Easter is just a few weeks away and candy is always a big part of the holiday. Grab a few mason jars and wood slices to create an adorable Easter candy jar.
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As a blogger and crafter, currently there are two things I have plenty of in my craft room.
Those are mason jars in all sizes and wood slices cut from so many trees we cut down in our yard in the last few years. We had five cut down just two weeks ago. If you have been following along on my blog for the last few years or so you have seen these wood slices used for Christmas ornaments.
Decorative wood slice pumpkins.
And even rustic cake toppers for my daughter’s wedding cake.
And now even as decorations for Easter candy jars!
Our county no longer recycles glass because it is too cost-prohibitive to drive it down to Atlanta, GA to the only glass recycling center. Which is very frustrating to me, an avid recycler, that I have to throw away perfectly good glass jars.
So…as you can imagine I don’t throw any jars away and have lots of mason jars and any other type of glass jar piling up in my pantry, recycling closet, and in my craft room.
I am determined to find as many projects as I can to reuse these jars or donate them to school programs.
I do have a few friends who think my obsession with recycling a bit odd. Family too.
It hasn’t changed my mind yet to throw them away. In the last year I have taken boxes of glass jars to a facility in North Carolina in my home town when I go visit my mom. I haven’t told my family about that yet either. My obsession, my choice to do my part for the planet.
Since I had the mason jars and the wood slices already on hand in my craft room, I didn’t need to spend any money on this project except for the candy. My two kids are grown and no longer get an Easter basket so I will give these to a coworker’s niece and nephews for the holiday.
For this project you will need:
- Mason jars with lids
- Wood slices
- Small Eye Hook Screws
- Decorate Ribbon
- Jute Twine
- Acrylic Craft Paints
- Craft paint brushes
- Candy of your choice
I use wood slices from my own yard. Just one of the perks of living on such a wooded lot.
If you want to know how I treated these wood slices before using them you can read the detailed post here. But to give you a quick lesson, you bake the wood slices at 200 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven for 30 minutes, turn them over, and bake for another 30 minutes.
For my version of this project I used pine wood slices which are softer, even after baking them in the oven, and the small hook eye screws could easily be turned and screwed in on the bark edge of the wood slice.
This is not the case when I have tried to use wood slices from my yard that are from hickory or ash trees. The slices are just too hard after baking to get the hook eye screw to even make a dent in the wood. If you don’t know if these hooks will work on your wood slices, it is probably best to make a small hole in the wood slice with a drill instead.
I painted cute bunnies on my wood slices since these were for kids, but you could also paint on a cross or other symbols of Easter.
To start the cute Easter bunny design on the wood slices, I painted the inner circles in light blue and pink. Since I used a lot of the wood slices for Christmas ornaments, I had already dried these out in the oven and sanded them down prior to starting this project.
After applying a few layers of the pink and blue paint on one side of the wood slices, I then painted a cute design of a bunny tail and bunny face for the Easter holiday. I painted these free hand because the design was so simple. If you have a Cricut machine, use that instead. Or whatever is easier for you.
To attach the wood slices to the jar, I inserted an eye hook screw in the bark edge of the wood slice and threaded the jute twine and ribbon through it.
For a very quick project and very little money, these make for an adorable one of a kind Easter candy jar.
Hugs,
1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Love this idea and would work for so many special holidays and even as a nice “Thank You” gift.
Donna, even though I am grown up I’d still love to receive a jar like this. It is beautiful and I love everything handmade. Awesome that you saved the wood from your cut down tree. Your tips on how to dry it in the oven are excellent.
Thanks Habiba. We have yet another tree down from a storm last week so there will be lots and lots of new wood slices to use for my daughter’s wedding next year. And pine cones. Got to love free craft stuff from nature. Thanks for visiting.
How cute and what a great way to use up more of your wood slices. These are perfect gift ideas. I love the bunnies you painted.
These would make great teacher gifts! I don’t know too many teachers who don’t love chocolate and cuteness!
Very nice! The same idea could be used for any holiday or season. I love the versatility of your project!
That’s a good way to put seasonal decoration on a jar. That way there isn’t something large to store away for the rest of the year. – Margy
I agree. I can always reuse the jars for another holiday or project after Easter. Thanks for visiting.
Love those tags.
Thanks Deborah