Upcycling DIY With Kids – Empty Glass Jar Makeover

Upcycling DIY With Kids: A DIY attitude is a pretty useful thing to gain for your kids. My daughter is 7 and the curious kid in her has always been keen to learn how to build and fix things. She has always liked creating stuff, ever since she was little. And with age, this interest has almost developed into an attitude, as she’s interested in learning to work with her hands more.

We all know two’s a company and it’s always more fun if you can pick a project to do together. It gives me a chance to teach her some new skills but when it comes to coming up with new ideas, I let her take the lead. Kids have an unlimited imagination and their ideas are most of the time much purer, richer and out of the box than grown-ups.
As kids, I grew up in a culture of repairing and some of us also liked to recycle. I’ve tried to instill the same values into my daughter. What looks like scrap and useless to us, sparks ideas to her and she loves making new stuff using old newspapers, toilet paper rolls, empty PET bottles, and fabric strips. We do a lot of projects where I just give her the material and leave it upon her to make whatever she wishes out of it. Sometimes, I teach her new techniques like decoupage and quilling. But what she loves most is the part of creating something beautiful and useful out of ‘nothing’.

Diy’ing together also gives me a chance to have a lot of fun time to spend with my daughter. She gets to make new creative ideas and she usually proudly showcases them takes them to her class at Show & Tell sessions. Being a creative professional myself, I love seeing her tinker around with scrap, colors, paint and ideas for creating new and innovative stuff. But I always remember to let her lead, to let her pursue her own ideas.  

AND NOW THE DIY:: EMPTY GLASS JAR MAKEOVER  

Upcycling DIY With Kids: Having a kid in the house means that over a period of time, your kitchen will have plenty of jam, Nutella, sandwich spreads and baby food jars accumulated somewhere. I do too! But I don’t throw them away. I soak them in water, wash the labels off and keep them stored in case of any creative emergency! These glass jars can be used to make simple but lovely tea light holders for decorating your room. This simple project is easy enough for the kiddos to help with and doesn’t cost much to make.  So, gather your supplies, and find a nice big table (or, if you work like I do, the floor). Glue can get a little messy, so place some newspaper or an old sheet over your work surface.  

What You Need for an Upcycling DIY With Kids:

• Empty Glass Jars- washed, cleaned and dried, as many as you want
• Old Newspaper  – torn-off strips
• Fevicol – diluted with some water
• Brush

How:

• Step 1: Peel labels off of clean, empty glass jars. Tip: To remove labels from glass jars, soak in warm soapy water for 15 minutes. Remove as much of theas possible, scraping with a knife
• Step 2: Tear off Newspaper paper into little squares or other shapes
• Step 3: Brush a layer of white glue over a small area on the jar and stick newspaper, overlapping so there are no spaces in between. This creates a really nice textured effect when they’re layered on the jar. Continue to glue and place newspaper until the entire jar is covered. Press firmly and smooth out any bubbles or wrinkles. Repeat with the remaining jars
• Step 4: Brush a final layer of glue over the all over the newspaper. Allow to dry, then repeat with one more coat
• Step 5: Add a tea light candle inside jars. Place jars on a table or mantel for décor

This D.I.Y. upcycling project is inexpensive, very easy and eco-friendly.  And these jars can be used in various other ways also! You can use them as beautiful containers for your kitchen, home-office or craft room. You can also attach wire for hangers to create lanterns. They would also make awesome handcrafted party favors or gifts!!

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