The Gunny Sack

Gifts In A Jar Homemade Gift Ideas

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Gifts in a Jar are a fun way give presents. These homemade gift ideas are perfect for the holidays.

5 Unique Gifts In A JarI’ve been making gifts in a jar for two years now. It all started with my Everything In A Jar blog post where I filled mason jars with items around a certain theme. There was Energy In A Jar, Pampering In A Jar and Refreshment In A Jar. Since that time, I’ve shared mason jar gifts for different seasons and occasions. This holiday season, I’ve teamed up with Ball®, as part of 25 Days of Making & Giving, to share even more gift in a jar ideas! These homemade gifts can be given for any occasion to almost anyone in your life but are especially fun to make at Christmas.

Loves To Bake Gifts In A Jar The first 3 jars are full of items that have to do with an activity that the gift recipient loves to do so they are called “Loves To ….”. Loves To Bake is the first jar and it is filled with small items that recipient could use when baking. It can be given with a cookbook, recipes and a dish towel.

Baking Supplies Mason Jar GiftThis jar has mini cookie cutters, measuring spoons, cupcake liners, mini silicone pinch bowls, a mini whisk and a mini cheese grater. I found these items at World Market. Carefully fit all of the items into a  Ball brand 1 Quart (32-oz.) Wide Mouth Jar , put washi tape around the lid and add a tag with baker’s twine. You can print the labels here: Loves To Bake Labels

Loves To Craft Mason Jar GiftThe second jar is called Loves To Craft and is for the crafter in your life. This could be for a young girl who loves to be creative but could also be given to a friend or a teacher.

Craft Supplies Gifts In A JarThis jar contains an ink pad, a chalk marker, clips, glitter tape, mini envelopes with cards, a tape runner, chalkboard gift tags, letter stamps and silver embellishments. All of these items are from Target or Michaels and cost $1.50 or less. I used a  Ball brand 1 Quart (32-oz.) Wide Mouth Jar .Add some washi tape to the lid and attach a label with baker’s twine. You can print the labels here: Loves To Craft Labels

Loves To Draw Gift In A JarThe third jar is called Loves To Draw and will be going to Zack. He is in elementary school and he has a talent for drawing. He has been wanting Copic markers for a long time now but I wanted to wait until he was old enough to appreciate them. The jar is a place where he can store the markers and easily access them. As you can see from the faint markings on the blue and red markers, he just HAD to try them out before I could even get the photos taken.

Copic Markers Mason Jar GiftI purchased packages of skin tone Copic markers, perfect primaries Copic markers, Prismacolor colored pencils and Pigma Micron marker pens from Michaels using 50% off coupons which made them a much better deal.

Colored Pencil Gifts In A JarThe Prismacolor colored pencils were too long for the jar. Since they are high quality and pretty expensive, I didn’t want to sharpen them down so that they would fit into the jar. Instead, I made a wire cover using wire mesh like I did in this Canning Lid Garland Tutorial. This was my first time using these Ball brand Wide Mouth 1 ½-pt Jars and I love them. They are a little taller and more narrow than the 1 quart jars. I wrapped a piece of baker’s twine around the jar and added a Loves To Draw tag. You can print the labels here: Loves To Draw Labels

Cleans Up Well Pampering Jar For MenI’ve made several jars containing skin care products for women. There was the original Pampering In A Jar which had store bought products in it. Then, I made a Spa In A Jar, Pedicure In A Jar and most recently Peppermint Pampering In A Jar with skin care items that I mixed up. I’ve always wondered about making a mason jar for the guys but wasn’t sure if that would be something a guy would like. After posting Peppermint Pampering In A Jar, a few of you left me comments letting me know that you would like to make the skin care products for guys and asking for a men’s gift in a jar. So, here it is! This jar is called Cleans Up Well.

Mens Pampering Gift In A JarI used a Ball brand 1 Quart (32-oz.) Wide Mouth Jar and filled it with moisturizer, sugar scrub, Chap Stick, a razor, Kenneth Cole Reaction and Black cologne (mini bottles that are part of a Christmas gift set), C.O. Bigelow shave cream, Gillette face scrub and a grooming set. I made the moisturizer and scrub and purchased the other items at Walmart and Bath and Body Works. I took all of the items out of their original packaging including the grooming tools so that they would fit in the jar. I attached a label to the top of the jar, rather than having one hang from the jar with baker’s twine. You can print the labels here: Cleans Up Well Labels

If you want to make the moisturizer and scrub, you can find the recipes here: Cleans Up Well Recipes

Blue Christmas Without You Gifts In A JarAnd finally, I have this beautiful “Blue Christmas Without You” jar. It is meant for those special people in your life who you will not be able to spend Christmas with this year.

