Make creative gift jars – Stash Busters Part 2

Make creative gift jars and give the gift of creativity and reduce your stash at the same time. As we continue to tackle all of our scraps in an effort to find useful ways to include them in our projects, here is an idea that I think you will love. Its economical, green and organizational. Creative gift jars.

Perfect if you have a growing stash of paper and/or fabric scraps.  I will willing to bet you have just as many if not more bits of ribbon and trim.

If you make a purchase from the links below I earn a tiny commission. 

How to sort supplies:

While sorting and cleaning out my crazy mess of trims, I thought of this idea. Jars had been accumulating in my stash for some time, so I dug out three pickle jars, removed the labels, washed and dried them.

I sorted my bits and ribbon and trims into piles by color, or by color combos that inspire me. I was sure to include various bits of tiny pearl trim, tulle pieces or anything else that would add texture.

Filling the creative gift jars

Fill the jars, artfully by making sure interesting pieces were visible from the outside of the jars.

To color coordinate the lids, I chose DecoArt Americana Acrylics in various colors, along with some Duraclear varnish to coat the paint and prevent it from chipping off the metal.

To decorate the front of the gift jar, choose some Rub-on Transfers in desired themes. I liked a Baby Girl theme for my pink ribbons and more general themes for the other two. by adding themes, I can choose to give away my scrap jars as gifts to a new Mom for her scrapbooking projects, or keep the jar of ribbons as my go-to jar when creating projects for a new baby!

I love to create gifts for artsy friends and these ribbon scrap jars perfectly fit the bill!

Here is a photo with the lids painted and dry brushed. For my stash, they are perfect just as is and will make pretty decorative containers for my studio.

But if you plan to give them as a gift… you may want to consider adding a coordinating tag. I used a tag punch and cardstock to punch tags for my gift jars.

Then, I set about embellishing the tags with rub-ons, stamps and rhinestone trim.

Attach them to your gift jar with a coordinating ribbon.

I challenge you to gather up all your bits of ribbon and trims and get a hold of them with this project. You will feel so great knowing you have so many more supplies to use than you thought and they will be ready and waiting for you when you start your next project! For ideas in using up fabric and paper mosaic, see my post from last week on creating a paper mosaic.

Live Life Creatively,