, pasta, flour, etc in them. The jars were originally the larger Dowe Egberts instant coffee jars (http://www.douwe-egberts.co.uk/Products/Instantcoffees/Pages/instantpuregold.aspx?hpid=world-simply-pure) , which already have a nice shape and lid, so easy to make them blend into your kitchen. I’m planning on some water slip decals to label them, have convinced my sister to use them for the same thing, and will now have lots of new ideas for them, thanks to your post!
Kath
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I love that mini-terrarium! I wonder if it could support a few worms in there with the dirt and little plants?