Recycled Jars

Sunday, December 04, 2011
Everytime I throw a jar away I feel an incredible sense of guilt.  I'm fortunate to live in a city that provides a recycling bin along with a trash bin, but I still....I just feel like it's missing some piece of it's little journey being chunked so quickly.  Add this information to the fact that I'm in love with tossing things in little mason jars as gifts, and the guilt starts to make sense.  (I have reused pickle jars to store baking flours in the past, see the tutorial for that here).   I wish I had started listening to the jar guilt months ago and saved more b/c now it's Christmas season, and true to form everything I'm giving this year seems to be finding a home inside a jar before it's wrapped.  I've used approximately 4.3 million mason jars in the last week, but then....I found a few jars I had set aside a week or so ago and I decided to give them new life.  I saw the tutuiral for cover a jar lid somewhere, lots of somewheres.  It's not my idea, but I'm not sure where it began....I'm also unsure about the chicken or egg debate, but I tend to lean towards the chicken.  The jar though...it's really easy, and I'm just popping up this tutorial for anyone else that feels pasta jars, olive containers, and soup vessels deserve a chance to celebrate Christmas this year too!  Also, the above jar gets a bedazzling later this week with ribbon and tags, and instructions on the innards, stay tuned....or not, but here's the life changing lid tuturial...cut out a scrap of scrapbook paper a little larger than your lid (enough to fold down and cover the sides).  Snip the edge up to where the flat bottom begins every 1/4 inch or so.
 Apply Mod Podge all over the top of the lid. 
 Press the paper down, and along the edge. 
Give the top of the paper a coating too.  OK, and it might be that your great Grandmother's dog sister's sister's best friends, barber's friend invented mod podge, and you may know all about this, BUT I didn't know when I first began working with 'the stuff.'  It applies like glue, but dries clear, so....don't fret. 
I'm now off to empty every jar in my pantry so I can recyle it and fill it into Christmas gifts, it's so something I'd do for a good jar, I'm not even sure if I'm kidding! 

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