Steve likes to say that everything sounds better when spoken in a British accent… My version is that everything tastes better when it came in a pretty package. I love a project that can reuse an old item in a beautiful way – upcycling at its best! For the holidays this year, I decided to make a variety of gifts in a jar to give to our neighbors and the kids’ teachers. I saved glass jars of various shapes and sizes, and I’ll show how to clean and prep them below.

Here are a few ideas for how to make your own gifts in a jar:

• Large jars, like pasta sauce jars, are great for pancake mixes.
• The smallest ones, like jam and salsa jars, can be made into apothecary jars and filled with bath salts.
• Medium-sized jars, like almond butter jars, are perfect for hot chocolate mixes!
• Homemade granola is another delicious idea for a gift.

How to clean jars for reuse:

• start by peeling off as much of the label as possible
• soak the jar in some water and peel off more of the label
• if there’s sticky residue left, spray the jar with Goo Gone or vegetable oil and let it sit before a rubbing off the rest of the label
• run the jars and lids through the dishwasher, using a mesh laundry bag to keep the lids from flying around
• I finished off by spray painting any lids that had printing on them, for a clean look

There are so many ideas for gifts in a jar. Step one: clean and prep your jars.

Another tip: make a funnel from clean card stock to help layer ingredients more neatly.

Some more pictures of our dressed up holiday gifts:

Homemade apothecary jars filled with bath salts make a wonderful gift for a shower, hostess, or any occasion.

I really love having something handmade for the holidays, and making several of the same gifts made the project more doable.  The only real-world caveat I have is that these were very heavy to carry into school.  Add our toddler in the baby carrier on my back, and I definitely broke a sweat.  It was all worth it, though I might recommend a wagon if you are trying this…

“Jewels”