I purchased a lovely elemental candle, seen below, and I just love the glass jar it came in. Most of the time I just toss the jars out and I regret doing it. This jar is a beautiful color of blue and I was determined this time to find a use for it. This year I thought it would be a good idea to save some money by making homemade gifts for friends and family. I personally love receiving homemade gifts that are made from the heart.
This is where my garden comes in. I have a garden that I enjoy taking care of with my kids. This helps me to teach my kids about going green and caring for their environment. My neighbors and family have asked me for starts off of my plants, and this is where the light bulb (aka aha moment) came to me. Why not try recycling glass candle jars?
My elemental candle was burned to the bottom and ready for cleaning. The soybean wax is so easy to remove that I was able to take a wet towel and just wipe it out. I also removed the sticker from the outside of the jar. After I removed the wax I took a little bit of dish soap and cleaned it inside and out. After it was dry I took the kids out into the backyard and we added some potting soil to the jar. Just a little above half full. We then took some clippings off of my Wandering Jew plant and tucked the stems inside of the soil.
Next, we added just a little bit of water. Not too much to over saturate the soil, but enough to moisten it. Then for a little decor I added some colored gem stone marbles we had left over. You can use gravel, aquarium rock, or anything you wish to give it a little bit of color and character. Below is a pic of the finish product. It took us 10-15 minutes to do.
The kids had fun making it and it made use of a lovely jar that was once a candle 🙂
We took it over and gave it to our wonderful neighbor Judy for her birthday. She enjoyed it just as much as we enjoyed making it, and giving it as a gift. Recycling glass candle jars was a big hit!
What are some of your favorite DIY family crafts?
I love printing pictures with my kids and mod podging (?) it onto canvas that I get from the dollar store. Allows us to display our pictures and is easy enough for 2 5 year olds to make.
Sounds like fun Aneta, thank you for sharing!
Awesome green thinking idea Tanya. There are still so many things we throw out that are able to be reused in some way. Thank you for sharing!
What a fantastic idea! So lovely!
Thank you Matthew 🙂 I completely agree with you. There are still many other things we can use instead of throwing them out. I challenge my kids to come up with creative ideas when it comes to recycling.
Thank you Carla 🙂