Jack-o-lantern Jars
It feels like forever since I’ve posted! I certainly didn’t intend to leave the “booty” post as the top one for so long. I’m so glad you’re all still here with me.
I have been so excited about this idea since it first popped into my head a few weeks back. I was super excited because I’ve never seen this anywhere before, because it is easy, and because it is super-cheap! I’m not sure why I was thinking Halloween, since we are still consistently in the triple-digits here, but maybe we can will Autumn to come through our craftiness.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I have been swimming in baby food jars from this project. At one point in the preparation for that craft, some of the jars inadvertently got spray painted, and it got me thinking.
I used labels to cut out the shapes for the faces. The hardest part of the whole project, was probably peeling the backing off of the tiny shapes to stick them on. I used a hole punch for the small round eyes, and some of those hole-reinforcer stickers (what are those called?) for the big ones. Kids could cut out their face shapes. In fact, I’m considering large jars instead of carving pumpkins this year, since they rot in a day in our heat. I spray painted the jars and removed the labels, allowing the light to shine through. Mine was left-over black paint, and OSHA standard orange from an ACE Hardware garage sale (super cheap, hanging around our house, waiting to get used).
A few tips if you want to make these:
*Clean the jars well, and use goo-gone or alcohol to get off the label residue.
*Check your spray paint. You probably have the best results if you use one that says it works on glass.
*Spray lightly. A heavy coat of paint is likely to peel off with your stickers.
*You might consider covering the inside of the jar as you paint. I allowed some overspray to get in, which clouds the faces a little. I’m OK with it, but there will be more contrast if no paint gets on the inside.
*If your labels leave any residue, you can get rid of that with a Q-tip and some alcohol.
*I added black cardstock bat wings to a small black jar to make a bat (It has vampire teeth, though you can’t see them well in the photo.
*If you use the smallest baby jars, you might have to look for some extra small tea-lights. Standard ones fit in the Gerber jars, but not the other brand (can’t remember) that I used on my smallest pumpkin.
I can see a bunch of these lined up for a dramatic display, or one for each member of the family. Of course, play it safe with fire, don’t leave candles attended, and all that jazz!
Joining in DIY Thursday!
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Such a cute project!! My preschooler would get a kick out of these. 🙂 Love the pumpkins. Visiting from Kimba's party. 🙂
This is awesome! I am going to start saving jars for this now. I don't have a baby, but jam jars and other food jars would work too I think. My fourth graders will love making the faces and for the cost of a few cans of spray paint this is a great craft for me too!
these are so cute. I LOVE holiday decor!
stop by sometime!
love the little jacks-too cute! martha stewart created some with mason jars but I have never seen baby food jars! you could even use other jars (pickle relish etc) & have different heights & sizes which would make for such a fun display! great idea!
Those are awesome! And I have to report back that our Diggers & Dirt party was a total BLAST! I hope you have managed to track down your own tin lunch pails! The cherry on top for us was that Home Depot provided complimentary kids aprons and pins and "build your own firetruck" kits. It was a riot. Between that and the yellow, builder's hats – the kids were decked out! Thanks again for the tips!
Lisa-Jo
Those so cute! I will have to make those with my girls!
I love this idea and I am totally going to use it, I will link back when I post it. I was just looking in my food jars cupboard wondering what I was going to do with them. Last year I pray painted coconuts (we were living in Guam) for our Young women because pumpkins were none existent! SO I love this idea!
awesome!!! you are brilliant!
Popping over from ASPTL. What a terrific idea! You can bet I'm gonna do that! I live in Northern AZ and I'm tired of buying pumpkins just to have to throw them out in a couple of day! Fabulous! Thanks for sharing!
Jan
Kendra, these are adorable. I've never seen this, and I've been around a long time. You're brilliant! Thanks for sharing your genius with us!
Very cool. We are not very big on Halloween in Australia, so it's nice to see these treats!
Argh! These are so cute! Thanks so much for the fun idea, I'll be linking.
These are fantastic. I can see using all sizes of jars, plastic or glass for this. I think I'm going to use those faux tea lights instead of real candles. I found a bunch at Big Lots for luminaries once and the batteries last long enough for Halloween Night! The candles look like this: http://www.save-on-crafts.com/tealights.html.
oh my goodness! i love this idea! so creative!
So cute! I am going to link to this on Dollar Store Crafts. You're awesome!
Very cool. I'm looking for things to do with my mountain of jars. I like the idea! I was telling my husband I could fill them with candy for the neighborhood kids…then we both realized that might not be the best idea! 🙂
Found you from Dollar Store Crafts.
These are so cute, I can't wait to make some for halloween. A lot easier than carving the pumpkins.
These are so cute! I love the idea and I just might copy you because our pumpkins dont last very long in southern utah either… Thanks for the great idea!