How many of us have old jam/gherkin/pickled onion jars lining our cupboards waiting for a new use? Well I recently found a couple of magazine articles where I loved the way they re-imagined uses for those old jars. I particularly loved that not only will you be creating something with your kids, you will be making space in your kitchen cupboards as well as recycling. Sounds like a great way to spend 20 minutes, to me!

1. Piggy Bank

Idea seen in Ideas magazine

Use a large sharp knife to cut a slit into the lid of the small, squat jar (like a jam jar). Glue a smaller button to a bigger button to make an eye – obviously repeat this as I am fairly sure that most pigs have two. Attach these eyes behind the lip of the jar. Make some ears out of felt and glue them to the side of the jar behind the eyes.  Use pink pipe cleaner to make a curly tail (for those who don’t know what pipe cleaner looks like, see image below). Paint some big snout-like nostrils on the lid above the slit. Finally, glue a smaller jar lid to the other side of the jar for the base. If you are a detail freak (I know I am) then paint both the lids pink to fit in with the piggy theme.

2. Garden in a Bottle

Idea seen in Garden & Home magazine and Ideas magazine.

Jars and bottles can be transformed into little plant worlds. First, you need to choose if you and your children are tropical gardeners or desert gardeners.

To make the tropical one you will need the following: Soft, green Soleirolia (aka: peace-in-the-home) a large glass canister with a lid, small marble chips/small white stones and potting soil. Start by adding a layer of marble chips and then fill the jar half way with potting soil. Gently pull each plant from its nursery container and settle in the jar. Push the plants down gently and add more soil down the sides of the jar if necessary. Water very lightly with a mist sprayer and close the lid.

To make the desert one you will need the following: A selection of baby succulents, a large jar (like a big gherkin jar), mall marble chips/small white stones and potting soil. Place a layer of potting soil into the jar, filling it to about a quarter of the jar’s height. Plant your succulents and then flatten the soil with a stick around the succulents, making sure they are quite firmly planted. Scatter the white stones/marble chips around the plants. Water your mini-desert with a dessert spoon of water per plant.

Place your garden in spot that gets good light and water very sparingly (especially the succulents) only when the soil looks dry.

To add some magic and fancy to these little worlds add plastic animals or fairies, or bits of sticks or larger stones to the mix. This will make these seem like a real world in a bottle. Imagine a desert garden without some “dead trees” and “big rocks” or a tropical jungle without a gorilla or colourful bird?

So here are two ways to tear your little screen junkies away from their computer, TV, mobile, game console.

Create. Play. Mess. Share. Enjoy.