If you are a follower of mine, you know that I love blues and especially the blue-green shades so I am in love with the Ball brand Heritage Collection Pint Jars. I have a few of the vintage jars and I think that it is really neat that Ball released these limited edition jars in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first series of jars designed by the Ball brothers.

Blue Christmas Gifts In A JarThis jar is smaller than the other ones so it is lighter to ship but that means that it can’t hold as many things. I put fake snow on the bottom of the jar by glueing on sea salt and I added a baker’s twine pom-pom. The jar has blue and white wintery items in it like hot chocolate, flameless candles, Lindor truffles with snowmen and 3 sparkling winter words that can be hung from a string. But the best part of this jar is that tiny blue item in the front. It is an 8 GB flash drive for putting a holiday greeting. It can be loaded with videos of your family and warm holiday greetings. Get creative and make a visual Christmas card for the ones you love and cram the wonderful surprise into a little flash drive. You can print the labels here: Blue Christmas Without You Labels

Ball_25_DaysBall is hosting a pinterest contest this holiday season called 25 Days of Making & Giving where you can enter to win daily prizes and be entered to win the grand prize, a Ball FreshTECH Automatic Home Canning System, by pinning your favorites gifts in a jar! Find out more on Ball’s Facebook page and in the official rules.

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Comments

  1. What an amazing idea!

    These jars, which are so cheap to purchase, make incredible gifts if you know how to personalise them.
    And you certainly know how to.
    I will definitely try them, especially the Cleanse up Well; it is a cute and very useful one.

    Thank you again, Tonia! Great job 🙂

    Reply

  6. LOVE the Blue without You jars for far-away relatives. Where did you find the sparkling winter words? I love the look of those in the jars but am struggling with finding them anywhere. THANKS for the great ideas!

    Reply

    • Hi Tamara,
      I found them at Walmart last year, but they probably have completely different items this year. They were with the Christmas tree ornaments. Best of luck!
      ~Tonia

      Reply

  9. Okay, so two years ago I made homemade detergent and fabric softner and tied a silver antique spoon with twine to the soap mason jar. Then 4 years ago I purchase some old ball jars and inside I put pete moss an antique used post card and sealed it up for shelf decoration. I have one for myself and gave one to my mother in law. I loved both of them. I also did a sewing kit in baby jars and then made the top into a pin cushion which everyone loved(this could also be done in a ball jar). I took pictures but don’t know how to upload them on my post. The laundry soap was such a big hit that my neighbor made them and passed them out to everyone that she worked with in the factory she worked at 20 + jars!

    Reply

  10. For the last several years my family members have received Ball canning jars with goodies in them, chex mix, seasoned crackers, peanut brittle( use the wide mouth adapter on the food saver to seal in freshness) canned pumpkin butter, so this year I will also be able to add a gift jar to the basket, thanks for the wonderful ideas.

    Reply

  13. Please let your budding artist know that the Copic markers work best if you lay them down on their side since they have a marker at both ends. It keeps the ink even in both ends without letting one dry out. Thanks for all of the other great ideas! Love them!!!

    Reply

  14. This is awesome!! Thank you!! I love the “gift in a jar” ideas,but sometimes I’m a little uhm,over-enthusiastic, and can never make up my mind of WHAT or how many gifts! This helps in a big way!

    Reply

  16. Hi Tonia!
    I just wanted to say these are amazing!! I just made the craft one for one my friends and she loved it! It was the perfect gift idea 🙂 Thank you!

    Reply

  21. I love the Loves to Draw and the Blue Christmas one as well. Since my family lives far away, I will be sending them these lovely and creative jars. In addition to the items you added, I can customize it by adding a little gift that is personalized for each person. Great idea….and hats off to you.

    Reply

  23. This is a really cool idea! Thanks for sharing, I definitely want to try some of these ideas. Do you have any ideas for wrapping these irregularly shaped jars though? I can’t think of how I would gift them, maybe a gift bag? I’m not sure what would look the best– any ideas?

    Reply

    • I’ve always used a gift bag but you could wrap a few layers of tissue paper around them, gathering the ends over the top of the jar and tying it with ribbon. Or you could put the jar in a box and wrap the box.

      Reply

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Tonia LarsonHi, I'm Tonia, a lover of food and photography! Fill a gunny sack with ingredients, tie on an apron and let's get cooking!
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